I'm back from a hectic two day's in the manic Italian City of Milan, but I will have more to say about that in my Sunday comment article! So, the Libdem's - what are they all about then? It's been a question i have asked of many, many people over recent weeks. I have asked political commentators, city councillors and more importantly, I have asked the ordinary electorate and nobody can give me an answer! They are like the Man in the Iron Mask or Kendo Nagasaki or even worse than that they are like our very own "ORACLE". They have no identity, no one knows what they stand for or what they believe in, what their policies are, or even if they want a presence in this city! Well all thats about to change........
Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Stoke on Trent North, Mr David Jack (pictured). let's have a look at the "Tale of the Tape", This is taken from the Libdem Website.........:
David has lived and worked for thirty eight years in the West Midlands in law, construction, industry, business and the community putting him directly in touch with so many aspects of local peoples' lives.
David is a family man, married with two daughters: he understands the demands of modern day living in the City environment and has gained much experience in order to give help and support when it is most needed.
David is a natural leader who knows how to get things done. David is passionate about protecting the environment and the future of our schools, NHS and policing. He has been actively involved for a number of years as a grass roots campaigner and has previously run for Parliament on the Wolverhampton North East seat.
David has campaigned against Labour plans to bring in Compulsory Identity Cards, against Council Tax, arguing to replace it with a fairer system of tax and petitioned and lobbied for greater use and licensing of green technology.
Outside of Politics David is actively involved in a varied range of social activities including being a regular paintball player, a cricket team member and also playing guitar with a small band. Much of his spare time is taken up with family life.
In the next few day's David is submitting an article to pitsnpots so that we the people of Stoke on Trent can evaluate this party and consider whether they are worth our vote.
One thing is for certain David comes across as a very driven individual who wants to enter the local political debate. During my conversation with him I got the impression that he realises that his party need to connect with the cities electorate and to get the Libdem message out there, rather than wait for the electorate to find them. David has wasted no time in telling us what he thinks of the BNP in this letter to the Sentinel (CLICK HERE)
To give us a flavour of what Libdem policy looks like, I thought I would publish their stance on Immigration and terrorism. This is actual policy:
Firm but fair on immigration and refugees – We will create an integrated
border police force bringing back entry and exit controls to monitor
movement in and out of Britain. By running immigration and asylum services
fairly and efficiently, we will ensure that all migrants pay their way through
taxes and we will cut the number who work illegally or turn to crime.
Tackle terrorism – We will reform our courts to prosecute terror suspects
more effectively. Restrictions imposed on people without trial risks increasing
support for extremists. Our reforms: plea bargaining for “supergrasses”,
intercept evidence in court, and questioning after charge – will be effective
and fair. We will improve cooperation between UK anti terror bodies and
reach out to young men in Muslim Communities.
The Libdems will have their work cut out to overturn the current MP Joan Walley who holds the seat for Labour an enjoys a healthy 13666 majority but David is up beat about his prospects and feels that recent boundary changes to Stoke North will help him and his party.
So, I for one can't wait for David's first pitsnpots article. What is your view on the Libdems both locally and nationally? Do they represent a threat to the other major parties? Over to you........................................
16 comments:
He sounds like a psychopath to me.
He knows where all the illegals are, he wants to tax them fairly and he wants to boot the rest out. Oh, he likes guns. What a nut!
Since the Lib Dems backed Labour on the refusal to give the people the vote on the Lisbon treaty how can they be trusted.
Sorry as a party you do not represent a threat to the LAB-Cons, they have made fools of you at PMs question Time again, and again.
Since the Lib Dems backed Labour on the refusal to give the people the vote on the Lisbon treaty how can they be trusted.
Sorry as a party you do not represent a threat to the LAB-Cons, they have made fools of you at PMs question Time again, and again.
The one thing the Lib-Dems have going for them in today's economic climate is that they have a spokesman who is probably the most economically literate of all MPs, Vince Cable. He is widely respected in this field by MPs from all parties but it does help that he was Chief Economist at Shell before becoming an MP. Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? Why? I thought that's why we elected to MPs to make these decisions for us. So everytime parliament decides something certain people don't like we should have a refendum?
I too can't wait to hear about Lib Dem policy from David. At the moment, I just see an extremely dangerous party on the national stage and a policy-lite bolt on to the Meredith-Ibbs coalition locally.
David Jack was going on about BNP 'hypocrisy' in the Sentinel today. But what word would he use to describe a party that condemned the introduction of a border police force when it was first proposed by the Conservatives a few years ago, and which today says that it would introduce such a force?
What word does David use to describe a party that said it would give people a vote on the Lisbon Treaty dring the election, but then abstained when the Tories tried to force a referendum-and then voted AGAINST it in the House of Lords?!
What about a word for a Treasury spokesman who condemns the Conservatives for calling on the Bank to cut interest rates in September only then to call on the Bank to cut the rates in October?
The word is hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy.
Indeed I do look forward to hearing about Lib Dem policy. Bring on the debate!
No 'not a fake T Cope' we should have a referendum when it is of fundamental importance to the sovereignty of this country and when the political parties have PROMISED one during the election!
Wasn't it people like you who condemned Margaret Thatcher for abolishing the GLC and the metropolitan councils back in 1986 'without public support' despite the fact that that was a policy in the Tory manifesto of 1983 for which people voted on a massive scale? Perhaps you would have liked a referendum on the poll tax-another Tory manifesto promise in 1987 that was backed by a landslide? The point I'm trying to make here is that there are some things too important for MPs to be the only ones to get a say on.
