Category Archive for 'Watford' | ThunderDragon Blog

Archive for the 'Watford' Category

And the Winner in Watford is… Apathy!

September 29th, 2007 by ThunderDragon

Watford is a perfect microcosm of modern Britain. It has nice suburbs, ethnic-minority ghettos, gentrified houses and tower blocks. It has youths skulking in clouds of cigarette smoke on street corners, pedestrianised high streets sucked souless by chain stores – and it has apathy.
Apathy despite the fact that people in Watford, one of the tightest marginal constituencies in the country, are among the few whose vote could decide the outcome of a general election, if one was called next month. In 2005, Claire Ward, the Watford Labour MP, beat her Liberal Democrat opponent, Sal Brinton, by 1,148 votes and the Conservative candidate Ali Miraj wasn’t far behind. For more than 30 years the party that has captured Watford has captured Britain.
It is not that the people of Watford don’t care about politics. They care desperately, in fact. Their worries – housing, education, healthcare and their children – are the bread and butter of any government.
But they see nothing being done and, as a result, they have grown cynical. (The Times)

This is the area in which I have lived all my life [bar university]. It has a Lib Dem council and mayor [Three Rivers, a separate council but forms part of the parliamentary constituency, also has a LD council] and a Labour MP. And all of them are bloody useless.

The Lib Dem councils do bugger-all except send out leaflets, which in themselves are full of lies and deceptions. In the most recent one, which I reported here, they claimed that it is a “two-horse race in Watford”, a claim which I showed to be utterly false. Watford is one of the tightest marginals in Britain, and a classic three-horse race, with less than 2,000 votes separating all three parties in the 2005 general election.

As such a tight marginal, Ian Oakley, the Conservative PPC, needs to pull his finger out. My area of Watford has never had any Conservative leaflets dropped through the letterbox. He doesn’t appear to be turning up in the local newspapers. The Lib Dems do the leafleting, and that - and that only - is the reason why they hold the council. They’re useless at doing everything else.

He needs to leaflet the entire constituency pointing out Lib Dem candidate Sal Brinton’s lies in her leaflet and letters sent out and Claire Ward’s utter uselessness as MP for Watford. Labour and the Liberal Democrats, through their uselessness, lies, and general incompetence, have caused people to lose faith and interest in politics. The Conservatives can get it back. Watford is a constituency that is eminently winnable - but considering the level of apathy, not without a good deal of work.

Source: The Times

Claire Ward, Politics, Watford

Fibbing Lib Dems And Their Bar Charts

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September 11th, 2007 by ThunderDragon

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We all know about the Lib Dems and their bar charts. They’re about as accurate as a five-year-olds attempt at long division. But with the one on a leaflet and a letter delivered to my house today is technically correct. but misleading - but the commentary is a complete lie.

They claim on the leaflet that it is a “Two-horse race in Watford”. Which is a complete and utter lie, as it is a three-horse race. The result at the 2005 election was:
Thus, the claim that “Only the Lib Dems can beat Labour here” is utter bullshit. So long as Ian Oakley works hard, he has plenty of chance of winning this seat. Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem PPC for Watford has no more chance than he does, and neither does Claire Ward, the sitting MP. It really is a three-horse race, and anyone can win.

In her letter, Sal Brinton claims that

Many local residents have told me they were bitterly disappointed that Labour narrowly held on to the Watford parliamentary seat at the last election. As the Liberal Democrat candidate, I finished in a clear second place, with the Conservatives third. Labour were only able to win because the vote against them was split.

Half of that statement has already been proven to be wrong. Sal was not in a “clear” second place. There was less between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats than between the Lib Dems and Labour [Con-LD: 793; LD-Lab: 1,148]. It isn’t possible for them to have finished “close” to Labour, and yet “clear” from the Conservatives considering the numerical facts.

Labour was only able to win this seat because the vote against them was split. And the implication that people should thus vote Lib Dem in Watford in order to get rid of the useless Claire Ward is rubbish, and can easily be turned right back on them. Labour nationally won only because the vote against them was split. So, to advance their own implied argument, the Lib Dems should pack up and go home because it is them that are causing this Labour Government [2005 result: Lab 37%, Con 33%, LD 22%]. Which of course they won’t, and they shouldn’t. But that is what Sal’s argument says they should do.

The Lib Dems are also claiming that Ali Miraj, the ex-PPC, has said that

Labour MP, Claire Ward, knows that she has me to thank for still having her job.

If he did say that, he really is an utter idiot, and I’m glad that he isn’t Watford PPC - or a candidate at all.

The Lib Dems are thus lying again. Their bar charts are at best misleading, and at worst downright lies. And their commentary on the results are just as bad. When will they stop their lying? Probably never. But at least they really have earned the nickname “Fib Dems”.