Has Phil Woolas caused double trouble for the Lib Dems?

[andygardener]

Apart from the fact that I'm a British Citizen?

 

Do I need any other need to take an interest.

 

Now, do you have anything to add to the thread, or are you just here to throw insults around?

 

Well the thread is about your party. Who have been found that despite their many failings they have gone one lower in illegally stealing a parliamentary seat.

 

For some reason you think this makes the pertinent point is the Lib Dems, who have committed no such crime, or the Conservatives, who have commited no such crime.

 

You as a Labourite are trying to make the latest revelation of labour criminality a question about other parties. That is dishonest and immoral. Classic Labour behaviour.

[wellyman]

Do you think that I have no right to ask about the Tories and the Lib Dems?

 

You can ask what you like. Most of the news media seems more interested in another MP being expelled, but I suppose you need a raft.

[Guest sibon]

Well the thread is about your party. Who have been found that despite their many failings they have gone one lower in illegally stealing a parliamentary seat.

 

For some reason you think this makes the pertinent point is the Lib Dems, who have committed no such crime, or the Conservatives, who have commited no such crime.

 

You as a Labourite are trying to make the latest revelation of labour criminality a question about other parties. That is dishonest and immoral. Classic Labour behaviour.

 

Actually, I find Woolas' behaviour repulsive, but unsurprising.

 

I think that the question is a good one though. Might he have hit the Lib Dems twice? Is that fair?

[Guest sibon]

You can ask what you like. Most of the news media seems more interested in another MP being expelled, but I suppose you need a raft.

 

Not really, the media is starting to ask the same question that I've posed. See The Guardian, for an example.

 

Perhaps they read Sheffield Forum.

[andygardener]

Actually, I find Woolas' behaviour repulsive, but unsurprising.

 

I think that the question is a good one though. Might he have hit the Lib Dems twice? Is that fair?

 

Hopefully the labour party will have the basic decency not to stand under the circumstances.

 

If they do stand then that will send a clear message to the country as to what a disgraceful bunch they are.

[Guest sibon]

Hopefully the labour party will have the basic decency not to stand under the circumstances.

 

If they do stand then that will send a clear message to the country as to what a disgraceful bunch they are.

 

That is a good idea. However, I think that they will see this as an opportunity too good to miss. If they do decide not to stand, I'd suspect that their private polling would be guiding them:)

[wellyman]

Hopefully the labour party will have the basic decency

 

 

:D:D:D:D

 

PRICELESS. Funniest post of the year so far.

 

:D:D

[dell12]

Hopefully the labour party will have the basic decency not to stand under the circumstances.

 

If they do stand then that will send a clear message to the country as to what a disgraceful bunch they are.

 

He's actually been suspended from the party, so Labour wouldn't be represented by him.

[wellyman]

Not really, the media is starting to ask the same question that I've posed. See The Guardian, for an example.

 

Perhaps they read Sheffield Forum.

 

This is what I found in the Guardian..

 

Phil Woolas's wafer-thin victory in Oldham East and Saddleworth seat – he won by 103 votes following two recounts – was one of the more surprising results of the 2010 election. The former immigration minister had been defending a vulnerable 3,590 majority and had recently appeared to be humiliated on national television by Joanna Lumley over his handling of the row over UK residency for Gurkha veterans. He had already alienated much of the sizeable local Muslim community through a series of patronising comments including dismissing as "a load of crap" a young Muslim woman's concern that the UK's foreign policy in the Middle East was contributing to the radicalisation problem. Add to this the national outrage over MPs' expenses during which it was reported that Woolas had been submitting expenses for tampons and women's clothing and his chances of holding on to his seat did not look too promising. So how did he manage it?

 

Today's ruling by two high court judges in a specially convened election court found that Woolas smeared the Liberal Democrat opponent, Elwyn Watkins, as someone who pandered to Muslim extremists. In the words of the judgment, Woolas "made or published several false statements of fact in relation to the petitioner's personal character or conduct which he had no reasonable grounds for believing to be true and did not believe to be true."

 

During the court hearings it had emerged that Woolas's election agent, Joseph Fitzpatrick, had become convinced that the Lib Dems had built up sufficient momentum locally to defeat Woolas, or in Fitzpatrick's own words: "We are picking up the vibe that Phil is going to lose." On 25 April, less than two weeks before the general election, Fitzpatrick emailed Woolas's campaign adviser, Stephen Green, saying: "Tory voters are talking of voting Lib Dem ... If we can convince them that they are being used by the Moslems [sic] it may save [Woolas] and the more we can damage Elwyn the easier it will be to stop the Tories from voting for him". Fitzpatrick also wrote: "We need to go strong on the militant Moslem angle" and "We need … to explain to the white community how the Asians will take him out … If we don't get the white vote angry he's gone."

 

 

 

I would be worried if that were my party.

[plekhanov]

Now that Phil Woolas has been suspended by Labour and triggered a by-election, has he inadvertantly struck a second blow to the Lib Dems?

 

His first blow was obviously winning the seat in dubious circumstances. The by-election, though presents a bigger issue.

 

Will the electorate show their disgust at the Lib Dems lack of honesty in the General Election campaign, or will they endorse the subsequent actions of the Coalition as being in the national interest?

Yes it was so dishonest how the Lib Dems formed a coalition with the party which got the most support, just like they always said they would

 

Personally, I can no longer see any point in voting Lib Dem. Will the voters of Oldham East and Saddleworth partake in a two horse Tory/Labour race?

Given that you’re Labour supporter who seemed to regard the only purpose of the Lib Dems as being to help your incompetent, deficit spending, war starting lot cling onto power that’s hardly surprising now is it.