Tag Archives: Brecon

If you think the Lib Dem leaflet campaign in B&R wasn’t toxic, consider this

Jane Dodds: The backcloth behind her says “Demand better” – and that’s exactly what her new constituents want.

It seems some social media users don’t believe This Writer’s claim that the so-called DemDeluge that flooded Brecon and Radnorshire letterboxes with unwanted Liberal Democrat leaflets was harmful to that party’s reputation.

Okay – don’t just take my word for it, because there’s plenty of evidence elsewhere. For example, consider the following collection of comments from the Facebook page of local newspaper the Brecon and Radnor Express:

“Hurray! No more Lib Dem leaflets to put in the recycling bin, this election has caused me a great deal of stress and extra work recycling all of those pesky Lib Dem leaflets.”

“No more paper to … bin from Dodds woman who we[‘ll] never see again.”

“Thank God for that!!!”

“I need an extra blue bin this week.”

“I’ll have to start buying toilet paper again.”

“There will be one in the morning!”

“The amout of money they have wasted on these leaflets must have cost a a fortune, and it’s shameful. I send all mine back with no stamp.”

In response to another article:

“She’s probably spent more time and money on her leaflets and posters than she will [on] her constituency.”

“Please no more leaflets” begged one commenter.

“Don’t worry, if you live in Brecon and Radnor its the last you’ll hear of her!!!!!!” was the response.

Then: “If only you were joking. No-one heard of her before this by-election and we won’t until she wants re-elected.”

Another irate voter made an important point, aimed at the new MP, Jane Dodds: “You only won because Chris Davies represented the Conservatives. If anyone else was put there and I mean anyone you would have lost by a couple of thousand votes. You are a remain party when Wales voted leave. You don’t represent the Welsh voice at all.”

Responding to another article, one person wrote: “If the conservatives had put forward a different candidate this result would not have happened! Jane Dodds has bombarded the poor people in Brecon and Radnorshire for weeks and I feel is boarding on harassment! She does not speak for the majority of us!”

And after yet another article, a commenter stated of Ms Dodds: “She is a ghastly woman! This is bad news for Brecon and Radnorshire!”

Another added: “Ghastly, arrogant & patronizing.”

And another concluded: “After all the doorstep bulls**t and bothering you now have to deliver. We’ll see.”

Perhaps Lib Dem campaigners are protesting just a little too much for their MP’s popularity.

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Brecon and Radnorshire: Where did all the voters go?

A voter’s plea: But have we really seen the end of the flood of leaflets that Jane Dodds and the Liberal Democrats used to bludgeon the electorate of Brecon and Radnorshire?

So you think last night’s Brecon and Radnorshire by-election result was a disaster for Labour? Well, you’re right – but probably not in the way you think.

Looking at the figures, we can see that although the Liberal Democrats enjoyed a slight boost, of around 1,700 votes, that’s nowhere near the numbers they were getting when Roger Williams was the candidate back in 2005 and 2010.

When he lost in 2015, Mr Williams’s vote fell by 37 per cent. Yesterday’s result clawed back only 13.8 per cent of that loss.

It seems the Liberal Democrats managed to retain their core vote – possibly due to the almost fascistic fearmongering of the campaign (“Only the Liberal Democrats can beat the Tories here!” – and the like); some of their supporters who went to Chris Davies in 2015 may have come back home; and – yes – some Labour supporters may have lent Jane Dodds their vote to get her past the line, in the belief that a bad MP is better than a diabolical one. We shall see.

But the Liberal Democrats are still damaged. Even allowing for the fact that the by-election attracted 17 per cent fewer voters (nearly 10,000 people) it is clear that they have not regained the popularity that consistently won Mr Williams more than 17,000 votes before their calamitous coalition with the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2015. And the toxicity of Ms Dodds’ campaign won’t improve their reputation.

And remember: Plaid Cymru and the Green Party chose not to field candidates in this election. Last time they both stood candidates for election, they netted 3,028 votes between them. It seems, even with such a huge campaign, Ms Dodds could not have beaten a criminal without their help.

