Some habits just don’t die. The LibDems are continuing to deploy their inspired bar chart science a month after the election. Their distributed leaflet claims “lifelong Conservative and Labour voters backed” candidate (now MP) Lee Dillon. Or was their win thanks to another effect?
This time it’s not what’s on the bar chart, it’s what isn’t. Did absentmindedness make the LibDems forget to include a party which performed better than both Labour and the Greens? Reform came third with 11% of the vote – denying Laura Farris the seat. Ignore them until they go away?
Davey’s leapt to new heights in his quest to grab the media’s attention. It appears paddle boarding, water sliding, and mountain biking weren’t desperate enough for the LibDem leader. Davey this morning opted to go bungee-jumping to announce LibDem’s boost for bereavement payments. Taking the plunge for publicity…
As he dangled mid-air, Davey shouted to the cameras below, “Do something you’ve never done before. Vote Liberal Democraaaat!”. Strong and brave…
Helen Maguire, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Ewell and Epsom, has made waves with her relentless campaign to flush out the filth and stop raw sewage from contaminating water supply – an issue close to her heart. Though she’s found herself knee-deep in controversy over one of her donors, Piers Clark. Mr. Clark has donated a total of £9,700 toward Maguire’s campaign since 2022. Clark has a somewhat muddy past…
Clark was Commercial Director of Thames Water, a time when the company was given a hefty fine of over £20 million for repeated illegal discharges into the Thames. He then went on to found Isle Utilities, a consultancy now specialising in cleaning up aquatic messes. It’s interesting that Ms. Maguire is so happy to take the flow of donations from Mr. Clark, considering her vocal stance on cleaner water. Willing to wade through anything to keep her campaign afloat…
The Sun reports today that doorbell cameras have made candidates’ lives tricky “because voters pretend they’re not in if they spot a political leaflet“. Some aren’t bothering to knock on doors at all any more…
Up in Carlisle a LibDem activist was dropping off material for candidate Brian Wernham (trampling over lawns in the process) and was accosted by the homeowner via a doorbell camera who pointed out “it says no junk mail” as he struggled to put a leaflet in the letterbox. The LibDem then proceeded to outrageously actually open the door and shove the material in, shouting: “It’s not junk mail, mate, it’s from Brian“. Prompting the obvious response, “I don’t care who Brian is”…
Ed Davey has today unveiled the LibDems’ manifesto – the first out of the traps. It’s called “For a Fair Deal”. LibDem manifesto commitments are useful as a list of things that you know won’t take place in the next Parliament…
Guido has had a leaf through the 117-page document to identify the most bonkers proposals. See them below:
Fired BBC reporter-turned LibDem candidate John Sweeney is making the most of the election campaign by… flogging his two-year-old book. Sweeney is hosting an event in his hopeful constituency of Sutton Coldfield (he tried and failed to get the selection for Hamble Valley) where he “will be sharing the background to his Sunday Times bestseller, Killer In the Kremlin, a gripping and explosive account of Vladimir Putin’s tyranny“. The only major publication to review it on publication in 2022 was The Times, where it got a lukewarm reception – “It isn’t an investigative masterpiece”…
Sweeney is trying to use his credentials to boost his election chances – his LibDem leaflet declares that his “face is well known to the public” through his “films on Vladimir Putin” before declaring incumbent Andrew Mitchell a “one party regime” because he’s been in the seat for 23 years. A bit like when he claimed Boris’ No 10 was “penetrated by the Russian secret state”…
The front of his campaign literature digs up plebgate to declare Mitchell “scandal ridden” and prominently prints the headline-style line: “Official: Labour Give Up In Sutton Coldfield”. Meanwhile, LibDems are getting arrested for electoral campaign literature offences…
