Nicely illustrates the extent to which Labour relies on white Sun-reading voters to shore up its grip on power.

“Labour lied to the electorate”

Quelle surprise. Although, to be fair, the Lib Dems are the worst when it comes to lying leaflets.

Unite Against Fascism has been asked for a comment about Woolas’ campaign, but has refused to give a comment of any kind – they will not condone or condemn Woolas. Perhaps it’s only racism when they’re not wearing a red rosette?

Equally, Woolas is running David Miliband’s leadership campaign according to newspapers. Does that mean that Daivd Miliband approves of this kind of behaviour?

blanco: Take a look at the Woolas leaflets on thestraightchoice and then show me ANY leaflets from the Liberal Democrats that are “worse”. In fact, I’d settle for “as bad as”. Woolas is far, far in the lead on disgusting leaflets.

@3 “Woolas is running David Miliband’s leadership campaign according to newspapers”

Got a link for that?

As for UAF, they are a just mirror image of the EDL. You can’t expect standards from thugs.

hmmm. can’t find link now.
nearest I’ve got is the Times:
“Phil Woolas, a campaign fixer for Mr Miliband”

and something similar in the Spectator.

But you will accept that Woolas has been used by David Miliband as an attack dog in hustings to say the things about Ed that David can’t? That I’ve seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.

@MM

Oh I agree, Phil Woolas is a dirty, stupid fucking racist. His comments on immigration whilst a minister, not just the policies he introduced but his rhetoric, is probably directly responsible for a significant increase in racism in this country.

I was just saying, in general, that the Lib Dems are well known for less-than-accurate leaflets with dodgy bar graphs – and I say that as a LD supporter. To be fair, all parties mess around with the bar graphs, choose election results that aren’t comparable to show they’re in contention, and so on – hopefully AV will eliminate that sort of negative campaigning.

@3 to be fair to UAF, they hate Labour as much as most ordinary people do. They’re just uselessly inefficient, and probably can’t be bothered to do anything. No doubt trying to cause a revolution or something

It takes a special kind of self-blindness to demand evidence for someone else’s (easily verified) claim whilst making an unsubstantiated (and somewhat controversial) claim of your own. Mind, with a name like “Missing The Point”, perhaps we should not be surprised…

@9 if it’s so easily verified, perhaps you can verify it?

@7 is the statement “Phil Woolas is a dirty, stupid fucking racist” not a libel?

[deleted]

[deleted]

@Missing the Point

Nope. That’s fair comment.

As is, seeing as how Woolas’ kids are all grown up, why did Woolas submit supermarket receipts to the Hosue of Commons authorities claiming for nappies?

But I shan’t delve further, as Woolas is a litigious schmuck.

@10 I can use numerous statements from Woolas’s time as a minister to prove he is a racist, and this business with the leaflets proves he is at the very least careless if not outright stupid. You’d have to ask his wife as to whether he is dirty, but I’d rather not know.

I’m surprised this is even being reported on LC, given that Sunny’s now a LP member and Labour Can Do No Wrong Now It’s In Opposition.

@14 “I can use numerous statements from Woolas’s time as a minister to prove he is a racist”

OK then, give us your top 3.

I’m going to have to watch this thread carefully and delete any potentially libellous comments.

@Sunny can anyone substantiate this claim:

“Phil Woolas is a dirty, stupid fucking racist”

??

oooh, ok. I can’t really see why 12 was deleted and not 11. I made no statements that are not backed up by public documents.

Oh well.

11 is making statements I believe to be untrue. You will not let me explain why I think it is untrue. But at least it’s now on record that I believe it to be untrue.

Woolas is not exactly someone I warm to. Following the Oldham riots, he called for ‘the reality of anti-white racism’ to be acknowledged – yeah like all those schools full of white children where the teachers are 100% Asian and have low expectations of the kids based on their ethnicity, all those white folks turned down for jobs at the corner shop, etc. What do you call a politician who bases their understanding of society on the gutter press, rather than fact? New Labour.

“What do you call a politician who bases their understanding of society on the gutter press, rather than fact? New Labour.”