The Conservative vote, on the other hand, collapsed. It is true that some of the pro-Brexit vote went to the Brexit Party and if that organisation had not stood a candidate for election, Chris Davies may have been returned to Parliament – but his criminal conviction for dishonesty seems to have stuck in voters’ collective craw and they couldn’t find it in themselves to hold their noses and vote for him; they would have choked on it.

So, while turnout was down by 17 per cent, Mr Davies lost more than double that proportion of his voters – 38 per cent. Some undoubtedly went to the Liberal Democrats (or back to them; ideologically, the two parties are very close), and I think some just stayed away.

But if the Tory vote collapsed, Labour’s evaporated. The party attracted less than a quarter of the electors who supported it in 2017. Where did they all go?

Well, some certainly went to Jane Dodds, along with disaffected Conservatives. And obviously Labour will know that it cannot count on the support of people who say they are Labour but consistently “lend” their votes to the Liberal Democrats – they are themselves Liberal Democrats and should not be treated otherwise. Some will have gone to the Brexit Party, heaven help them.

And the rest? I think they stayed at home. Having seen the huge weight of resources that the Liberal Democrats were pouring into the constituency, and noted the “Project Fear” tone of the campaign, they decided to keep their powder dry and wait for a better chance to get their candidate in.

I can’t say I blame them.

Now the focus will shift to Jane Dodds. Having made any number of castle-in-the-air promises, she has to keep them. Waiting for Ofcom to make good on its demand for better broadband in Brecon and Radnorshire by next March and then claiming it as a success won’t work, because we all know about that particular cheat now. She has to do some real work.

That doesn’t mean marching up to Boris Johnson, wherever he is, and saying “stop playing with the future of our community and rule out a no-deal Brexit”, as she claimed yesterday. He would simply brush her off and carry on doing whatever he damn well pleases because he’s the prime minister and she’s a nobody.

No – Ms Dodds will need to show she can be a good constituency MP before she can presume to have any effect on the wider issues.

I think she’ll mess it up because she simply doesn’t have the chops for it – and her party’s policies won’t do anything for the people of Brecon and Radnorshire.

If you don’t believe me, watch this:

From the tone of her campaign, we can see that Ms Dodds is a typical Liberal Democrat – an unprincipled political opportunist who’ll jump on any vote-grabbing bandwagon but won’t follow through with genuinely progressive work.

She’s going to fall flat on her face, isn’t she?

And we’ll all be watching when she does.

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‘Project Fear’ wins as Jane Dodds unseats Chris Davies in Brecon and Radnorshire

Jane Dodds: She has won the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election by instilling fear in voters that if they didn’t support her, convicted criminal Chris Davies would get back in.,

Congratulations are due to Jane Dodds, the new Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, who has won by convincing people that she was the best chance they had to unseat unpopular former Conservative MP Chris Davies.

But it was a narrow thing – she took 13,826 votes while Mr Davies accrued 12,401.

“People have chosen to believe in my positive Liberal vision for something better,” said Ms Dodds, in complete denial of the fact that her entire campaign was based on fear that Mr Davies would win if people didn’t vote for her.

She has no policies that are workable, although she is sure to claim credit for Ofcom’s order for better broadband in rural areas, for economic improvements ordered by Labour’s Welsh Assembly Government, and for the £1.4 million boost to healthcare courtesy of the same Labour-run Welsh Assembly.

Oh yes – she also supports remaining in the European Union, along with the other 12 Liberal Democrat MPs who have absolutely no influence in Parliament whatsoever.

Labour, whose Welsh Assembly Government will provide many of the boosts to Brecon and Radnorshire that Ms Dodds is sure to claim as her own, garnered just 1,680 votes – a huge drop in support, due entirely – it is believed – to a wish to drive Mr Davies out by any means necessary; Labour voters lent their support to Ms Dodds.

But she is unlikely to get such support again. The Liberal Democrat campaign was despicable.

