Thirsk and Malton Parliamentary Candidate Howard Keal appeals for help in his fight to win the delayed election in the seat, taking place on May 27:
Just under 25 years since Liberal Democrat Elizabeth Shields took Ryedale in a by-election we have the opportunity to snatch the new constituency it includes from the Tories.
It’s now called Thirsk and Malton and I need your help to achieve a sensational result – over the next few days we have everything to play for and all bets in this racing area are off!
This is a battle between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives and against all the odds we are gaining ground all the time with tactical votes from Labour and disgruntled Tories coming across,
Over more than a decade I have worked hard to help people in this area – not least with my wife Di leading the successful campaign for £9.5 million of flood defences now protecting people in Malton, Norton and Old Malton.
I am fighting on that local record for the right to storm this area’s blue barricades and represent my community, strengthening the brilliant hand played by Nick Clegg at Westminster.
On the doorstep I am talking to people about how Lib Dem policies are at last being put into action in national Government – not least in booting out inheritance handouts for the rich in favour of our tax cuts for everyone else.
And in this area where many towns still to be protected remain at constant risk of flooding it is excellent we have our own Chris Huhne at the heart of Government with a commitment to renewables and tackling climate change.
Help me campaign to upset the applecart in the constituency so people vote Keal for a fair deal in Easingwold, Filey, Helmsley, Hunmanby, Kirkbymoorside, Malton, Norton, Pickering and Thirsk.
It is a fabulous part of the country – you can help me fight for a fabulous result by:
- Joining my Facebook group to show your support
- See great countryside and come over to help us (let us know if you need somewhere to stay and we may be able to arrange something). Any help you can give would be much appreciated. For further details contact Di Keal on 01653 694546 or 07593682402 or Betty Denton on 01347 811162 or [email protected] or Mike Beckett on 01653 691402 or [email protected]
- If you can’t come but can canvas by phone, please contact Stephen Preston, letting us know your experience, on 01653 695788 or[email protected]
- The Tories can outspend us 10 to one. To level the playing field please send any donations to the campaign to Elizabeth (Betty) Denton, Howard’s agent at Lucy House, North Back Lane, Stillington, York YO61 1LL or call her on 01347 811162. Donations by cheque to the campaign should be made out to “Thirsk & Malton Liberal Democrat Campaign Account” and sent to Betty.
We can do it again in Thirsk and Malton on May 27. With your help we can seize the chance of another Liberal Democrat MP in Westminster. Please get in touch and help us in any way you can, it will make all the difference on May 27.
Thank you to everyone who has helped so far – and to all of you who will help in the coming days. I know many of you will be just coming round from the General Election battle – please go one more round to deliver a knock out!
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13 Comments
Have you not read a newspaper lately, me old fruit? The Lib Dems passed away sometime last weekend when they sold out to a Conservative Party and its multi-millioanaire backers who’d just failed to win the election themselves. Although the ‘party’ is expected to hang around on life-support for the some time it is widely reported that the Lib Dems have expired. Gawd bless ’em.
Don’t forget to point out to anyone thinking of voting for Labour, that a vote for Labour under the current circumstances is really a vote for the Conservatives. A vote for the Liberal Democrats is, by contrast, a vote for real influence over what the government does. Liberal Democrats are in government, setting their agenda, getting their policies implemented and moderating the ideas of the Conservatives. A vote for Labour is simply wasted.
Good luck.
“This is a battle between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives …”
Hmm. I think what will be interesting is whether the Lib Dems manage to overtake Labour (who would notionally have been in second place in 2005).
This should be a very interesting contest.
Liberal minded Conservatives have the chance to vote Liberal Democrat without fear from Labour.
“Don’t forget to point out to anyone thinking of voting for Labour, that a vote for Labour under the current circumstances is really a vote for the Conservative”….did I miss something or was it the Lib Dems who are now in Project Condem and not Labour?
First real chance to see how your supporters view T & T. Would be interesting to see how it would be spun by Clegg if you come a distant third.
http://redrag1.blogspot.com/
Good Luck! Voters can vote for the best candidate and policies without the threats from people about hung parliaments and letting in someone else. Seems to me that it was the Labour and Tory parties and their friends in the press that bandied around those thoughts in the general election campaign – the Lib Dems campaigned for themselves to win. Go for it.
The voters in Thirsk and Malton are going to be mightily confused. You battle the Conservatives on the streets and then hand them your principles on a plate in 10 Downing Street. Will the real Liberal Democrats please stand up?
Why don’t you just stand down and allow the Tories to come through? After all, they are your Masters now.
I would love to be able to help Mr Keal, but I have a job to go to, live many miles away, and have still to recover from the last outing.
Campaiging in this delayed election must be nothing if not surreal. After all, we are in coalition with the party from whom we are trying to take the seat. I cannot recall any precedents, though there must be some in Scotland.
Question No 1: For how long will Steve Webb, a left Lib Dem and one of the youngest professors in UK history, be prepared to take orders from Iain Duncan Smith, a right-wing Tory who purchased a degree from an Italian university?
Question No 2: Who will have more influence in Mr Duncan Smith’s department – Steve Webb or Philippa Stroud?
Question 3: Who will be the first to walk – Vince Cable or Steve Webb?
To all the left-wing “Labour supporters” (I doubt you support ID cards or illegal wars); the two outcomes going in to this election was an outright Tory victory or a hung parliament.
You should be kissing Nick Clegg’s hand that because of his series of blinders, not only was there a Hung Parliament, but also there is more progressive change coming in the next 5 years than under the previous 13 of Blair’s New Labour.
Labour’s plans for forming a coalition went no farther than hoping Lib-Con negotiations imploded, and picking up the pieces. What happened was that the Tories put some astonishing offers on the table, and were willing to bend even from that originally generous position. At that point Labour leaders gave up, and the self-styled “leftist on the street” went into meltdown mode.
Your choice, of course. But remember, bashing Liberal Democrats isn’t going to magically give you the seats needed to form a government. And it doesn’t help to bash your likely coalition partner.
@paul mceown
Couldn’t help but laugh.Good luck with that strategy 🙂
Yes, perhaps Mr Keal will be able to explain to the workers in Thirsk and Malton why they will have to pay increased National Insurance contributions yet the employers will be exempted? I’m sure they’ll be most understanding. Yet another example of the new politics?
“Question No 2: Who will have more influence in Mr Duncan Smith’s department – Steve Webb or Philippa Stroud?”
Oh, come on. Given a choice between a boring academic and someone with practical talents such as casting out demons in French, who would you choose? Think how useful that could be during negotiations with our EU partners!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/07/religion-stroud-exorcism-demons
@AJ
Labour trolls coming over all afeart, raises my spirits enormously.