The Lib Dem Masks Slips to Reveal the Nasty Truth

I have occasionally been asked why it is that I have so little time for many Lib Dem activists. They like to cultivate the image of being a party of local campaigners who only have the good of residents at heart. They contrast themselves at every opportunity with any Conservative or Labour representatives they can find who in anyway falls short of their stated ideal. Those who have had more than a cursory encounter with a range of Lib Dems would know that in fact they have at least as many rogues as other parties and arguably more.

I have commented on their tactics before. In particular their local government handbook that advises their candidates to “be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly”. However, a new example has come to light of disgraceful and underhand tactics by a leading Lib Dem activist. I am grateful to a reader from abroad who sent me the link to this story.

Dan Falchikov

Quite a number of bloggers have covered the story of how Dan Falchikov, a key Kingston Lib Dem activist and political assistant to Southwark Lib Dem group was caught boasting that he had started the lie that the Kingston Hospital was under threat of closure. He even caused the sitting Lib Dem MP to begin a campaign to “Save Kingston Hospital”. I don’t suggest that Susan Kramer was aware that her own local activist was the source of the scare story. It seems that Falchikov decided to elevate the fact that all hospitals in South West London are subject to an ongoing review into a statement that there were “secret plans to close Kingston hospital”.

He was caught out when he spent most of a train journey boasting about what a clever chap he was for inventing the story and getting the Evening Standard to run it. Fortunately for those local people who work at Kingston Hospital or who depend on it for their services, he was overheard by a national journalist who secretly took his photo and published it. It didn’t take long for Falchikov to be identified. What sort of sick mind deliberately scares vulnerable people about the loss of a hospital they depend upon?

Once again a key Lib Dem activist has been caught out fabricating a story to further his party’s political ends. Fortunately he was unmasked and the people of Kingston and Southwark now know what they may be getting if they vote Lib Dem. Of course there are many decent Lib Dem activists and Councillors but Falchikov’s actions have reminded us that beneath that “holier than thou” Lib Dem exterior sometimes lurks a rather nastier face.

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