Whether it was bombarding the electorate with lying leaflets, harassing them with telecanvassing calls or hanging on voters’ doorbells, Lib Dem campaigners disgraced themselves across Brecon and Radnorshire.

Some canvassers allegedly made false claims that Labour was not putting up a candidate in the by-election, and others apparently confronted Labour rivals, asking when they were going to “punch a Jew”.

All these matters are likely to be reported to the relevant authorities.

Still, congratulations are due to Ms Dodds. She has removed a Conservative from Parliament.

But people in Brecon and Radnorshire will be watching her performance very closely.

On the basis of her campaign, I’d be surprised if she gets a single vote from someone who isn’t a member of her party next time.

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This image may herald the end of Chris Davies’s political career #BreconandRadnorshire #byelection

This was spotted somewhere in Brecon and Radnorshire. Need I write more?

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This is disgusting. If you ever need a reason NOT to vote Lib Dem, here it is.

This bird is dead: The Liberal Democrats’ behaviour in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election has fallen well below the standard expected of political representatives.

I’ve just read the, from a Labour canvasser who was out in Brecon today (August 1) for the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, and met a group of Liberal Democrats working the same streets:

“They accused us of letting the Tories in. I asked them about the 25 leaflets being delivered to every home and they pretended they had no idea about that.

“One of our team reported that one [of] them asked her when she was going to punch Jews.”

Let’s have that again, shall we?

“One of our team reported that one [of] them asked her when she was going to punch Jews.”

How much lower can the Liberal Democrats go?

I certainly hope this will be reported to the relevant authorities as it is shocking.

And if you were thinking of voting for the people who think this kind of behaviour is acceptable? Please think again – and vote Labour while there’s still time.

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Tory/Lib Dem protest voters: Think again – Brecon and Radnorshire is NOT a ‘Brexit by-election’

Tom Davies in Brecon: He lives in the constituency, unlike Lib Dem interloper Jane Dodds.

Labour’s candidate in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election has appealed for voters to remember that there is much more to the August 1 by-election than Brexit.

“There are far greater issues than just Brexit,” said Tom Davies, whose campaign has been said to be lagging behind those of vapid Liberal Democrat leaflet-spammer Jane Dodds (Remain) and convicted criminal Chris Davies (Leave) – both of whom have little to recommend them other than the chance to record a pointless protest vote about the decision to leave the European Union. “We’re looking at the national effects of austerity, which are really taking hold in this constituency.

“What we’re hearing on the doorstep is more about people struggling to make ends meet and money not going into services than about Brexit.”

People in the constituency have been raising Brexit on the doorstep, he conceded, but “it’s not the only issue.”

He said: “We’re giving the option that if the public still want to leave the EU, then those people can vote for a deal. Parliament is deadlocked. The Tories rejected our deal, which I’d say was closest to what was promised during the referendum. Because the Tories have rejected that, it’s only right for that to be put back to the people.

“We as a party, and I certainly, will not accept any deal that will make us worse off than being in the EU. Any deal that has been put forward at the moment, save perhaps our own, is exactly that. In our stance – confirmatory vote and remain – I think we’ve got the sensible solution.”

And he pointed out that it would be a betrayal to stand aside for another party as part of a so-called “Remain alliance”: “We have a number of other factors at play, not just Brexit. I won’t forgive Lib Dems for their part in austerity. I won’t forgive them for their voting record during the coalition government. The last Lib Dem MP for this constituency lost his seat. He voted for welfare cuts, and I won’t be seen to be accepting that.

“Adam Price, the leader of Plaid Cymru, has been public in saying he’s thrown his support behind the Lib Dems. That’s him playing politics. He is well aware that Plaid Cymru hasn’t had a good showing in this constituency recently, and I don’t think he wants to lose their deposit.”

He admitted: “You can introduce yourself and people will say ‘no, thank you’ because of your stance on Brexit or ‘yes, I’ll talk to you because you’re for a confirmatory vote’. [Tom is a Remainer, and would campaign for that as an MP if Labour has its way and voters go back to the polls to confirm the way forward on the vexed Brexit issue.]

