The Brent Central Wikipedia war

One of the main dangers of Wikipedia is that when it comes to elections it can be very hard to verify much of the information added to articles, especially those that cite offline "local paper" sources. Sometimes it seems as though opposing sides are trying to get their own spin on it all.

The latest war concerns the new constituency of Brent Central. (Wikipedia: Brent Central (UK Parliament constituency)) With the boroughs of Brent and Camden losing a seat between them, sitting Brent South and Brent East MPs, Dawn Butler and Sarah Teather, will be facing off against each other. And already it seems each's workers in Parliament are editing Wikipedia to put misleading statements about the other. (The Times Online: Pushing the boundaries and The Independent: Pandora - Westminster war over Wikipedia) For what it's worth the main articles are at Wikipedia: Dawn Butler and Wikipedia: Sarah Teather.

This is not the first time I've seen Liberal Democrats taking campaigning onto Wikipedia - during the Bromley & Chislehurst by-election the main article and many individual pages went through numerous reverts, particularly on the issue of the Liberal Democrat candidate not living in the constituency despite passing himself off as a local man. (Wikipedia: Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006) It doesn't surprise me that they still feel the need to peddle lies. Liberal Democrats wouldn't know honest clean campaigning if it bit them on the arse.

Another Lib Dem speaks out

Over on the newsgroup uk.politics.electoral, former Liberal Democrat councillor Matthew Huntbach (incidentally a lecturer here at Queen Mary, University of London), has spoken out about some of his parties' tactics in the recent by-election:

In other words, the Conservative Party in Bromley chose someone THEY wanted, who had a local connection as the GLA member for the Bromley and Bexley, and who was not some empty-headed celebrity dumped on them by party HQ who could be assumed to act as a Cameron yes-man. Good for them, I'm glad their man won. He deserved it, ours with his nasty negative campaign did not.

Do more Liberal Demcorats wish to speak out against the way their party fights by-elections? Will they stand up and push for decency in what is currently the real nasty party?

And the results are in...

Independents Trish Law and Dai Davies have won the two by-elections in Blaenau Gwent. Once again Not So Very New Labour has been given the two fingers in a very Old Labour seat. Could we be seeing the beginning of an Independent Fianna Fáil style effect?

(In the Republic of Ireland, Neil Blaney and other members of his family have almost consistently held onto a Dáil seat in County Donegal ever since Blaney was expelled from Fianna Fáil following his acquittal in the Arms Crisis in 1971. They, along with several successful local councillors, have used the label "Independent Fianna Fáil". Of course family members succeeding one another is far more commonplace across all Ireland than in the UK.)

Meanwhile in Bromley & Chislehurst the Lib Dems' campaign did better than anyone expected - nastiness and all. Just look at Ben Abbotts' opening remarks in the speech.

Bob Neil's comments bear much consideration:

The most vicious, unpleasant, underhanded exampled of cynical personal abuse that I have encountered in thirty years in politics.
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If you sometimes wonder why it is that people in this country are sometimes turned off by politics, get a mirror and look at yourselves.

Labour have done badly, but many readers of my blog can take heart. Eleven years ago the Conservatives dropped from second to fifth in a by-election.

Do the Lib Dems believe in grammar schools?

The Liberal Democrats are in a policy muddle. They had pledged that they would oppose government proposals to impose the abolition of grammar schools in Northern Ireland by voting against the Education Order in the House of Lords. Now they have changed their minds. Their apparent reasoning is that the passing of the order might spur the province's politicians into ending Groundhog Day and actually get devolution up and running in time to repeal the order. And pigs might fly.

Eric Forth famously believed in grammar schools - I wonder if the Lib Dems in Bromley & Chislehurst are campaigning against them there?

One thought strikes me - are the Lib Dems mad enough to try a risk strategy? The Liberal Democrat chief Northern Ireland spokesperson is none other than the backing of death, Lembit Öpik himself. This wouldn't be the Lib Dems wising up to his ability to curse every cause he backs? Or is that hope too far?

By-elections - the political blood sport

It's not been a good week in cyberspace for Ben Abbotts, Beckenham councillor and Liberal Democrat candidate in the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election. Guidoe Fawkes looks at Lib Dem Bromley Ben's Shady Secret noting that on the Lib Dem campaign website there is "no mention anywhere that he is a spin merchant".

Even by the low standards of spin-merchants his employers LLM are considered to be among the sleaziest, infamous for being founded by New Labour insiders who offered (and were caught offering) the prospect of access (for cash) to government ministers. To this day they are known to be the grubbier members of a pretty grubby profession. No wonder he describes himself merely as "a campaigner".
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UPDATE : He apparently describes himself as a "political consultant". No Ben, you are a grubby lobbyist for one of the sleaziest firms in a sleazy business with clients that are unpopular with voters. That is why you hide the truth on your website.

Meanwhile Iain Dale has two posts about hypocrisy in Bromley. The first, More Hypocrisy from LibDems in Bromley looks at the way the Lib Dems are attacking Bob Neill as if elected he would have multiple jobs, yet many Lib Dem MPs and Assembly Members are in a similar situation. (And if Abbotts were elected he would have three jobs, even if he doesn't want to admit to one of them.) Then in Even More LibDem Hypocrisy in Bromley looks at the way they're attacking Bob Neil for not living in Bromley and Chislehurst. Ben Abbotts lives in Beckenham. (And Bob Neil has said that if elected he will move to Bromley and Chislehurst. Ben Abbotts has made no such pledge.)

Truly by-elections are the political blood sport.