Tag Archives: Jane Dodds

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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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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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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Jane Dodds: Another spamming leaflet – another pack of lies. Who’d vote Lib Dem now?

This bird is dead: The Liberal Democrats have shot down their own chances in Brecon and Radnorshire by annoying residents with false claims.

The latest stunt from attention-seeking Liberal Democrat spammer Jane Dodds is – surprise, surprise – yet another leaflet to clog up letterboxes in Brecon and Radnorshire, this time masquerading as a newspaper.

This is a common tactic by political parties in the run-up to an election; as long as they make it clear that it is an election communication on behalf of their organisation, it is permitted and perusal of the (very) small print on the front page does indicate this, if you get your magnifying glass out.

The propaganda starts at the very top of page one, with a claim that the Yellow Tories are “The winning team for Brecon and Radnorshire”. It’s a classic brainwashing/programming technique to make you think the LDs are going to win and encourage you to vote for what you’ve been told will be the winning side. Peer pressure – nothing more than that. But then the sub-headline says, “Your vote can make the difference this Thursday.” Why should it? This rag has already told us the LDs are “the winning team”. What a contradiction.

The headline itself, “Time for change,” is misleading. We’ve had either Liberal Democrats or Conservatives as MP here in Brecon and Radnorshire since 1979 and they have contributed nothing to improve lives here. Average wages are 25 per cent lower than nationally and the standard of living is similarly depressed. That is a failure by our representatives and the LDs must take their share of responsibility for that.

“Both opinion polls and bookmakers odds show a surge in support for hardworking candidate Jane Dodds as the best person to deliver the change Brecon and Radnorshire needs,” the text states. But it does not provide evidence to support these claims. And we already know Ms Dodds won’t be “hardworking” – her local policies depend on decisions made by other organisations like the Labour-run Welsh Assembly Government.

It goes on to say she has been “fighting for improvement in local healthcare” (nothing to do with her – it’s a devolved responsibility, handled by the Welsh Assembly Government) and “standing up for Welsh farmers” (the claim – elsewhere in the leaflet – that the Tories are planning to put a 40 per cent tariff on farming is not accurate, and of course with only two per cent of MPs in Parliament – or fewer – the LDs, with or without Ms Dodds, will have no effect at all on what happens).

A strapline running across the bottom of pages two and three states: “POLL LATEST: Labour are 150/1 outsiders – they can’t win on Thursday”. Again, the implication is that you should be voting for the candidate you have been told is most likely to win. This is completely at odds with democracy. The point of any election is for the electorate to vote for the candidate you think will do the best job.

Clearly, Ms Dodds won’t do the best job for Brecon and Radnorshire. This Writer doesn’t expect her to do any work at all.

On page four, we get rent-a-quotes from people we’re supposed to believe are members of the public who’ve been persuaded to vote Liberal Democrat. But at least one of them is known to This Writer as a card-carrying member of the Liberal Democrats. Are they all party members? The fact that just one of them belongs to that party shows that this is an attempt to hoodwink us.

Flip back to page two and there’s a quote from Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price AM, stating: “Putting party politics aside and delivering a pro-Remain MP for Brecon and Radnorshire is what is most important.” If you agree, vote for Labour’s Tom Davies. He supports another referendum, in which he will campaign for remaining in the EU. New Lib Dem leader Jo “let’s build a monument to Maggie” Swinson is on the record as saying that she would ignore democracy in order to push her own agenda.

No wonder a friend on Facebook said they had seen three new notices asking for no more “Jane Dodds spam”, while passing through Newbridge-on-Wye recently.

Ms Dodds is not telling you the truth, and neither is her party. She is spamming you with leaflet after leaflet in a bid to brainwash voters into supporting her in spite of the facts.

If This Writer had any influence, I would be saying that she is right in just one respect: You should send a message to the political establishment…

And the best way to do that is by voting for Labour’s Tom Davies.

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‘Spammer’ Jane Dodds has put Brecon and Radnorshire voters off her

From a window in Brecon and Radnorshire: Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds has “spammed” voters with so many leaflets that they can’t wait to see the back of her.

I found the image above on a local friend’s Facebook page. It – and the comments it attracted – illustrate the strength of feeling against Liberal Democrat by-election candidate Jane Dodds after she dumped more than 24 pieces of junk mail on residents of the constituency.

It seems people no longer care about Ms Dodds’s policies. They just want her to go away and never come back.

