Friday, April 20, 2007

Deceit and the Lib Dems party broadcast

See the following on The Woking Forum message board. Vigilante ( no idea who it is - except they're not me ) is spot on here. Tells you a lot about the Lib Dems I think.... here he/she is below:


    By Vigilante

    19 April 2007, at 22:04:25

    Woking featured in a TV party political broadcast for the Liberal democrats the other night. The town was used as an example to emphasise the party's green credentials by mentioning (and showing) CHP, Hybrolights, etc. with, as I interpreted it, the implication that WBC's green policies were due to the leadership of the party currently in control. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, surely, these measures were decided upon long before the Lib. Dems had control here. It's a pity the Advertising Standards Agency can't be involved in these broadcasts; we might then get a lot more facts than spin from all the political parties, something that's long overdue.


See original here - whilst links last !

Update:
Looking at the BBC election web site I'd say he has a good point:

PAST RESULTS
2004: NOC 2003: NOC 2002: NOC 2000: NOC
1999: NOC 1998: NOC 1996: LD 1995: NOC
1994: NOC 1992: CON 1991: NOC 1990: NOC
1988: NOC 1987: NOC 1986: NOC 1984: CON
1983: CON 1982: CON 1980: CON 1979: CON
1978: CON 1976: CON 1973: CON

Prior to the 2006 election there was a Conservative council leader. Note the following extract from the local elections manifesto from the Conservatives that year:

Woking Borough Council (Conservative-led - note prior to 2006 election)
Climate Change
The Council has opened a town centre Combined Heat and Power (CHP) station, as part of
an extensive Climate Change Strategy. It is the first commercially-operating energy
station of its kind in the country.
The CHP station uses combined heat and power technology, together with heat-fired
absorption cooling, to produce environmentally -friendly energy services.
The station provides heat, power and cooling to town centre buildings, including the
Council offices, by distributing electricity via private wire, and heat and chilled water
services via private pipe networks.
The main benefit is that this reduces fuel poverty – the use of the private grid reduces
energy losses and costs. There is a security of supply and the ability to operate in ’island
mode‘ if the National Grid fails.

Page 17 of 21 Vote Blue go Green.

If my understanding is correct I think the real credit here goes mainly to one or two members of the council staff who have pushed this issue.

2 comments:

ContraTory said...

This is interesting. I had not taken any notice of Woking's local politics until the Liberal Democrats took control last May. I thought that Woking Borough Council had been Conservative since for ever. Clearly it hadn't - with the Conservatives largely relying on Labour and Independent support to run the Council. I was expecting the Lib Dems to take even greater control of the Council after May 3rd, but perhaps they won't after all.

A question. Have the local Conservatives sought to make an issue of the Lib Dems trying to claim credit for a project that was really a "Tory" project? I'd wager they haven't. The last time I looked, their website hadn't even been completed.

Have you received any election material from the Conservatives? I suspect not, but you will have received something from the Lib Dems a week or more ago, I'd guess.

It always surprises me how very "homespun" and amateur local Conservative associations are, compared to the ruthlessly effective Lib Dems.

Even when local Conservatives get some fire in their bellies, like here in Guildford, they make very avoidable tactical blunders that enable the Lib Dems to smear them even though they (the Lib Dems) are just as guilty.

Man in a Shed said...

In fairness to the local conservatives - leaflets have been out. The main line of attack is the Lib Dems massive rise in the Borough Council tax. ( The Lib Dems counter that there was a large rise last year under the Conservative minority admin - but the settlement from government was very different that year. the Lib Dems also failed to mention the GBP50million cut in grant to Surrey CC instead distorting the truth by calling it a Tory cut.)

The Lib Dem poster boards are out first again, and many Lib Dem MP's including old Ming himself have been round to visit. I think its fairly clear that Woking in in the lib Dem cross hairs and all their usual tricks will be employed here.

I'm going to post a few more times on local issues soon.

But your right Conservative associations could do a lot better. I'm trying to persuade a local Conservative candidate to run a blog - but all they see is the downside.