“What we’re focusing on is austerity, but also losing between £850m and £1bn… In Brecon and Radnorshire, as part of Powys, we’re seeing a 9.5% council tax increase to pay for Tory cuts. [Powys County Council is Tory-Independent run.]

“The reason we’re not getting the funding from the Welsh government is because their budget has been cut from Westminster.”

“In spite of the Tory and Lib Dem coalition austerity measures, the Welsh government is still pumping record amounts of money into the NHS.”

“We’re still pumping £1.4bn over the last five years into the new schools programme, and the Welsh government has built 41 new schools across Wales. We’re also putting an extra £100m into education, and we’re offering families some of the best childcare offers across the UK.

“The message is that despite the Tories in Westminster, it’s the Welsh Labour government that is delivering for the people of Brecon and Radnorshire.”

“People are very interested in John McDonnell’s plans for a Post Bank. I certainly think it’s well worth exploring and developing. We’ve lost a lot of high street banks in this area and people need somewhere to be able to do their banking.

“We’re obviously looking at more funding for the devolved nations of the UK as a national party, and that is absolutely welcome. Also going down well are the pledges for a £10-per-hour real living wage, lifting the public sector pay cap and the green industrial revolution, which was a big hit in the hustings.”

He doesn’t agree with the false Liberal Democrat demand for Labour supporters to vote tactically for the other party, to keep the Tories out – for a very good reason: “That hasn’t worked over the last few elections. It certainly didn’t work in 2015 and 2017. It didn’t work in 2010 either because, even though the Lib Dems were elected, they turned around and went into coalition with the Conservatives. That is not what Labour voters would have voted Lib Dem for.”

And of course there’s the fact that Liberal Democrat canvassers have been lying directly to voters: “We’ve heard rumours of one activist saying to voters in one area that Labour aren’t standing in this election so the voters who are naturally Labour should be voting Lib Dem. Well, here I am. I’m standing. It’s really misleading tactics from the Lib Dems.”

So there it is.

This election is about more than just Brexit – and voters simply cannot trust the Liberal Democrats and the Tory convict. Labour has the local policies that people want… It would be irrational to support anybody else.

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By-election candidate supports tax avoidance for the rich – but hammered the vulnerable with the bedroom tax

Chris Davies: He supports tax avoidance and evasion, according to his voting record.

If you were reading This Site yesterday (July 30), you’ll be aware that a friend on Facebook has been looking at the Parliamentary voting record of Chris Davies, the former MP and current Conservative candidate in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election – and it makes grim reading.

The same friend has now finished researching Mr Davies’s record on taxation and the results speak for themselves. Amongst other decisions…

• Davies voted against a series of proposals intended to reduce tax avoidance and evasion.
• Davies voted against an investigation into the banking industry’s failure to prevent tax evasion.
• Davies voted against requiring multinational enterprises to publish a country by country tax strategy including information on their attitude to tax planning (this could have established evidence to show how companies avoid paying tax).
• Davies voted against giving the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority duties to combat abusive tax avoidance arrangements.
• Davies voted not to support the publishing full details of the Government’s tax settlement with Google and for an international agreement to implement country-by-country reporting of company accounts.

So you can see that Mr Davies is a big fan of tax avoidance and evasion by corporations and the very rich. Conversely:

• Davies voted to ensure that victims of domestic abuse would have to pay extra charges – the bedroom tax – if they were provided with a secure tenancy that incorporates a spare room.

So he’s against tax fairness; he would let corporations and the rich get away without paying a huge amount of tax that would hugely contribute to public services, but he’s happy to hammer the vulnerable with an unfair and random tax that affects people according to the accommodation that is allocated to them (which in turn is based on what is available).

I hope the people of Brecon and Radnorshire pay attention to this abysmal record – while also remembering that Mr Davies is himself a convict, having been found guilty of faking expenses claims earlier this year.

Mr Davies should never have been voted into Westminster. It is time to kick him back into the political wilderness.

