Apr 21, 2010

Dorries dittoheads on the doorstep

The following is an account of a doorstep visit enjoyed by Sandra Robinson, a voter in Mid Bedfordshire. Below her account are scans of the front and back of the leaflet she mentions.

Aside from pointing out that it appears that Nadine Dorries has been lying to her own campaign workers (and that they appear to be the type that will believe anything a fellow Tory tells them), I'll let it speak for itself:

Had a leaflet (attached) through the door for Nadine Dorries so I went outside to speak to the gentleman. I said that I was a "floating voter" but that no matter what the conservatives pledged I could not vote for Nadine Dorries. He seemed surprised and said that all he knew was that she was a "lovely woman"

He then went on the offensive to say that the "Lib Dem woman" (Linda Jacks) had made up stuff about Nadine. (The local paper Beds on Sunday goes into more detail on this.)

I said that I saw the "Tower Block of Commons" [1, 2, 3]and that Linda Jack was correct, The man refused to believe me, he said she was a kind woman who wanted to give the money to the children and how did I know that she didn't want to do that? I asked him what good appearing on the programme did for her constituents? He said " Every party was on the programme"

I mentioned her houses and the fact that she employs her daughters; "they all do that" was his answer. Convincing stuff so far. He then went on to say that Tories would cut waste in public services; and stop golden pensions BINGO!!!

Our local council, Central Beds is 95% Tory. They PROMISED to cut council tax when the proposal for a unitary authority was being debated (There were 3 councils in Bedfordshire, excluding Luton which makes 4) Bedford County Council lost the bid and Central Beds and Bedford Borough won, each of whom promised savings that would amount to a cut of 30% in council tax.

I challenged the canvasser on why a council that was almost entirely Conservative kept continuously increasing council tax when they said they would cut it. Why their chief exec is on £185k with a huge pension.

His answer, all councils put up council tax. I told him not in London nor in Essex; he claimed he didn't know about them. He said councils cut the grass and take our bins. I was getting very sarcastic at this stage, wow that's what they are supposed to do was my response.

He claimed that the council give pensioners free bus passes, he has one and he can afford to pay for the bus. I said free bus passes was a good thing, every council does it, that doesn't excuse high council tax. He then said he gets winter fuel allowance every year which he doesn't need, who brought that in? Labour. I asked him if the conservatives would scrap this? No.

Central Beds Council have recently been on BBC news boasting about how quickly they fill potholes. The truth is that on a stretch of road, if there are 20 potholes, they fill one up and go away. Our canvasser said that was bad workmen. I said that council staff were asked to monitor the work following complaints by residents, but none of them had done so.

He said that the Tories believe that businesses provide the money for the economy not politicians. I brought up the case of MR Simon Wolfson, head of Next who advises George Osbourne (canvasser had never heard of him) I said he opposed the NI increase because it hurt his pocket and that he had given himself a pay rise to over £1.2 million. Did he really think that Mr Wolfson was going to help public services by writing to the Daily Telegraph with his mates? I then mentioned Mr Ashcroft and asked him what has he done for this country. Lots apparently. I said he was a nondom tax dodger who was funding key marginal seats and that he contributed nothing to the country. Canvassers response was that Labour were jealous, and how much did the unions fund them? Not once did I mention voting Labour, I'm voting tactically to get rid of Dorries.

He asked me what I had ever done or achieved ; I said I work in the NHS to save lives, I have a lovely house that I've worked hard for and I've never been greedy unlike his friends in the banking industry. He then claimed that Brown should have controlled the banks. I said that in a global economy you cant act unilaterally, otherwise the bankers just move out; you have to act globally. He didn't like that

He went on to attack Gordon Brown for claiming an end to boom and bust which I couldn't argue with. He then said that Labour had gone to war more often than the conservatives because "Socialists want to take over the world; Pakistan, Ireland ....." At this point I laughed at him; Blair went to war alongside George Bush who was hardly a socialist. I cannot believe that he tried to quote Ireland in his argument, as it is fairly obvious from my accent that I'm from Northern Ireland. He then decided to move on to immigrants I said to him, don't try blaming them next and I shut the door in his face.

Hope this is interesting reading!!


Well, I think so. I love the idea that some guy has been motivated to support Dorries at a local level in order to stop a global conspiracy by socialist warmongers and assorted immigrants.

(Psst! When we do take over, I think we should go after this guy first, and make an example of him.)



1 comment:

Sim-O said...

not one straight answer from the canvasser - always a deflection.

He asked me what I had ever done or achieved

I'm absolutely flabbergasted at that!