FibDems say they have abolished tuition fees in Scotland yet the
reality is that Scottish students will just pay them after they
graduate. The FibDems still continue to get driven around in
ministerial Mondeos.
They say the council tax is unfair, should be scrapped and then
replaced with a system based on ability to pay. Yet when such a motion
presented itself in the Scottish Parliament they voted against it. It
was a FibDem Minister who tabled the counter motion.
They had a manifesto commitment in Scotland to support schemes to
rehabilitate young criminals like the Airborne initiative in
Lanarkshire. Yet they voted to close Airborne along with Labour MSPs.
In elections they stand on a policy to stop the use of GM crops. Yet
in the Scottish Parliament they voted to allow GM crops. A FibDem
Minister was the one who gave the go-ahead. He still continues to get
driven around in ministerial Mondeo.
They have a policy to reduce the number of new roads because they
believe new road building is often unnecessary, and encourages people
to use roads. Yet FibDem Councillors and MPs have supported numerous
new road projects.
FibDem MP Don Foster wrote to the Transport Minister insisting that he
should encourage more congestion charges in cities throughout the UK.
Yet in his constituency he is opposed to road charging.
In Edinburgh the late Tory councillor Brian Meek exposed their
duplicity about a proposal to close off an Edinburgh road because
drivers used it as a shortcut. Local residents were divided about the
proposal. The FibDems leafleted half the street supporting the
proposal and the other half opposing it.
In Cheadle the FibDem MP told the local paper that she fully supported
Foundation Hospital status for Stepping Hill Hospital. Yet days before
that she voted at Westminster against the idea of Foundation
Hospitals.
FibDems say they will continue to press the Government for a
moratorium on any new or additional incinerator capacity. Yet in
Sheffield their Councillors voted to build an incinerator to burn
two-thirds of the city's rubbish.
FibDems have a policy in favour of a ban on fox hunting. It is passed
by their federal conference which is the sovereign body of the
FibDems. So how come a number of their MPs vote against a ban?
Why vote for the FibDems when they don't even support what they stand
for and what people think they are voting for?
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_____________________________________________________
‘People want honesty… It should be about being straight with people,
telling it as it is, being honest and direct, appealing to hopes and
aspirations rather than playing upon fears and divisions' (Charles
Kennedy, Speech to LGA Conference, 4 July 2002).
‘Sometimes in politics you've got to lie' (Charles Kennedy, The
Mirror, 2 May 2002).
_____________________________________________________
The Liberal Democrats' own internal campaigning documents, exposed
before the 2002 local elections and still being sold at their
September 2003 Party Conference, urge Liberal Democrats:
‘Be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly' (p.21)
‘Don't be afraid to exaggerate. For example, responses to surveys or
petitions are always "massive". If a council is doing something badly,
public expressions are always of "outrage".' (p.23)
‘Positive campaigning will NOT be enough to win control of the
council' (p.4)
‘you can secure support from voters who normally vote Tory by being
effectively anti-Labour and similarly in a Tory area secure Labour
votes by being anti-Tory' (p.6)
‘You don't have to answer the question "What's in it for me if I vote
for you?" or worse, "What will you do?" Those questions should only be
answered by ruling groups' (p.21)
‘Oppose all service cuts… No cut is going to be popular and why court
the unpopularity that goes with the responsibility of power' (p.25)
‘You are NOT running the council. It's NOT your problem' (p.33)
(Source: Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors, Effective
Opposition).
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An independent academic study of the 2001 general election has
highlighted how the Liberal Democrats campaign negatively, despite
claiming to act honestly.
‘What was also significant about the Liberal Democrat campaign was the
amount of negative campaigning. The party sought to portray itself as
one which campaigned honestly and did not use such tactics lightly.
Nevertheless… negative tactics formed a considerable part of the
party's campaign.
Nearly 38 per cent of the party's press releases were negative… Only
around 50 per cent of the party's campaign was based on politics and
issues' (A.Geddes & J.Tonge (eds), Labour's Second Landslide – The
British General Election 2001, University of Manchester Press,
p.74-75).