Can't You Wait Till He's Buried?
Subject: [LONDON-LDS] Bromley and Chislehurst updateDo email them your thoughts, Guido is sure they will appreciate it.
From: "Pete Dollimore" < pete.dollimore@HILLINGDON.LIBDEMS.ORG>
Date: Mon, May 22, 2006 9:14 am
To: ld-londonactivists-l@LISTS.LIBDEMS.ORG.UK... The local party want to clear the decks ready for what's expected to be a busy time. They would very much appreciate extra help to get their Thank You Focuses out in Town Ward and Plaistow and Sundridge wards.
Please call Toby Philpot on 07962 XXXXXX if you can offer your help, and perhaps bring over a few of your colleagues from your local party?
There is a fast train service to Bromley South from London Victoria -- about 15 minutes journey time. There is also a stopping service on the same line, and others from London Blackfriars. Other stations in the constituency include Bickley and Bromley North (latter on a branch line). No doubt Toby can provide extra information.
Thanks,
Pete
-----
The small print: this email was sent using the Liberal Democrats' email list server. Visit http://lists.libdems.org.uk to find out more about the lists you can join or control your membership of the list.
UPDATE : In the comments some LibDems claim it is a non-story. Well Ming told journos at a lunch yesterday "Eric Forth was a friend of mine. Eric Forth was born within a mile of me. He went to school about half a mile away. I deprecate any effort to begin electioneering under any circumstances in any by-election until the writ has been moved by the party with responsibility for doing so. If that were done I disapprove and I will make sure my disapproval is known."
25 comments:
This from the guy who made a packet out of a certain Labour leader getting dead?
By-elections are necessarily a sensitive business, as there are usually casualties involved - but I'd be dumbfounded if the other parties aren't making similar preparations.
I'm sure the Liberal Democrats, myself included, will be paying their respects to Eric Forth, and I'm sure they wouldn't do anything to dishonour his memory. (A National Waistcoat Day would perhaps be a fitting memorial?)
I like this blog because you don't moralise too much or take yourself too seriously, Guido. Do keep it up please.
Like they have a chance anyway.
What is it about Lib Dems and funerals? My local Lib Dem MP has been spotted now at two funerals, you know, just showing he cares... about people he never knew.
Surely the point of a Thank You Focus is that it relates directly to the local elections, and as such would have gone out anyway regardless of the bye-election. It's stretching the point a long way to suggest that this constitutes formal bye-election campaigning, although I acknowledge they're seeking to bring in outside help.
Exactly. Not much of story.
Maybe if somebody could get the order of service from his funeral, Cherie Blair could autograph it and flog it on ebay?
Dollimore is probably still plenty sore from the caning he and his motley bunch of hangers on received at the local elections in Hillingdon - their rump was reduced from 8 LibDims out of 65 councillors to just 2, losing their leader, Steve 'Scarey' Carey along the way... :-)
The funny thing is that it's the best part of a month since the local elections - surely these 'Thank you' Fucos leaflets are a bit late now - couldn't possibly be related to the by-election could they?
The strange thing is, why is Dollimore so concerned about 'thank yous' in Bromley and Chislehurst when they haven't delivered 'thank yous' (thank you for not chucking all of us out) across Hillingdon yet...
Why does the slavish devotion and zealotry of LibDim activists, in contrast to other party activists, remind me of a religious cult?
if this isn't much of a story why the fuck has Campbell even expressed outrage at the email?
Joe Taylor: is it wise to let Lib Dems into a funeral? After Oaten, can we take the risk of what some of them might want to do with the coffin?
FD, What, like make a piece for newsnight on what motivates people to die?
Tories were gearing up for Cheadle before Patsy Calton was buried and the spastics still managed to lose. Plus ca change.
Strikes me that the offence here is not so much that they've done what everyone else does (like Allan says, Cheadle is an instructive comparison), but they've been caught at it. Using a widely-distributed e-mail list like the London LibDems one is a bit thick.
It must be said, Lib Dems are not particularly good at keeping things a secret.
Maybe that's a good thing...
ming's deeply felt sense of probity didn't seem to stop the libdems campaigning in his own precious before the dunfermline mp rachel squire had died, let alone been buried. normal two-faced service from the libdems.