According to a commenter on my friend’s page, by July 24, “There’s been 24 so far.. I have a contact collecting them!”

Another added: “We get 4 of everything[. I’m] sick of seeing her name.”

Another: “Yet another one in the post this morning!!”

“I stopped counting at 13. They’re still coming thick and fast though,” said yet another resident.

“Opened the postbox tonight and there was another!” From another exasperated voter.

And another commenter said the constant leaflet drops were “Bordering on harassment!”

That’s exactly what it is. And how much is it costing?

The price of 25 (and increasing…) leaflets, going to tens of thousands of households in Brecon and Radnorshire, must be considerable. One of them was glossy and ran to several pages. Even if they were all hand-delivered, the price must run to thousands of pounds.

And what about the cost of transporting all these Lib Dem adherents from other parts of the country? I met a man from the West Country in a pub a few weeks ago and I understand others have come from across the UK. What has their party contributed to their expenses?

No matter what the result of the election, I think we’re going to need to examine Ms Dodds’s expenses in close detail.

And remember: If you’re as sick of the sight of her as everybody else, don’t vote for her! If you want to support a Remainer candidate – who can actually help that cause – vote for Labour’s Tom Davies.

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Lib Dems reckon they’re odds-on to win in Brecon and Radnorshire – because of their lies?

“Want change?” thunders the latest glossy brochure from Liberal Democrat by-election candidate Jane Dodds. It fails to add the fact of the matter: “You won’t get it with me!”

Instead it quotes betting odds, apparently from Ladbrokes on July 12, stating that Ms Dodds is the 1/7 favourite to win the seat, with Tory expenses faker Chris Davies at 7/1, Des Parkinson for the Brexit Party at 12/1 and Tom Davies for Welsh Labour at 100/1.

I can’t find any predictions for the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election on the Ladbrokes website so there is no way to confirm these figures.

The derisory treatment of Labour suggests that this is the party Ms Dodds really fears. Why else would her canvassers be trying to convince voters in Labour strongholds like Cwmtwrch and Penycae that Labour isn’t even standing?

Ms Dodds’ campaign really has been the lowest of the low.

The local policies she offers are primarily things that are already happening, courtesy of other organisations like Ofcom (broadband) or the Labour-run Welsh Assembly Government (healthcare and economic improvement).

As a Liberal Democrat, she cannot influence Parliamentary decisions on Brexit and anybody supporting her for her party’s ‘Remain’ stance is throwing their vote away on a protest.

Labour is the only choice for real change. Claims that the party’s policy on Brexit is confused are lies. Claims that it is mired in anti-Semitism are lies.

And you know why?

Because people like Jane Dodds know they can only beat Labour by making a fool out of you.

And that is the full extent of their purpose.

They won’t do anything to help you, if they get elected.

They will simply reinforce the hard, right-wing, neoliberal consensus that has squashed working people for the last nine years since the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats entered their unholy alliance to inflict unnecessary austerity on us while filling their own pockets.

But don’t take my word for it. If Ms Dodds wins, you’ll be able to see for yourself. Any progress will be from policies already enacted by Ofcom and by Labour. The Yellow Tory will do nothing for you.

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Jane Dodds lies again

Jane Dodds: She has been lying about health again.

I wonder how many voters in Brecon and Radnorshire will be fooled by this?

Yet another letter from Jane Dodds oozed through my letterbox this morning.

She’s the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election.

She wants us to elect her on the basis that the Liberal Democrats want to force the UK to remain in the European Union, whether we want to or not – and on the basis that she isn’t a Conservative or a member of the Brexit Party – both of whose candidates would be equally poor choices for Parliament.

She has no local policy platform at all. Every promise she has made to local people has been something that is already being delivered by other agencies.

If elected, she has promised to do exactly nothing for anybody, other than collect her £70,000-a-year taxpayer-funded paycheque.

Her letter today was similarly nonsensical as it was about health – a devolved issue.

“If you choose to send me to Westminster in the by-election on 1st August, I’ll prioritise fighting for better healthcare for local people,” it states.

But she can’t, because healthcare is a matter for Welsh Assembly members and is nothing to do with MPs.

What a liar.

It would be a crime against the UK to make this person a member of Parliament.

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How needy is this? Liberal Democrat sends leaflet after leaflet of flapdoodle into our letterboxes

Truer words were never told: I don’t know the context of Lana Lane’s original post but it applies very well to constituents of Brecon and Radnorshire who might actually be considering placing their vote with the Liberal Democrat candidate – or indeed the Conservative, Brexit and UKIP candidates, for that matter.