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Fake-personalised ‘letter’ is Jane Dodds latest electioneering trick

Mrs Mike would like to put Jane Dodds on notice that if another piece of electioneering drivel comes through our letterbox, she’ll happily shove it as far down the Liberal Democrat’s throat as she can reach.

“I’m just sick and tired of it,” she’s telling me right now. “It’s constant. Why waste so much money on this when it doesn’t say anything [I’m paraphrasing here; the actual language was much less diplomatic] about helping people who need it – the sick, the disabled, people who’ve had everything taken from them by the dratted [more paraphrasing] Tories.”

The correspondence that caused so much ire was another leaflet – this time disguised as a personal and handwritten letter, delivered direct to the recipient. In fact it is another Fib Dem leaflet, printed by a company in Bristol (another snub against this constituency, which has perfectly decent printers of its own).

“Dear Neighbour,” the leaflet says – another giveaway that it isn’t personal at all, and another lie; Ms Dodds lives in Welshpool, which isn’t even in the constituency.

There’s a bit of flannel about the “wonderfully warm reception” she’s had across “our” community. “Our” community? You have to live in it first!

Then she tells us “Westminster politics has failed people across Powys” – showing she doesn’t recognise the difference between Brecon and Radnorshire constituency and the county that contains it. And if Westminster politics has failed us, aren’t the Liberal Democrats partly to blame – they let the Tories into power and propped them up for five years, enthusiastically supporting every bit of legislation that stole from ordinary people and gave to the super-rich.

The Liberal Democrats’ supreme achievement during those five years, it seems, was to apply a 5p tax to plastic bags – bought at the cost of inflicting deep cuts in benefits for the sick and disabled. You see, Mrs Mike was right to be angry.

“We shouldn’t suffer in silence while essential local services like buses, shops and cashpoints disappear from our communities,” she writes, even though – if she becomes MP – she won’t be suffering at all; she’ll have £70,000 a year of our money to cushion the impact.

“We shouldn’t settle for patients having to endure long waiting times and journeys to get essential health treatment.” As I grow tired of continually pointing out, health is a devolved matter – on which I am told the incumbent Liberal Democrat AM has not fared well (see today’s article about Chris Davies). In any case, the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government is already pouring nearly £2 million extra cash into Powys teaching Health Board, so there will be little for an elected Jane Dodds to do about it but sit back and count the zeroes on the paycheque that she hasn’t earned.

“We shouldn’t stay quiet while our farming industry is under threat or when working parents have to rely on foodbanks to feed their children. The hypocrisy here really is unbearable. The only reason anybody here has to rely on foodbanks is that the Liberal Democrats joined forces with the Tories to force them.

That’s the point you need to remember. Never mind the rest – it’s a waste of time reading it.

Mrs Mike is still talking: “These Lib Dems were in coalition with the Conservatives – that’s when they caused all the problems.

“They screwed everybody over.

“People are starving, losing their homes because they can’t pay their rent.

“School kids are going hungry – and that’s not on. All down to what the Liberal Democats did with the Conservatives.”

And she said: “They’re on our doorsteps now but they never come round after they’ve been elected. They don’t want to know you then.

“If Jane bloody Dodds gets elected we won’t hear from her again until the next election. That’s not representation.”

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If you need reasons NOT to vote Conservative, look at convict Chris Davies’s voting record

Chris Davies: Some of us think he should be behind prison bars rather than campaigning to win back his comfortable Parliamentary seat.

A fellow Brecon and Radnorshire constituent contacted me on Twitter to say that he would be voting for Chris Davies in the by-election on Thursday.

Mr Davies is the Conservative candidate who was recently convicted of faking expenses claims. There was a petition of recall which was signed by twice the number of people needed, and a by-election was called. Mr Davies caused this election by his own criminality.

But my correspondent said he will vote for the criminal anyway, because Mr Davies persuaded Powys Health Board to carry out a life-saving operation on his son, when the Liberal Democrat AM – Kirsty Williams, whose responsibility this should have been (healthcare being a responsibility devolved to the Welsh Assembly), did nothing.

