Caroline Righton and Tories in dirty campaign tricks - shame

As a former campaign organiser for the Liberal Democrats in London I worked with some amazing Councillors who really worked hard trying to do their bit to improve their wards, Stephen Gilbert was one of those who I only got to work with for a short while, but he has turned into one of my best friends within the party.

The one thing that always struck me with Steve was his love for his Cornwall, and when the opportunity came to stand to e the next MP for St. Austell & Newquay he jumped for it and I am so pleased that he is the Liberal Democrats candidate and another of my best friends is the constituency organiser down there - a winning team!

Obviously Steve is rattling the Conservatives down there to the extent that they are running a dirty tricks campaign which is utterly disgraceful.

Caroline Righton (the Conservative candidate) has misrepresented Steve, either deliberately or by mistake in an email she has apparently sent to local residents and also appears to have told a story which not only isn't true, but can very simply be checked! Perhaps she should have done that before sending her email out?

Last Wednesday, both Steve and the Conservative candidate had been invited to two different events - one a question time sort of radio debate, to be broadcast live on Radio Devon, the other a last-minute invite to a meeting about the regeneration of St.Columb, a key town in the constituency of St. Austell & Newquay.

Steve had been down to ask a question to the panel at the radio debate but took the view that the local regeneration issue was more important thn the radio interview - so withdrew from that to go to the St.Columb meeting. The Conservative candidate took the opposite view, and therefore sent her apologies to the local regeneration forum.

Now, sat up here in my flat in Edinburgh it is not for me to decide for one of our top candidates what he should or shouldn't do, but if Steve was one of my candidates, I wold be telling him he did the right thing.

Like lots of candidates across the UK, Steve uses Facebook and Twitter to keep constituents, friends and supporters updated on what he's doing as well as his website.

After that night's meeting he Twittered: "was at meeting about regeneration of major town (declined by Tory PPC; Tory PPC at a publicity stunt (declined by me)"

Bizarrely I actually remember the tweet, as I was on my way home and catching up on Twitter via my Blackberry on UberTwitter.

So, imagine my surprise to find that the Conservative candidate, Caroline Righton then shared this on her email but alleging that Steve had actually sent this out with this next piece added in "D***h**d!!!"

She then goes onto say "I was sent the comment below by a constituent who is privy to my opposition's Twitter emissions, which I am not. Apparently his asterisk'd comment is highly abusive."

Now, the above comment does also add another dimension, because on inspection of Caroline's Twitter account shows that she does in fact follow Steve Gilbert so would have been aware of his tweet - they aren't called emissions! Or, she doesn't actually use her account properly in which case Twitter should suspend it.

However, Caroline's last tweet was from the day after the Radio Debate, so I checked Steve's Twitter account also, to be fair and balanced and to confirm my memory and here is the entry "was at meeting about regeneration of major town (declined by Tory PPC); Tory PPC at a publicity stunt (declined by me)....10:15 PM Oct 21st from web"

As you can see, no mention of D***H**d - it is things like this that ruin politics and I hope Caroline Righton will now formally apologise to Steve and email those same people she did last week to say sorry - if I was Steve I would look to take further action because the Conservatives should not allow candidates like this to represent them or is it that the Conservatives haven't actually changed?

This kind of behaviour should not be tolerated by the people of St. Austell & Newquay nor the Conservative Party and I hope they will show the Conservatives candidate that she is in fact not Right-on at all and this action will not be tolerated. If this was in a job, she would actually be fired, let us see if David Cameron acts on this underhanded campaign tactic?

You can read this story as written by another friend, Councillor Matt Davies.