I don’t know about you but I am sick to death of Jane Dodds, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election.

We constituents are being bombarded by her. Leaflet after leaflet comes thudding through our doors.

Campaigner after campaigner has come tramping up to finger our doorbells.

Yesterday (July 13), no less than four different election communications landed on my doorstep.

Two were about Brexit. The first – a letter – said, “As your new MP, I’ll fight to stop Brexit. I’ll work hard every day to stand up for local jobs, our NHS and for the local community services we all depend on.”

How? How, exactly, is she going to do that?

She doesn’t say. She scares local farmers with a warning that the “no-deal” Brexit plans of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage will saddle them with 40 per cent tariffs on lamb exports – but doesn’t say a single word about how she would stop it, because she can’t. One MP won’t make any difference at all.

In fact, she wouldn’t have to do anything in any case. Current Parliamentary arithmetic makes a “no-deal” Brexit of this kind unlikely to win any support at all, and if any future prime minister tries it, it would probably break their government.

What does she mean by saying she’ll “stand up” for local jobs and community services? That doesn’t imply that she’ll actually do anything – and you’d be a fool to think that she will.

And of course the NHS is a devolved responsibility; the Welsh Assembly has responsibility for it, not Parliament, so Ms Dodds won’t have any influence over it at all.

The second – a leaflet intended to gather voter information (that’s what the coupon at the bottom is for) – is even more misleading. “This by-election is a unique and urgent opportunity to change the direction of our country,” it states.

How is Jane Dodds, a member of a minority party who has lost three elections in Montgomeryshire, going to manage that where so many hundreds of experienced Parliamentarians have failed? She won’t.

If she wins on the basis of this information, then I invite Liberal Democrat voters to come back after October 31 and demonstrate how she stopped Brexit.

The third election communication – another letter – is so full of flannel I thought she was trying to wash me. Or brainwash me, at least.

“I want to do more to tackle injustice, help people to get the best chance in life, and end years and years of being let down by Westminster politicians.” Flannel!

“Living here in Powys, just outside Welshpool, I understand all too well just how important it is that we have an MP who understands the unique challenges we all face.” Flannel – and falsehood. Welshpool isn’t in Brecon and Radnorshire and conditions there are different.

“I love living in Powys but that does not mean I don’t think it can be even better.” Flannel!

“At home and in Westminster, I will fight to fix our broken politics. I will fight to help protect our Welsh health services. And I will fight to stand up for Welsh farmers and businesses.” Flannel!

Worse still is the claim that she has been “overwhelmed by the number of Labour, Plaid and Green supporters who’ve told me that they will be backing me in this election”. I know that Plaid Cymru and the Green Party stood aside to allow Ms Dodds to be the single candidate who unequivocally supports the undemocratic position of cancelling Brexit without referring the decision back to the people of the UK – but Labour hasn’t. For the good of the whole of the UK, Labour won’t.

And while it is entirely likely that some habitual Labour voters have been hoodwinked by the usual Liberal Democrat flannel that a tactical vote for them is the only way to keep out the Tories or the other right-wingers, I think her claim that “many” have done so is stretching credibility to breaking-point.

Finally, the fourth election communication was another leaflet, containing her “positive plan” for Brecon and Radnorshire. Here are the bullet-points:

“Back our health services and improve social care” – this is a devolved responsibility that is nothing to do with Westminster MPs.
“Protect vital rural services” – an impossibility for a single MP in a party that is not in government.
“Oppose Conservative cuts” – a meaningless promise, especially from a member of the party that, in Coalition with the Conservatives, helped impose many of those cuts between 2010 and 2015. That’s the reason I used the image at the top of this piece, warning about people voting for the removal of free health care, free education, affordable housing and social security. As a Liberal Democrat, Ms Dodds belongs to a party that helped push us towards the dismantling of those vital services – and a vote for her now may well help finish the job.
“Fix our broken politics” – another meaningless promise, and she doesn’t even try to say what this means.
“Stand up for Welsh farmers and local businesses” – also meaningless, because she does not say what she will do.

The end result is a big pile of waste paper, covered in soundbites. Ms Dodds doesn’t even talk a good fight.

She just fills our homes with meaningless gibberish.

And how will she be if she wins? My bet is, we’ll never hear from her again – at least until the next election.

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Tag Archives: Jane Dodds

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