Labour and Conservatives argue across the Mersey over winter fuel payments
As Louise Baldock makes clear in her latest blog post , Liverpool is a Tory free zone.
But that has not stopped a row erupting across the Mersey between Cllr Baldock (a Labour councillor) and Ian Lewis, a Conservative councillor in Wirral.
It centres around Cllr Baldock's claim some time ago that the Conservatives would scrap winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Cllr Lewis took objection and hit back in THIS blog post a couple of weeks ago.
But it was not until Cllr Baldock accused him of libel this weekend in a comment on the blog post that things really hotted up.
Cllr Lewis has linked to the Conservative party where they make clear they will protect winter fuel payments.
He goes on to lay down the following challenge:
a) correct the statement on your blog and
b) in your position as NW Chair of the Labour Party, make your colleagues elsewhere in the region aware of this error so that they can also cease misrepresenting their political opponents.
He then goes to say that he has copied in the media on the exchange.
This is a classic example of how powerful the internet can be. It's not exactly instant rebuttal, but expect to see more of this type of thing in the run up to the election.
As an aside Cllr Baldock wonders why the Conservatives did not field a candidate for the recent Fazakerley by-election. As I noted in a previous post, I was reliably informed they failed to get their nomination papers in on time.
3 Comments
Leave a comment
Dale Street Associates
David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
Read My Posts »
I appreciate it that Cllr Baldock has admitted the Tories can't win in Liverpool. Perhaps her and Miss Berger can now stop spreading the myth that the General Election in the city is between the Tories and Labour now?
Hi David, I am very happy to say I have updated my blog entry concerning the many ways that pensioners have benefitted from a Labour government.
I am not sure that your central point, about how the internet leads to rapid rebuttal is quite made as it seems it has been nearly two months. However, it will be interesting to see how modern media is used in campaigning in this election, the theme of a workshop I presented to in London at the weekend at the LGA.
Tom - the General Election is decided by the results in around 650 parliamentary constituencies, not a mere 5 in Liverpool. The next Prime Minister will not be a Liberal Democrat.
Hmmm...Louise says that "instant rebuttal" isn't possible in this modern media age. Why, then, did she delete my recent posts on her blog concerning the truth behind her recorded voter intentions in Kensington? I bet she didn't raise that at the LGA workshop at the weekend. The fact is that Labour's re-election plans have got more to do with Republican Tea Party campaign strategy than anything else - reliance on social networking/blogging will never be a real substitute for getting out there and talking to real people about their everyday lives and concerns. Something which her new friend Luciana doesn't seem to have quite mastered yet.