It’s a fair reason. And I note that the health board did act on the demands of a Westminster MP in this extreme case – but that does not mean that Jane Dodds would have any influence on wider issues if she were elected, as she insists on claiming.

But before we all decide that Tories aren’t so bad after all, let’s have a look at Mr Davies’s voting record, shall we?

A friend on Facebook has been looking into this and has managed to produce this information about his votes on military action, defence, policing, legal matters, fire and rescue

• Davies voted to cut the police budget by 1.7 per cent for 2018-19 (from the previous year) – he has cut the effectiveness of the police.
• Davies voted against a motion to accurately record assaults on police officers and to ensure police officer numbers and funding are not further reduced. He’d previously also voted against supporting real-terms protection for the police budget and against a funding settlement for the police that would maintain frontline services and not compromise public safety.
• Davies voted against making the possession of Corrosive Substance or Dangerous Knifes while on Mopeds or Motorbikes an aggravated offence (aggravated offences attract harsher sentences) – he does not consider acid attacks to be a serious offence.
• Davies didn’t bother to vote on a bill that would ratify a European convention aimed at preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence – he supports violence against women.
• Davies voted to reduce regulations surrounding the possession, making or trading of certain types of high velocity rifles.
• Davies voted to support military action, specifically airstrikes, in Syria – he is a warmonger.
• Davies voted against a motion proposing a full independent UN-led investigation into alleged violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict in Yemen; and against calling on the Government to suspend its support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces in Yemen until it has been determined whether they have been responsible for any such violations – he supports profiteering at the cost of human lives.
• Davies voted against requiring the Government to adopt the continued participation of the UK in the European Arrest Warrant in relation to people suspected of terrorist offences as a negotiating objective in the withdrawal negotiations with the EU – so terrorists are welcome in the UK, as far as he’s concerned.
• Davies voted against requiring the Secretary of State to establish an inquiry into allegations of data protection breaches committed by or on behalf of national news publishers and other media organisations, as recommended by Lord Justice Leveson for Part two of his Inquiry – your information isn’t safe, thanks to Mr Davies.
• Davies voted against requiring Companies House and Other bodies to Identify Beneficial Owners of Companies on Formation (Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill)
• Davies voted against creating a public register of beneficial ownership information for companies and other legal entities outside of the UK that own or buy UK property, or bid for UK government contracts (Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill)
• Davies voted to require that the strike ballot threshold for key Fire & Rescue Service Workers be raised to 40% for strike action to be legal.
• Davies voted to require that the strike ballot threshold for Border Security Workers be raised to 40% for strike action to be legal.
• Davies voted against calling on the Government to reduce overcrowding and improve safety in Prisons – our prisons are powderkegs because of him.

The support for crime and opposition to the police speaks for itself. Put it together with the warmongering and profiteering from the harm caused by war and we see a very nasty character indeed.

While the help he provided to one constituent is worthy of acknowledgement, it does not wipe out the huge harm to many others that he has supported.

Would you vote for the man who has done these awful things?

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Latest leaflets show LABOUR as the best choice in B&R by-election

What a pleasure to have something good to say about one of the by-election leaflets pouring through my letterbox!

It comes from Labour candidate Tom Davies; it’s down-to-Earth, makes no promises it can’t keep, and it addresses issues that are affecting us all – now.

He rejects ‘no deal’ Brexit and backs a final say referendum, in which he will be campaigning in support of remaining in the EU.

He supports Welsh Labour’s commitment to achieve a carbon-neutral public sector by 2030, and a shift away from fossil fuels across Wales – to combat the climate crisis.

He supports the Labour Assembly Government’s policies to provide 100,000 all-age apprenticeships, 20,000 more affordable homes and the best childcare for working parents in the whole of the UK.

And he says a Labour government in Westminster would end austerity, invest in public services, introduce a Real Living Wage (in other words it would be enough to ensure no working person would have to claim benefits), and a cap on energy prices. He doesn’t say he would bring this in immediately, because we don’t have a Labour government now – but adding him to Labour’s ranks would make it more likely in the future.

