The Tories don’t seem to have got the hang of excluding the opposition from their target mailings. This may be a good thing as we wouldn’t have had the joy of reading our Norman Baker’s fantastic and hilarious response to a missive he received from David Cameron, in whose government he served until last November.
Here’s the Prime Minister’s letter:
And here, in full, is Norman’s pithy response. Enjoy.
Rt Hon Norman Baker
23 East Street Lewes BN7 2LJDear David Cameron
Thank you for your letter of 1st May, inviting me to vote against myself on Thursday.
But David – I am not likely to do this, am I? Especially as your candidate does not live in the constituency, stood in Caerphilly last time, and has no parliamentary experience.WE’VE COME A LONG WAY SINCE 2010
Yes, we have. But would it not have been more honest, David, to acknowledge that the good progress would not have been possible without the stability and fairness that the Lib Dems brought to the coalition?ED MILIBAND AND THE SNP
Your letter is not very honest, is it David? You know that the Lib Dems have ruled out any deal with the SNP, as have you, and to be fair to Ed Miliband, so has he. So none of the three major parties is going to play ball with the SNP. It’s not very edifying, is it David, to try to frighten people into voting Conservative on the back of a scare story without foundation.MY VOTE CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
David, why are you trying to frighten people in the Lewes constituency about Labour and the SNP when history shows that for over 150 years, this seat has only returned a Conservative or a Liberal? Labour cannot win here and the SNP are not standing in Lewes, are they David?And why do you claim that this seat is one of 23 marginal seats you have to win, when it isn’t? David, your candidate has already had to apologise for claiming the Lib Dem majority last time was 140 when it was actually over 7,500. How is this one of the most marginal 23 seats? You are not being very honest, are you David?
DAVID, I NEED YOU TO STOP SENDING PATRONISING AND DISHONEST LETTERS
David, yours really was a rather demeaning and desperate letter for a Prime Minister to send, wasn’t it? Can you not think of a single positive reason why anyone should vote for you and your candidate, rather than resorting to scare tactics and twisted figures?
Yours sincerelyRt Hon Norman Baker
Lib Dem candidate, LewesP.S. David, please do consider voting for the Lib Dem candidate in Witney, Andy Graham, on Thursday. Unlike yourself, he will keep the recovery going but do so in a fair way that avoids damaging and quite unnecessary cuts to public services.
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19 Comments
Great reply. Even better that Liam’s note to Danny and his reply. However, to have real effect it needs to get in the national news now. Is any of our publicity people making sure it gets in there? I’m sure Norman would be a great front man for such a news item and I’d bet he would be up for it!
Oh, I think efforts will be made in that direction!
Not only do we have the best MPs, we also have the wittiest.
Great reply. But Norman didn’t point out the massive case made inadvertently by Cameron for electoral reform. He writes to Norman as he’s in “one of the marginal seats” whose outcome decides the election. from which we conclude that those not living in marginal seats can be taken for granted. As, of course, they are by the two largest parties.
Excellent. 😀
Nice one Norman.
As with the leaving the CCHQ logo on the “5,000 small businesses backing Conservatives” it seems that basic research is not their strongpoint….Nice to see that, rather than throw it in the bin, Norman used it to make a strong point…I know it won’t make national news; but it ought to…
Caron, I am holding my breath in anticipation of the triumph our media strategists and publicity people deliver on this. If anyone sees it mentioned on TV or in the press, I suggest we record it here and we can see how well they did after the election.
Norman Baker for Home Secretary. 🙂
The most amusing (and the most aggravating) lesson from this election is how undemocratic the main parties are, at a fundamental level. For party political advantage, a whole constituent nation are to be disenfrenchised from the vote. And Scots belonging to the same main parties are participating in it.
It is but a small step from barring Pete Wishart from any influence in government to barring Danny Alexander, if he keeps his seat against all odds. Once Cameron has implemented EVEL, then Scots MPs will be second-class MPs, and it will be easy to argue that no Scots should participate in a UK government. Regardless of which party they belong to.
Either all Scots MPs are now beyond the pale, or none are. And of course, if Scots are treated like this, the same will go for the Welsh and the Northern Irish. This party will participate in the process to turn the United Kingdom into an English kingdom. Non-English citizens will have no say.
Shame on your party for participating in that. And shame on any Scot, Welsh or Northern Irish citizen for going along with that. As English, I want an equal and democratic partnership between all citizen, or this union is not worth saving.
Conor McGovern 6th May ’15 – 3:43am
“Norman Baker for Home Secretary. :)”
Hmmm … Norman Baker for Shadow Home Secretary 🙂
Colin – on the point about ‘a whole constituent nation [being] disenfranchised’ – can you tell me the last time a sitting MP for a Northern Ireland seat held a Government post?
Nice one Norman!
‘a sitting MP for a Northern Ireland seat held a Government post’
Colonel Robert Grosvenor (later Duke of Westminster after his cousin and brother died) (UU Fermanagh & South Tyrone) was PPS to Selwyn Lloyd about the late ’50s. Of course, since about 1970 Northern Ireland parties with MPs haven’t been been part of mainland parties. And there have never been more than NI Westminster MPs 17 in total.
@Keith Legg,
What has that got to do with anything? I suppose, the Liberal Democrats have not made a red line against entering into a coalition with the DUP, so perhaps Nick Clegg gets to share office with Nigel Dodd – until the laws barring non-English MPs from serving in government are put into place.
Ian Sanderson
Would it be true to say that the last NI MP to be a minister was Enoch Powell?
(Powell was a minster before he left the Tories and became an MP in NI).
Got exactly the same letter in Bath yesterday.
and for someone who had such an expensive education it was not a very well written letter, was it David.?
I went to a much less expensive school, David, where they taught me how to write a letter, and about the correct use of a PS, David. And if you start a letter with ‘Dear David’ you hardly have to keep repeating ‘David’ in every paragraph, do you David.?
Norman Baker was on the Sunday Politics, south east on13/12/2015. He does not withdraw anything that he said about tring to work as a Minister of State in the Home Office under Theresa May, “walking though mud”, etc. He said she “ran the Department as a Tory ministry and not as a coalition ministr,y” but if there is a contest for the Tory leadership Norman thinks that Theresa May would be the best of the three for the country.
Norman said he cannot give up politics, but he is choosing certain issues, including Tibet.
His next album comes out in mid-january 2016.