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igenlodeWe are being deluged in local election literature here, especially by the Liberal Democrats, who have evidently decided to make a big push in this area. And they are driving me up the wall by constantly and presumably consciously repeating the same outright lie and associated graph showing voting figures 'at the last election' -- "together we can stop the Tories from winning here".
Local elections are *not* the same thing as general elections (in fact I would vote for the local independent candidate if there were one standing in this ward, as they have been consistently and successfully re-elected elsewhere), and this is a Labour-controlled council with the Conservatives as the main opposition and the Lib Dems trailing a long way behind. In fact the Labour party leaflet provided voting figures (which I believe, from memory, to be true) showing a coloured graph which is almost the direct opposite of the one the Liberal Democrats' election literature keeps deliberately and falsely reprinting. The Liberal Democrat candidate in the general election was a few percentage points behind the Conservative candidate for the first time in history (this has been a Labour-held seat in the past but so far as I'm aware has never, ever returned a Liberal MP), but that is completely and fraudulently irrelevant to the balance of power on the local council or to voting patterns in this ward. The Lib Dems currently have only six councillors and 14% of the vote to Labour's 45%, and it is an outright and unbelievably cynical lie to claim that "the Lib Dems are the clear challengers to the Conservatives here".
What will actually happen, if anyone bothers to read the leaflets being shoved through their doors and switch their votes to Lib Dem on that basis (I assume the vast majority of people bin them unread), is that the local anti-Conservative vote will be split. The Liberal Democrats may succeed in knocking a few percentage points off Labour and gaining a seat or two, resulting in the Conservatives, currently the largest opposition party, being able to slip through the middle -- precisely the opposite result from that being touted.
I hate people who use fraudulent statistics in support of their beliefs. I hate people who lie to me on the assumption that I'm too stupid to tell the difference. I'm so infuriated at this repeated and deliberate manipulation of the truth that I'm almost tempted to write personally to the Liberal Democrat candidate, and inform him that I shall not under any circumstances be voting for the council candidates from his party, and I shall not, on principle, be voting for him in the local election, which I might otherwise have considered as a tactical vote.
The thing is, this is not even the first time. The Lib Dems in this ward put out a series of leaflets a few years ago making outright false claims about the local school redevelopment which they must have known to be untrue, in the name of electoral advantage -- apparently there is no duty to tell the truth in political advertising. The impression I get is that, whatever their national political stance, the local party consists of cynical, opportunistic liars who will do anything to get into power... and as that is the view that the majority of the general public currently holds about all politicians, it is more than a little unfortunate to find them actively living up to it :-(
Local elections are *not* the same thing as general elections (in fact I would vote for the local independent candidate if there were one standing in this ward, as they have been consistently and successfully re-elected elsewhere), and this is a Labour-controlled council with the Conservatives as the main opposition and the Lib Dems trailing a long way behind. In fact the Labour party leaflet provided voting figures (which I believe, from memory, to be true) showing a coloured graph which is almost the direct opposite of the one the Liberal Democrats' election literature keeps deliberately and falsely reprinting. The Liberal Democrat candidate in the general election was a few percentage points behind the Conservative candidate for the first time in history (this has been a Labour-held seat in the past but so far as I'm aware has never, ever returned a Liberal MP), but that is completely and fraudulently irrelevant to the balance of power on the local council or to voting patterns in this ward. The Lib Dems currently have only six councillors and 14% of the vote to Labour's 45%, and it is an outright and unbelievably cynical lie to claim that "the Lib Dems are the clear challengers to the Conservatives here".
What will actually happen, if anyone bothers to read the leaflets being shoved through their doors and switch their votes to Lib Dem on that basis (I assume the vast majority of people bin them unread), is that the local anti-Conservative vote will be split. The Liberal Democrats may succeed in knocking a few percentage points off Labour and gaining a seat or two, resulting in the Conservatives, currently the largest opposition party, being able to slip through the middle -- precisely the opposite result from that being touted.
I hate people who use fraudulent statistics in support of their beliefs. I hate people who lie to me on the assumption that I'm too stupid to tell the difference. I'm so infuriated at this repeated and deliberate manipulation of the truth that I'm almost tempted to write personally to the Liberal Democrat candidate, and inform him that I shall not under any circumstances be voting for the council candidates from his party, and I shall not, on principle, be voting for him in the local election, which I might otherwise have considered as a tactical vote.
The thing is, this is not even the first time. The Lib Dems in this ward put out a series of leaflets a few years ago making outright false claims about the local school redevelopment which they must have known to be untrue, in the name of electoral advantage -- apparently there is no duty to tell the truth in political advertising. The impression I get is that, whatever their national political stance, the local party consists of cynical, opportunistic liars who will do anything to get into power... and as that is the view that the majority of the general public currently holds about all politicians, it is more than a little unfortunate to find them actively living up to it :-(