If a Tory MP is involved in some sort of scandal you can bet it will not only be written about on ConservativeHome but heavily commented on. The same goes for Labour Home. Yet try as I might, I can find no mention of Paul Burstow's censure for using Commons postage for illicit means on LibDem Voice. Yet the site has regularly lambasted politicians of other parties for similar misdemeanours. The site rarely comments on any issue like this, which are in any way embarrassing to the LibDems. No reason why they should, I suppose. It's a free country and they can run the site how they like, but of the three party-related sites LibDem Voice is undoubtedly the most Pravda-esque.
UPDATE: At 6.52pm this evening LibDem Voice put up a post on Mr Burstow. Who says blogs have no influence? :) A complete coincidence, I am sure.
21 comments:
Haven't you noticed their sign?
"No whining here!!"
Oh come on Iain! You are yourself somewhere between loath and very loath to comment on Tory sleaze problems. Which have been running at a high pitch of late.
From memory (excuse any errors):
Conway - no comment. MEPs - little comment in the first place. MEPs - no comment on the shallowest deep clean in history. Duncan - no comment. Shapps - no comment.
Dorries (for the same thing as Burstow, and also blogging on the taxpayer) - no comment. Spelman - not much. Davis and Fox - no comment. Wintertons - no comment.
Pot - Kettle - Black.
As usual you are full of it. First of all, I was comparing the three party sites, not blogs run by individuals. Second I did comment on Conway, I commented extensively on MEPs. I wrote a long post on Spelman. Davis has never been accused of anything apart from in your own warped mind.
No sensible Lib Dem goes anywhere near that **** site.
Actually, no MP of any party has an excuse for doing this; it's not like registering a donation in 6 different places but forgetting the 7th.
This is an offense, quite explicitly, yet as in the case of the former MP for Ilford North, Linda Perham, who did the same thing, the relevant Officer just slaps the offender lightly on the wrist.
Why are we expected to obey the law, and the lawmakers are not?
Just saw your own comment Iain. NONE of the three sites you mention is at all 'official'. So you cannot compare them sensibly.
The Lub-Dims are increasingly becoming an irrelevance anyway...think they are frightened of sinking without trace under Cleggover.....
The Liberals were a much more open party, Iain, but appear to closed in in themselves in recent years.
I posted a very polite comment to a Lib Dem blog (forget which) discussion of the EU. My posting said that I'm a life long Liberal yet no longer support the Lib Dems, partly because of their position on the EU. My post was removed and a response posted along the lines of ha, ha, ha, that got rid of the troll.
Given the reluctance of many Lib Dems to engage in reasonable debate about their policies, I'm not suprised they've lost so many supporters.
I think posts on here criticising this blog for not reporting Tory scandals are absurd and can only come from the most blinkered Labourites. Chris Paul should keep taking the tablets, so to speak.
I have to disagree with the comment that Labourhome is not Pravda-esque though - their main story the morning after Crewe & Nantwich was some rubbish about postal voting wasn't it?!
The main bin-raker, Marc what's his name, failed to allow a reply I gave to him mentioning Michael Brown and how it was comparable to the incident he was raking over.
He truly is a Winston Smith.
We have always been on the side of EastAsia.
No surprise there.
As you well know if there was a party who deserved to be called 'Nasty' it would be the Lib Dems.
They've just put the story up. (Must have read your post!)
Mark Pack is a paid employee of the LD campaign team, so why expect any sense of detachment from the LD party in LD Voice? He even trawls political betting for a Tory ppc's posting and sends it around the media. An A1 slime ball.
If you look at the recent Grauniad mistake over David Davis the LD attack dogs jumped all over him before even attempting to consider that their beloved Grauniad had made a mistake. They then issued a few apologies after the damage of "those nasty Tories" was done.
LD Voice is like much of the LD blogs in that they read like Focuses. (Norfolk is an exception)
Its ratio of attacking the Govt is running at half the level that it attacks Conservatives. It is living in the past thing their are a lot of anti-tory votes to be had.
The good news is that this is why the LDs are having a decreasing impact with voters. Their share of support in the younger voters has dropped from 1 in 2 to under 1 in 3. The future is bright and it is not orange.
Whoa. Ian, please stop that thing that happens when I scroll over your blog and I get a mega-pic of our not-so-dear Leader.
As for the LibDems - I appreciate you are trying to be even-handed, but, in all honesty, who cares? (Except, possibly, those who think Labour is a dead duck and, in the next Parliament, the LibDems might surprise themselves and be on the Opposition Benches).
There is an alternative exlanation, Iain...
Which is that I've been busy all day (having pre-set a couple of stories to go live during the day), and only had time to post the Burstow story a few minutes ago.
As a party employee it's not surprising Mark Pack didn't feel it was right for him to post a story - which is why there are activists like me involved with Lib Dem Voice. But in fact Mark did mention to me that we should cover the story - it's my fault it was a day late (and what more cardinal blogging sin can there be?).
But as for the Pravda tag, Iain, you should know better. You regularly chide commenters who nickname you Iain Pravdale, pointng out you are reglarly off-message. Well, I'm not going to trawl through the LDV archives pointing out every single independent-minded article that's been published by LDV, frequently critical of the party leadership (though usually constructively) - if I did there would be a lot. Including an article on the Haltemprice by-election I wrote and published on LDV just yesterday.
But - naturally - I am delighted you remain such a devoted reader, and look forward to future snipes at LDV... we just hate being ignore y'know :)
What really p^sses me off is that when MP's are found out for committing fraud, they are told to pay back the money and the world is told that the matter is now considered closed.
How many other CRIMINALS would like that option?
Who would be the best party/MP to represent GLasgow east?
A few years ago I would have said the Tory party, of course.
Yet what hope does Dave Cameron hold for those Easterhouse people wishing to escape the poverty trap? He doesn't offer them free excellent education along with low taxes in order to do so.
In fact NO political party is giving them a promise of a better future. Why o Why have the Conservatives turned against schools of excellence in poor areas (Grammar schools)?
Then again thanks to new labour, Westminster MPs have NO power in Scotland anyway. Why should any jock vote anything but SNP?
yes, but has anyone tried posting any contrary views in the comment boxes ?
It is all censorship and double-plus ungood bollox over there - the sight of that smug faced prat Mark Pack is enough to make me want to punch a hole in the screen !
Do these imbeciles not realise that if they spend the next two years purely 'preaching to the converted' they are going to get terminated at the next General Election, now that Charles Kennedy is no longer their leader and they failed to vote for the best candidate, Chris Huhne..
You couldn't make it up...
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who detests Mark Pack with a vengeance..
LDV has ALWAYS been shi*e. Follows- a shi*e site for a shi*e party. My feelings on the 'editorial/censorial' control on LDV is well known and it has not changed one iota. The LD party should change it's name to one more fitting:- the 'Hypocritical Opportunists' would do.
C'mon Iain, this is an extremely cheap shot just because LDV isn't covering what you want them to. You're also forgetting the different ways in which LH, CH and LDV are run/funded.
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