P.S. Interestingly, the committment to abolish the GLC was also a Liberal party promise in 1983. Yet they had no trouble in OPPOSING it when the government actually did it in 1986. We're back to hypocrisy again, aren't we?!
Yes, I'm interested to hear more on what the Lib Dems stand for.
I have actually voted for them a few times, before the Mayoral System came into place. A protest vote, yes and no. Yes, in protest of how the council was being run at the time, but they did actually have some decent policies.
We don't hear that much from them nowadays do we.
Libdems, socks and sandels. I think BNP and proud, althouth I still think hes a uncareing twat, may have this one right, a psychopath. Oh! and that Nick Clegg, hes a randy little bastard, but its better to have one of them as a leader then a raveing drunk like the last one.
Shaun, when did I say I was anything to do with the Lib-Dems including a supporter? I merely stated that Vince Cable was highly regarded for economic nowse.
You're as bad as the BNP for wrongly interpreting people's posts. Are you as thick as them?
Another loser no doubt.
Shame on the Lib-Dems for not even being able to find someone who lives in Stoke-on-Trent to stand.
This guy stood in Wolverhampton at the last general election where he came a very poor third. Seems like he will carpetbag anywhere to try to get elected.
Well 'not a fake T Cope', you must be "as thick as them" if you interprete what I said as accusing you of being a Liberal Democrat. That is an accusation that I would NEVER make lightly, and indeed I did not.
Go back and re-read what I said without the urge to go on the defensive, and you will see that I was merely taking you on on your point about not needing a referendum on the Lisbon treaty because 'that's what we elect MPs for'.
That is typical of the EUphile tendancy to try and blur the issues. And yes, in this case you may accuse me of identifying you as an EUphile!
"P.S. Interestingly, the committment to abolish the GLC was also a Liberal party promise in 1983. Yet they had no trouble in OPPOSING it when the government actually did it in 1986. We're back to hypocrisy again, aren't we?!"
People change their minds Mr Bennett. It is a human characteristic. I know that the Tories are instinctly against change - hence the corruption of the civil service. I expect opposition to oppose, that is their role.
Shaun, It was the Tory Party that invented British interest in the EEC (with a view to a EU), so please no lectures.
We only needed a referendum by the people on the EU if it was a constitution. As you know full well, the current law is not a constitution but a tidying up process that was necessary.
Oh, and by the way, it was the Tories that opened the floodgates for immigrants and it was the Tores who set us on the course for the Euro currency.
Try telling passers by that it was Tories and not Labour and they won't believe you!
ps. I kicked your sorry ass in the sentinel but only with the facts.
Warren, I for the most part much preferred the raving drunk to the randy ba***rd and the athlete. Better policies on taxation and better generally at explaining policies. Not a fake T Cope, I agree with you on Vince Cable, although personally I don't understand the economic stuff that much. They should really have Vince as leader.
I was dismayed to hear recently that the libdem led council in Derby is starting to impose academies on people now and completely disregarding communities. Labour do this, as far as I can tell the tories love academies too and also the libdems it seems. None of them have decent education policies.
"former town clerks dept" I suppose there is a thin line between genuinely changing your mind and hypocrisy. As Mr Elsby points out it was the Tories that took us into the EEC but who are now most agnostic towards membership. Is that hypocrisy? Well no, and I will tell you why: we took Britain into the EEC some 35 years ago and the swing towards Euroscepticism has been a slow process. This is a case of many Tory supporters genuinely changing their minds on this issue, and you can see that evolution over a very long time. Also, people like me who were not even born when we went into the EEC cannot be bound by the mistakes of our predecessors.
By contrast, the Liberal stance on the GLC was a manifesto committment in the 1983 election. By 1986 when the abolition actually happened, they opposed it, and then spent the next 20 years condemnig how the Tory government did it 'without' public support'. Is that a case of hypocrisy? I can't see how it can be anything else. The change in the policy was not gradual or considered, it just happened overnight as part of an oppositionist strategy to grab votes.
You say that 'opposition is there to oppose' but I think you're forgetting the Lib Dem mantra of 'constructive opposition'. They claim that they do not oppose for oppositions sake, but that is exactly what you are now urging them to do. The hypocrisy goes on!
P.S. Gary, I did read your reply to me in the Sentinel. Sometimes if a reply gets my blood boiling I will rise to the bait and respond, but in this case I just couldn't believe what you were coming out with, and I decided that it was easier to ignore the comments. I did however leave a comment on the Sentinel website which began with my genuine thoughts which were "OH DEAR!!!".
You did not as you say "kick my sorry ass" because the vast majority of what you said was either untrue or plain wishful thinking-and everyone who read it will know so. You go on about socialism sweeping all before it but you seem to forget that Labour only got elected in the first place by dumping its own ideas and adopting Tory policies. That is the reason that they did not bugger up the economy sooner-as Labour governments always do. With their rediscovery this week of real socialist policies, Labour's election prospects have now gone back down the drain from whence they came.
Fursthermore, where is this great socialist revolution Mr Elsby? Which corner is it hiding around? Which beds are they under? When will we be seeing it Mr Elsby?
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