NastyLibDems.org launched to expose Lib Dem dirty tricks

I have been alerted to a new website which has recently launched called NastyLib Dems.org, which aims, in its own words, to "reveal to voters and the media the extent to which the Lib Dems engage in dirty tricks and negative campaigning".

The site's editor, Stuart Coster, tells ConservativeHome:

"When campaigning last year with the Democracy Movement for the promised referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty I was disillusioned by the behaviour of the Lib Dems most of all. Abstaining in the Commons and voting against a referendum in the Lords, the party did whatever it took at every step of the treaty's progress through Parliament to prevent us being the vote on the EU's powers that we were promised at the last general election.

"My disgust at witnessing such low grade flip-flopping on such a serious democratic issue from one of our main political parties was then compounded by Nick Clegg's frequent pious rhetoric about the need to improve trust in politics. Clegg's hypocrisy has been truly staggering. That's when I decided to look more deeply into how the Lib Dems conduct themselves at all levels and direct the NastyLibDems.org searchlight onto examples of dirty political practice in the run up to the looming general election.

"The aim is to shame Nick Clegg into cleaning up his party's act, dropping the 'dirty tricks' tactics in favour of a focus on policy and hopefully, in the process, improve the quality of our political debate."

Already the site has highlighted how Camden Lib Dems have put out contradictory messages in different parts of the Borough to appeal to different communities and how Lib Dems in South West London are using scare tactics in a campaign to "save" a hospital which is not under threat of closure.

Jonathan Isaby