FibDems

Mike insisted that this was an accurate chart

The Police were convinced that Nicol was in line up.

For all their claims to be green, the LibDems want to turn beautiful Edinburgh into the worlds biggest rubbish dump. Once a month, people will be encouraged to dump all their trash on the curb and you can go out and pick up what you want. You are encouraged to leave beds, chairs and computers. The comments below the story speak for themselves….

Edinburgh FibDems were happy that the residents took to the new scheme with such enthusiasm

Well it looks like the Fib’s dodgy dealings have finally caught up with them. The Electoral Commission want them to pay a £2.4 million fine for accepting their ol’ pal Michael Brown’s £2.4 million pound donation. He won’t get it back of course, he’s in jail. He’s only facing 18 charges.

But it gets worse as apparently a, “group of millionaires who invested in the company, 5th Avenue Partners Ltd, insist the money is theirs and have demanded repayment- meaning the Lib Dems will have to find another £2.4m on top of the fine imposed for taking the cash.”

So Squealer reckons, calculator in hand, that the total is £4.8 million. OUCH! The Scotland on Sunday covers all this here, suggesting that the members of the Fiberal Democrat party will have to cough up a good £60 quid each. Of course we have covered all of these developments here, here, here, here, and here. It’s such a good read that I had to put in the full copy.

Lib Dems face ruin over £4m 'fine'

THE Liberal Democrats are facing a potentially ruinous bill of up to £4.8m after taking donations from a crooked Scots businessman, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. Party funding watchdogs last night confirmed that the impact of Charles Kennedy's decision to accept £2.4m from Michael Brown could be doubled if the Lib Dems have to pay back the entrepreneur's former business associates, as well as a matching "fine" imposed as a punishment for accepting the cash.

The Electoral Commission is set to order the party to return the 2005 donation amid suspicions that Brown's company was not doing business in the UK at the time of the payment, making it impermissible under funding rules.

But, rather than going back to Brown, the £2.4m would have to be paid as a "fine" into the Consolidated Fund, the government's Bank of England account.

To make matters worse, a group of millionaires who invested in the company, 5th Avenue Partners Ltd, insist the money is theirs and have demanded repayment- meaning the Lib Dems will have to find another £2.4m on top of the fine imposed for taking the cash. A senior source at the commission last night confirmed they were considering using their full powers against the party, which is already more than £1m in the red.

The double demand could force Lib Dem chiefs to go cap- in-hand to the party membership for extra contributions of at least £50-£60 per person. The Electoral Commission source said: "There is a double jeopardy element in this situation. If the commission rules that the donation must be returned, it clearly cannot go back to the donor himself, so it must be paid into the consolidated fund.

"The demands of creditors or investors would be completely separate to that and up to the party to settle independently."

The Brown donation, the biggest-ever received by the Liberal Democrats, has been subject to intense scrutiny since former leader Kennedy gratefully accepted it as a huge contribution to the £4.9m cost of running the party's 2005 election campaign. Although little was known about the Majorca-based tycoon, it later emerged that he was born in a run-down part of Glasgow's West End and ended up in Majorca after making a £10m fortune from property deals and City trading.

But holes in Brown's story began appearing under closer inspection soon after details of his financial support were revealed. The High Court ruled that his company was fraudulent and had never traded, he was extradited from Spain and jailed for two years last September after admitting perjury and a passport offence. Lawyers for Martin Edwards, former Manchester United chairman, two Chinese tycoons and an American lawyer have since written to the party saying they believe that the money is theirs.

Last week, Brown was charged with 18 further offences including money laundering and theft. Brown will also face allegations of perverting the course of justice and fraud. The donation was part of an investigation by City of London Police into allegations of a £45m high-yield fraud. He is the subject of an international money-laundering investigation by police as well as facing civil action by the HSBC bank.

The donations have exposed the Lib Dems to ridicule and recriminations from opponents who believe Brown's intervention gave them an unfair advantage during the 2005 election.

Edinburgh MP Nigel Griffiths believes Brown's cash was pumped into marginal constituencies like his own to bolster the Lib Dem attack.

"The money should be returned immediately," he said. "The man who gave it to them is in jail and Ming Campbell and the Liberal Democrats used that £2.4m in seats like mine, tens of thousands of pounds to try and buy the seats."

A Lib Dem spokeswoman last night confirmed they had been made aware of the "double jeopardy" threat hanging over the party's head.

She added: "Our legal advice is robust and on the basis of this our auditors advised that we need not make provision for any repayments.

"The party acted in good faith at all times in relation to these donations, which were properly spent on the Westminster general election campaign two years ago."

The Electoral Commission was not pleased at the Liberal Democrat choice of re-payment

Ming appeared confused by the words 'significant sample size', 'accuracy', 'margin of error', 'representative' and 'truthful' when he was considering a polling firm.

