Friday 13 March 2009

Lib Dem Hypocrisy, They Support Airports And Roads

I've been having a rather repetitive conversation with an anonymous Lib Dem blogger. I thought I would look up their record myself. As expected, I found lots of hypocrisy.

Simon Hughes MP ran a homophobic campaign where "Some of their male canvassers went around the constituency wearing lapel stickers emblazoned with the words 'I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell'. "On the doorsteps, they spread false rumours that he was chair of the local gay society; no such society existed." Mr Tatchell said one Liberal member admitted to him that the party was behind the anonymous and illegal campaign leaflet "Which Queen Will You Vote For?", which ridiculed his sexuality. Mr Hughes said "I hope that there will never be that sort of campaign again.

Liberal Democrat MEP, Diana Wallis, voted against the software patent directive amendments. This in contradiction to the UK Liberal Democrat's policy on patents, which "support continued widespread innovation in software by resisting the wider application of patents in this area."

They are against replacing Trident, but all for extending its life. So the Lib Dems are very happy we have nuclear weapons. 'The current Trident nuclear system should be maintained and its operational life extended.' Though some Lib Dems disagree.

They say they are against nuclear power, but without much difficulty I found several Lib Dems bloggers who were all for it; Cllr Frank H Little, Laurence Boyce & Tristan Mills. I'm sure there are many more.

Donations were recieved from Paul Marshall who 'sold short' while the Lib Dems were campaigning against it.

Despite claiming their 'policies have a green thread running through them';
Their are often in support of new Roads and Airports:
Scottish Lib Dem Aviation Obsession Fuels Climate Change,
And LD Parliamentary candidate Stephen Gilbert said "Whether it is Newquay Airport, the dualling of the A30…., we are showing that our campaigns can really make a difference”

From the Liberal Democrat Environment magazine (Green Democrat) 1995, “it comes as a surprise to find our new MP, David Rendel, campaigning for one of the most destructive road schemes ever proposed. A scheme that’s attracted unanimous condemnation from Britain’s green lobby, provoked criticism from the European Commission, and still threatens full European legal action. Like Twyford Down, the proposed A34 bypass at Newbury would be a national outrage and an international embarrassment”.
Naturally in Manchester they are against congestion charges.

Theres also the antisemitic Baroness Tongue

And the Pro Iraq War Baroness Emma Nicholson MEP, which made a lie of the supposed Lib Dems being agaisnt the Iraq war.

Then theres dodgy Michael Brown, the party’s biggest business donor from a tax haven!

UPDATE
There are plenty more examples of Lib Dem hypocrisy.

Lib Dems say they are against the continued expansion of Tesco, but didn't oppose the huge one in Battle, Reading West. The Greens were the only Party that represented ordinary people and small shops here. It might be explained by Tesco sponsoring their Conference, (along with Microsoft).

There's Brian Paddicks divergence from Lib Dem policies when he was their mayoral candidate e.g. the Low Emission Zone, tube privatisation or the CO2 charge. Lib Dem Blogger Jonny Wright thinks Paddick is mad. At the time I wrote "He says he is fitter than Boris and Ken, but this is no athletics event. May I remind him that Bush is a keen runner and a terrible leader. He says Boris is 'very clever', an unusual tactic, praising the opposition, perhaps this will work for him. Brian claims that after two terms any leader suffers from a psychiatric disorder... Is he also an amateur doctor?"

I've blogged about how Green the Lib Dems were 2007

4 comments:

Oranjepan said...

Is that a supposed to be coherent argument or a join-the-dots collection of pet peeves?

Let's start at the beginning.

1.Hypocrisy.
You say I haven't answered any of your questions (although I clearly state I am happy to do so), yet you wish to make capital without having answered any of mine.

So do you actually know what hypocrisy is?

Although I'm not candidate standing for election for any party and it is therefore not incumbent upon me to account for the actions or opinions of others I will endeavour as best I can where necessary.

2. Relevancy
On the thread relating to whether or not the Green Party support nuclear power, you ask me if I agree with the opinion of Baroness Nicholson's opinion of the Iraq war.

Is that relevant to the topic at hand?

If you wish me to reply, please cite your source. I would very much like to know whether your description of her opinion is accurate so that I can provide an informed opinion - I simply find it impossible to answer to spurious allegations.

3. Accuracy
As above, your sources are limited, mostly restricted to hearsay and selective in their one-sidedness where you provide them at all.

If you cared to make more than a minor effort I'm sure you would be able to find full and detailed answers from much better authorities on the subjects (you've found LibDemVoice, so why not start there. If you don't, I will).

Really, I'm flattered by your attempt to paint such a blatantly false characterisation... and there I was giving you the benefit of the doubt regarding your support for fairness and justice!

I'm sorry you find your conversations repetitive, perhaps in the future you will be able to make any point you have.

Adrian Windisch said...

Its a bit like having a stalker. One who is quick to insult, its easier than trying to understand after all, but not productive.

Before you assume these points are wrong, perhaps you should actually bother to check them? I await your appology once you have done so.

Another hypocrisy; the Lib Dems support Post Office Privatisation, though they are often pictured pretending to want to save those valuable community resources.

Adrian Windisch said...

And another one; http://liverpool.greenparty.org.uk/focusattack/focus_attack.htm

http://petercranie.blogspot.com/2009/02/lib-dem-leaflets-in-liverpool.html

They have claimed falsely:
- That they saved the school crossing patrols, and blaming council officers when the proposal was put forward by the Lib Dems themselves, and actually defended by their deputy leader in the public arena

- That Greens are going to limit your family size (!), based on Jonathan Porritt's recent comments, even though our regional Lib Dem MEP, Chris Davies, has a much more hardline view on this than even our party

- That Green councillors forced homeless people to sleep in the snow (seriously - they believe they can get away with this stuff)

Adrian Windisch said...

Even more at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lib-dem-leader-admits-he-uses-wasteful-lightbulbs-411117.html

http://www.planestupid.com/front?page=41 "Congestion charging, so successful in London it's now being adopted in New York, was blocked by the Lib Dems in Edinburgh, Manchester and York. Wind farms, the most visible symbols of clean energy, are being opposed by Lib Dems across Britain. Welsh assembly Lib Dems went so far as to oppose an offshore wind farm, Scarweather Sands, which is expected to provide green electricity for the equivalent of 79,000 homes."

http://www.richardburtnews.org.uk/2008/10/villagers-meet.html LD oppose Worcestershire wind farm

http://blackburnlibdems.org.uk/news/000095/dale_mulgrew_opposes_wind_farm_plans_at_reaps_moss.html similarly in Blackburn

http://batr.net/cohoctonwindwatch/archives/2006_05_01_cohoctonwindwatch_archive.html
"While wind energy is renewable our finest landscapes are not. Once a power station is built the open countryside for miles around is irredeemably flawed" Lord Geraint Howells of Ponterwyd (former MP, Ceredigion, Liberal Democrat)

http://greenlibdems.org.uk/articles/000010/a_green_liberal_future.html