I have been so busy I have not had time to properly lift my head above the fray and notice what is going on around me.
I have just realised that the Liberal Democrats are not fielding candidates in two of the thirty Liverpool wards.
NOT FIELDING CANDIDATES I say!
How can they claim to run the city, to be the party of government, to be the right choice for Liverpool when they are not even offering a candidate to some 20,000 electors in the city.
This is simply unheard of, surely.
Can anyone think of a single authority in this country where the ruling party cannot manage a full slate of candidates?
12 comments:
Gwynedd
Isn't Plaid in charge there? Did they not field a candidate in every seat?
No, they have not fielded candidates in several wards:-
Elected unnopposed (no Plaid candidate) are 3 independents, 2 Labour, 1 Voice of Gwynned and 1 Lib Dem.
(Scouseboy) And only one in Kirkdale(Warren Bradleys wife) when there are two seats up for election!!! Defeatist or what???
I seem to recall at the time of the Matthew St fiasco, Cllr Bradley (quite rightly) complained about the abuse levelled at his wife and children. I agree with him that is totally unacceptable behaviour by anybody, regardless of political viewpoint. However, he pointed out at the time that his wife was non political. Why then is she standing for the Fib Dems in Kirkdale??? Oh I forgot, the Fib dems have no politics, silly me scouseboy, slap your wrists!!
They have put up two candidates in Kirkdale, as well as Pauline is a young man named Tom who lives somewhere near me and campaigns with Colin Eldridge in Wavertree. Clearly they are both "paper" candidates.
I think it is very bad for a ruling party not to allow voters one we might call a "referendum" on their performance, by not standing a candidate in every ward.
I am also concerned that the two wards where the LibDems have not fielded candidates are the two wards where they came lower than second in the ballot on 2007.
- in the case of Clubmoor as we all know they didnt stand last year either, in what I have always suspected to be a deal with Steve Radford. "You dont stand in Kensington and Fairfield to help our LibDem candidate and we wont stand in Clubmoor to help your Liberal candidate".
To be strictly fair Radford has always denied it. But I cannot help having my suspicions.
The other seat is Norris Green.
Where they came third after the BNP.
I find this truly and genuinely appalling.
Pulling out of Norris Green, knowing it might boost the BNP vote.
Any decent party campaigner would ensure that someone stood for the LibDems in Norris Green. There are plenty of family groups on the LibDem benches, husbands and wives, brothers, in-laws, they must surely have been able to find someone to stand.
And if they are in such a bad way that they could not stand 31 candidates, then they should have stood only one candidate in Kirkdale and asked Mrs Bradley or the young man from Wavertree to stand in Norris Green instead.
I am appalled that they have put opportunism before common human decency.
And if I am wrong, and if the LibDems did not deliberately give succour to the BNP, then come and explain why you did not try harder to find a LibDem supporter prepared to support your manifesto and offer themselves and your party to the voters.
Why not stand two candidates in Labour's strongest seat instead of standing one short there and one in Norris Green instead?
173 people voted LibDem in Norris Green last year, surely one of them would have been prepared to be at least a "paper" candidate to make it clear to the BNP that the mainstream parties stand united against them.
You could even have run an advert in the paper, or put a leaflet out there, "Wanted, LibDem candidate".
There is no excuse for this failure, I call it shameful.
And I hope very much, very strongly, that the good people on the LibDem benches, the decent LibDem councillors, the liberal Liberal Democrats in fact, make absolutely clear their total disgust and abhorrence of this situation.
Tell your leadership and your campaign team that there are some tactics you simply cannot countenance.
Do the decent thing!
(scouseboy) Louise, apologies for the inaccurate oversight, the Fib Dems do have two candidates in Kirkdale after all. Hopefully they will lose both seats. What is inexcusable however, is that the Fib Dems are not contesting Norris Green, allowing the BNP the oxygen they dont even deserve to breathe.
The real reason is perhaps that the Lib Dems no longer have anyone willing to stand in places like Clubmoor or Norris Green. Go around these wards and you will see that they don't have any leafy enclave that is reminiscent of somewhere like Woolton. The Lib Dems simply do not feel at home tackling problems in places like this. That is just one reason amongst many why they deserve to be booted out from running this great city.
Everyone - every rich, poor, young, old, able-bodied, disabled, black, white, man, woman and child - every last one of them deserves a council that both reflects and understands them. A council that will stand up for them when it is not fashionable or when it is difficult to do so. The Lib Dems have lost the desire to be that party and the respect for Liverpool people. They are out of touch, out of ideas and out of time. May 1st should be the day that the clocks go forward as there is a party ready to take Liverpool on - take it on from the embarrassment that has been foisted upon it from this Lib Dem council. The only party that is standing shoulder to shoulder with all the people of this city is Labour.
Someone once said after an election 'a new dawn has broken'. Let it be so in Liverpool on May 2nd. Let people who have been left behind by this Council wake with hope in their hearts again. Let them know that they too deserve to be part of a great city regardless of the money in their pocket, the grey in their hair or the paths that they've taken before.
A new path is being forged. It will be a difficult one - made hard by the blunting of our instruments by the shower who went before us. But we will forge that path because it is the right one to take. It is a path to a better future, a better life and a better Liverpool.
Roll on May 1st.
As it says on the doors of St George's - Senatus Populus Que Liverpudliensis!
Hi there,
I don't normally post on blogs, but I thought I should as these comments relate to me.
I did plan on standing in Norris Green for the party, and the Lib Dems were aware. Unfortunately, due to work reasons I could not stand and I left them in the lurch - I am very sorry, both to the lib dems and the people of norris green.
I am sorry "Anonymous" but unless you are prepared to put your name to this post, I shall be forced to assume you are just one of the usual suspects who post on here, pretending.
And you have already made 30 entries on the blog, as the details below show, so forgive me if I don't quite believe you.
Host Name 82-35-222-249.cable.ubr08.live.blueyonder.co.uk
IP Address 82.35.222.249 [Label IP Address]
Country United Kingdom
Region England
City Liverpool
ISP Broadband Know Ubr08live
Returning Visits 30
Visit Length 20 hours 44 mins 31 secs
VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS
Browser MSIE 6.0
Operating System Windows XP
Resolution 1024x768
Javascript Enabled
Sorry I need to correct that. You have made 17 entries on 30 visits.
That I should prove such a popular read for a LibDem.....
So as we were then. There remains no explanation as to why the LibDems have not fielded a candidate in Norris Green.
I therefore have no evidence that sways me from the belief that this was a cynical manouevre from a bunch of apologists.
I know the reason, its because they don't stand a chance in any of the poorer regions, as they have created most of them.
Especially Norris Green, BNP have more chance there, than lib dems.
Lets make sure that filth don't get a look in either.
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