Caroline Righton - the silence is broken

Finally, Steve Gilbert and the Cornwall Liberal Democrats hear from Caroline Righton, after she finally breaks her silence, the Conservative candidate caught up in the middle of a Twitter/email smear campaign against Steve Gilbert.

Well, not entirely. As reported over on Matt Davies blog (do you know how much it hurts to link to a Spurs fan?) Caroline Righton has finally broken her silence, now the local Lib Dems have written to David Cameron, but only to a journalist over at This is Cornwall.

Steve Gilbert's response to the journalist was; Mr Gilbert said: "I would like to think this was a careless mistake rather than a deliberate smear, but it's sad that the Conservatives don't have the courtesy to set the record straight with local residents, or the manners to apologise."

However, Steve being a mild mannered and polite politician I think is being way too soft.

Caroline Righton not only has failed to apologise, to Steve Gilbert but also the people of St Austell & Newquay, she has also showed a real lack of judgement on this.

It means Caroline Righton does not understand Twitter nor the concept of running a positive and honest campaign as she had pledged to do.

The minor point is that Caroline Righton was in fact not in a meeting with the Crown Prosecutor etc, Caroline was in fact in the audience of the event to be fair, as I said, minor but if Caroline is wanting to run a positive and honest campaign then she needs to be honest!

I do feel Caroline Righton has to;

1. Apologise to Steve Gilbert for this personal smear on his good name
2. Apologise to the people of St. Austell & Newquay
3. Learn how to use Twitter properly
4. Learn to check emails and facts
5. Say the word sorry

If you are new to this story, check this Caroline Righton reader out at Lib Dem Voice to catch up on what different bloggers have been saying about this story from the very beginning.