A Thank You Focus was planned. It was stopped, vastly rewritten under the circumstances - to just have the "Thank You" element, a tribute to Eric Forth, one left over story and a "grumble slip". The "Thank you" element would have been completely lost if left until aftre the funeral.
Do you normally publish the mobile numbers of local party helpers without their permission?
The Lib Dims have always been ruthless. It wouldn't irritate me that much if they weren't so self-righteous all the time, trying to put on a Mr Nice Guy image and presenting themselves as the nice peoples' party.
4:12 Anonymong,
Guido doesn't actually require anyones permission, but it would be bad manners. it was an oversight and the phone number has been obscured.
Labour whip's 'poll move hours after Law death'
May 19 2006
Martin Shipton, Western Mail
LABOUR'S chief whip at Westminster was personally involved in trying to organise a by-election in Blaenau Gwent within hours of Peter Law's death, we can reveal.
Hilary Armstrong tried to contact Lord Elis-Thomas, Presiding Officer of the National Assembly, within hours of Mr Law's death on April 25.
A senior Assembly source has told us Lord Elis-Thomas refused to take calls from Ms Armstrong, believing the approach to be grossly insensitive. But Ms Armstrong conveyed a message suggesting double by-elections for Mr Law's Commons and Assembly seats should be held on May 25.
Mr Law, a former Labour AM who quit the party in protest at the imposition of an all-women shortlist for the parliamentary seat on the local party, won a stunning victory as an independent in last year's general election. But he died from a brain tumour diagnosed hours before he was due to announce his general election candidacy.
Assembly Tory leader Nick Bourne said, "This again shows the Labour Party is completely out of touch with public opinion and that they have learned nothing from their past mistakes."
The Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan, said, "Such a revelation shows how questionable the Government's judgment has become."
Ms Armstrong, who was shifted in Tony Blair's recent shuffle to become a Minister at the Cabinet Office with responsibility for social exclusion issues, did not respond to messages.
The double by-elections have now been scheduled for June 29, in which Mr Law's widow Trish and his agent Dai Davies are standing as Independents for the Assembly and Westminster seats respectively.
A Labour Party spokesman said, "We are not interested in this unattributed tittle-tattle. What our candidates are interested in is what the people of Blaenau Gwent are telling them on the doorstep, which is they want action on crime and anti-social behaviour, public services and jobs."
Given how tired all party activists are after the local elections it is certainly no surprise that Thank You Focuses haven't been delivered yet. Party advice is do it within ten days. In reality it can take several months due to holidays and so on.
There is nothing wrong with this email as it is not suggesting that the party campaigns before the funeral. Pressure from the press probably forced Ming to apologise, but it is a non-story.
Looking at the comments above it's not difficult to work out which are from LibDim bananas* is it...
* Yellow, bent and green round the edges :-)
Nothing new. Last year EVERY political party agreed to suspend political campaigning for the Pope's funeral. Guess which party broke their promise for a dirty tricks campaign?
So let me get this right - A Lib Dem is being criticised for sending out an email which says that by-election campaigning won't start until after the funeral?
Have I missed something here?
Lets not be naive here - we all read the Eric Forth story in the papers, and I'd be very surprised if each and every one of us didn't at some point while reading it think 'by-election'.
We might not like it, it might be crass, but if the Lib Dems are really the only party to have begun preparations, I'll start gathering suitable condiments...
In other by-elections following deaths down here in Surrey, Lib Dems have been notably careful to respect the feelings of the bereaved, even marking up the bereaveds' addresses on our delivery sheets to ensure that no by-election Focus is delivered there and that no canvassing ever takes place. So on 'due diligence' we don't come out too badly in general, but obviously local mistakes can sometimes happen. We don't condone them, but if one is working with volunteers it is hard sometimes to retain a fully firm structure of management authority. (One suspects that Labour and Tories have an analagous if not identical problem here, were they to openly admit to it.)
Campbell says "if that were done I disapprove", not "That was done and I disapprove". He clearly didn't have full information, and answered a question hypothetically.
Getting out Thank-you leaflets might seem more urgent with an impending by-election, but they would have gone out eventually anyway. It's hardly electioneering (not special extra by-electioneering anyway), and certainly not anything any other party wouldn't do.
Post a Comment