Here here – it’s off topic, but sadly I see neither of the two Miliband brothers breaking from New Labour in any substantial way. Ed is running to the left to outmaneuveur his brother, much like Obama did to Clinton in the 2008 primaries, but if he wins he will be No Change.

17 – missing the point

I would argue that the leaflets readily available from the straight choice would point to, well, certainly a lack of finesse on race relations.

The statements featured in the Telegraph article would kind of back this up too.

As would the fact that Trevor Phillips disliked the leaflets (see Oldham Chron)

As would Woolas’ comments on burkhas and other points.

I think Woolas’ tactics, ie the leaflets in general, anddeliberately misquoting his opponent, would count as dirty.

And I think he is foolish to think he’d get away with it.

As for the “f*cking”, well, swearing is never clever or funny.

there is plenty of strong feeling on this thread, which is healthy, but there is no point making things difficult for the editor by screaming defamatory hyperbole.

This story kind of points out the limits of my party being called a broad church – strictly speaking Labour is a closed broad church, this is only a good thing.

Carl: I wasn’t aware that I was screaming hyperbole. Although I can think of some.

The post of mine that was deleted is a matter of public record already, and may be discussed in court this week.

But the defamatory statement about Woolas’ 2005 opponent is still up.

Go figure.

I wouldn’t say Woolas is either a dirty ner-ner racist or lacking in finesse in respect of race relations. He’s just another (New Labour) politician whose only scruple when it comes to massaging the electorate is, ‘what can I get away with?’ As I said, he less interesting in how things are and more in what the papers say. The test with this case is, did he push it too far? And will it be good for democracy if he get’s his snout smacked?

Yakoub:

I don’t mind that I will be called naive, but I genuinely don’t believe that all politicans behave in this manner. In all parties there are good and bad eggs. Just like any profession really.

What counts is when bad behaviour becomes the norm. And whether the parties, the professional bodies, the institutions take action against those who are dragging the rest down.

A little bit of corruption left to flourish very quickly spreads.

I’m not sure whether this site allows links, but the opening comments from Team Woolas are available on the Manchester Evening News site.

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/politics/s/1322165_mp_phil_woolas_sought_to_make_white_folk_angry_in_election_campaign?rss=yes&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+menews+%28Manchester+Evening+News+-+RSS+Feed%29&utm_content=Twitter

Um. Nope. Team Watkins. I do apologise.

More evidence of Labours degeneration into BNPlite. A bit of a dog bites man story, though.

The real news would if if Woolas and his comrades HADN’T been trying to stir up racial hatred for polticial gain.

Jacob – “all those schools full of white children where the teachers are 100% Asian and have low expectations of the kids based on their ethnicity”

Are you sure they have low expectations of Asians ?

Among white British pupils, the figure was 16 per cent.”

Jacob, I’ve found the school where the teachers are 100% Asian and have low expectations of white pupils !

“We were living in China, where their school blended a mostly Western elementary school curriculum with the emphasis on discipline and testing that typifies Asian educational styles. In Asia, such a march of tests for young children was regarded as normal, and not evil or particularly anxiety provoking. That made for some interesting culture clashes. I remember nearly constant tension between the Asian parents, who wanted still more tests and homework, and the Western parents, who were more concerned with whether their kids were having fun — and wanted less.“

Does he not taint the whole brownite faction as well as David Miliband. Brown, Balls and Ed Miliband were the clique in whose cabinet this man was worthy of being Immigration minister. What did Brown have against Mrs Duffy again?

Makes the Kelly [Equalities] and Hodge [Children's] appointments look like mere mistakes.

I know the behaviour of NOLS when I was a student swore me off active politics and the head of NUS/NOLS was Phil Woolas. He a personal friend of a friend of mine’s family so I won’t give a view on him but yes it’s negative.

It indicates why we should demand a greater analysis from the candidates for leadership before endorsing any. That David Miliband with full knowledge of this would use him is ridiculous (his published diary was vile enough).

The point stands whether he loses his seat or not.

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This is interesting because if the Tory wins this case then surely that will give us license to take most MPs’ to court i.e all the Libdems and most of the Conservatives Chris Grayling in particular. Considering over 60% of the country voted for centre and left of centre policies and we now have a right wing government this gives us a clue to a bit of sculduggery (or blatant lying in layman terms.)