They Lied!

We were out campaigning in Minster Cliffs yesterday when I stumbled across a couple of leaflets, both from UKIP. I don't usually comment on opposition literature, but there were aspects of both leaflets that warrent highlighting.

One of the leaflets was a national glossy petition form with a headline that screamed: "They Lied!". Beneath this provocative headline was the following sentence: "Labour, Tories and Lib Dems all promised the British people a say on the Eu... now they've changed their minds and refuse us this right." The leaflet goes on to demand a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

As it happens I too would like to see a a referendum on Britain's continued membership of the EU and will press for one should I be elected, but I object to UKIP distorting the truth by inferring that the Conservative Party, or the Labour Party come to that, ever promised to hold such a referendum.

The Labour Party did promise to hold a referendum on the European Constitution (the Lisbon Treaty) but reneged on this promise after the 2005 General Election. David Cameron subsequently promised that he would hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if it had not been ratified by the time of a Conservative government.

As UKIP well know, the Lisbon Treaty has now been ratified by all the member states so holding a referendum on it would be a waste of time and money, which is presumably why they themselves are now pressing for a referendum on our continued membership.

To link the two issues under the "They Lied!" headline is utterly dishonest and brings to mind the words "pot" and "kettle"!

The second locally produced leaflet is equally dishonest: Take the first article which declares proudly: "The results of the Swale June Elections were: 1) Conservative - 10020 votes, UKIP - 6780 votes and Labour - 3780 votes."

This infers that at a local level UKIP are stronger than Labour. Of course, that is a nonsense, since UKIP did not even put up any candidates at the Swale Borough Council elections last June. The results they list actually relate to the European Parliament elections, which as everyone knows, always inflate the UKIP support. Actually, I was delighted to see that the Eurosceptic vote in Sittingbourne and Sheppey so decisively defeated the Labour Party. Long may that continue!

UKIP try to pretend that they are not like the political parties, but these two shoddy leaflets demonstrate that when it comes to propaganda and "spin" they have nothing to learn from the bigger parties. Indeed, on this occasion, it was quite clearly THEY who lied!