Compare this with the leaflet from UKIP’s Liz Phillips. If elected, she would be that party’s sole MP in Westminster, yet she claims she would:

End the TV licence
Control immigration
Make Brexit happen
Save the countryside and
Scrap the Welsh Assembly

That’s quite a tall order for 1/650th of the MPs in Parliament. How’s she going to get everyone else to go along with that wish-list?

Oh, and she’d oppose windfarms, too. Apparently she doesn’t feel quite as sure she’ll get support on that one.

Most risible of all is the letter from Nigel Farage of the Brexit Party.

If his candidate – Des Parkinson – is elected, he would be the Brexit Party’s sole MP in Westminster – so he’s in the same position as Ms Phillips.

The letter states that if elected, this solitary MP would “refuse to pay the £39 billion ransom” – Mr Farage’s word. My understanding is that this is money the UK committed to pay into the EU before the 2016 referendum – “… scrap the multi-billion pound HS2 vanity project. And… cut the bloated, wasteful Foreign Aid budget”. How, exactly, does he intend to get at least 326 other MPs on board for that? This letter doesn’t say.

“Then we’ll take £200 billion and invest it in transport and digital infrastructure projects around Britain… That’s more than twice as much as they spent rebuilding post-war Europe.” And once inflation is taken into account, how much is it then? And there’s still no information on how Mr Parkinson intends to sway all of Parliament to his massive Brexiteering will.

“It will be areas such as Wales that will reap the benefits.” This is the bribe. Mr Farage wants you to think his party would get money spent here – and directly after the election on Thursday. Impossible.

The rest of the letter is an attack – not on the so-called “bookies’ favourite”, Jane Dodds of the Liberal Democrats, or even on former incumbent Chris Davies of the Conservatives – but on the Labour Party which is currently considered to be behind in public opinion (despite the clear worthiness of Tom Davies’ position and policies).

How bizarre. Does Mr Farage think stealing Labour’s votes will leap-frog his candidate beyond Mr Davies or Ms Dodds?

Well… it’s possible, I suppose.

Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds has built her campaign on stealing votes from other parties. Her local policy platform is non-existent – she might as well have come out and said, “I won’t do a single damned thing for the people of Brecon and Radnorshire.” But she thinks she can win tactical votes from Labour supporters by claiming to be the only candidate who can beat Chris Davies, and from Remain supporters by claiming to represent the only party that supports staying in the European Union.

Mr Davies has been relatively quiet – unless his leafletters have simply been avoiding Vox Political Towers. His attitude is that he belongs to the party that is currently in government, so if you want Brexit, you should vote for him, despite the fact that he has been convicted of falsifying his Parliamentary expenses. He seems to be relying on the rump of 7,000+ voters who’ll put their tick in the Tory box, no matter what.

Mr Parkinson may take some of the right-wing vote from Mr Davies, and is certainly likely to take pro-Brexit voters away from the Tory. He may also take pro-Brexit voters away from Ms Dodds. But Ms Phillips is likely to do the same – and who knows what harm UKIP and the Brexit Party will do each other?

And then there’s Tom Davies. He has made it clear that he supports remaining in the EU, and is in a party that has far more chance of ensuring that happens – if another vote takes place – than the Liberal Democrats will ever have. A remain-supporting vote for Jane Dodds is a useless protest, nothing more. But will his offer lure Remain supporters away from her? Or has she fooled too many Labour supporters into wasting their vote on her? Remember: her canvassers have been telling voters that Labour doesn’t even have a candidate in this by-election – a flat-out lie.

So these are the choices for voters in Brecon and Radnorshire on Thursday (August 1):

Two candidates who’ll be able to do nothing if elected; a convict; a liar; and Labour.

I’ll be voting Labour – because democracy is about choosing the right representative, not about trying to work out who’s most likely to beat whoever you think is the bad guy.

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Tag Archives: Brecon

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