Odd what you find on the web:

...Danny Alexander of Take ‘Em As They Come writes about Beyonce and Shakira’s duet hit, "Beautiful Liar"...

Well we could agree with the latter word but as for the first!!!

After his behaviour in Moray you would have thought Dodgy would be more careful, particularly in his own patch. But not so as his local paper takes him to task over using photos he shouldn't have.

COMPANY BOSS UP IN ARMS AT LIB DEMS' LEAFLET
19 April 2007

An Electoral gaffe by the Liberal Democrats has infuriated the boss of the Highlands' biggest private employer.

Mike Crowe, managing director of diabetes testing-kit giant Inverness LifeScan, is understood to have personally phoned the city's Lib Dem MP, Danny Alexander, requesting that the party halt further distribution of a campaign leaflet because it may be interpreted as a company endorsement. It features an old photograph of a smiling Mr Crowe alongside Stuart Black, of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Lib Dem Scottish leader Nicol Stephen and party election candidate Craig Harrow in hard hats on the construction site of the city's Centre for Health Sciences.

LifeScan spokeswoman Elaine Bailey said: "The photograph was taken some time ago at a local business event and has been used out of context and without the prior knowledge or permission of LifeScan Scotland.

"LifeScan remains politically neutral and will continue to interact with members of all political parties during the course of its normal business activities."

Mr Alexander said: "The photograph was used to illustrate strong Liberal Democrat support for the impressive new Centre for Health Sciences in Inverness, which Nicol Stephen visited at Craig Harrow's invitation last year.

"It was not intended to imply any endorsement of the party by LifeScan, who we know do not support any party, but whose investment in Inverness and in the Centre for Health Sciences is critically important to our local economy."

He added: "The leaflet does not name LifeScan or Mike Crowe. It was not about implying an endorsement by anyone. It was about explaining our endorsement for the Centre for Health Sciences, which is a very important development for the Highlands.

"I think anyone who reads the leaflet should have no difficulty in understanding the point that is being made. We have no intention, and had previously no intention, of using the photograph again. It was about making a specific point about the local economy in a specific context."

Mr Black, now HIE's director of global connections, said: "It should be obvious that this photograph was taken during one of many events surrounding the Centre for Health Science. No political relevance should be attached to it."

Oh dear. That will have the tongues wagging about the "Ginger Minger" and his sneaky "not intended" behaviour again.

For reasons not yet explained, Cllr. Jones signed the nomination papers of BNP candidate Daniel Brown, who is also standing in the town's North Road ward. As Cllr. Jones also signed the nomination papers of fellow LibDem candidates Mike Barker and Fred Lawton, he was effectively placing his own candidacy in a very curious position!

Perhaps not surprisingly, Cllr. Jones has been ousted as the LibDem Group Leader as their first response to the crisis, and the local party has put out a very terse statement which leaves more questions unanswered. Principally, how on earth can an experienced councillor like Steven Jones claim that he signed the nomination papers "as a mistake?"

What local LibDems want everyone to forget is that their party has been involved in shady involvement with the BNP in this part of town before. It was only Labour's exposure of the cosying-up between the LibDems, the Tories and the BNP in the short-lived Harrowgate Hill Community Group (sic) in 2003 which caused that venture to collapse.

The tragedy is that when the three main democratic parties in Darlington should have maintained a united front against racist politics in the town during this election, the LibDem's Leader has blown awaythat front with the stroke of his pen. I don't think this is the last we'll hear of this story by any means.

We couldn't agree with Iain more when he says, "Maybe the normal LibDem slogan “Only the Lib Dems can defeat [Party name here] should be replaced by "Only the Lib Dems can get the BNP onto the ballot paper”. Just a thought. Only trying to be helpful."

"We are winning here! With LibDem help!"

How appropriate. Dunfermline's MPS is Will-lie Rennie. Their Scottish Parliament candidate for the same area is called Jim Tolson - as in Jim Tolls-on.

How appropriate considering they're wee con is now boxed in.

So much for a united party with momentum. It would appear from today's Telegraph that they are at it like ferrets in sack (just as we said) as Tavish goes maverick with the campaign:

Nicol had better watch his back

By Alan Cochrane
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 18/04/2007

Election notebook

Scotland's least exciting politician, aka Nicol Stephen, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, would be well advised to watch his back.

Word reaches me that his thus-far trusted friend and colleague, Tavish Scott, is mounting a bit of a freelance operation during this campaign. Mr Scott, who stood aside in Mr Stephen's favour during last year's election for the Lib Dem leadership, was widely praised last week when he almost single-handedly rescued his party's manifesto launch.

It was Mr Scott who had to fill in the many and varied holes in the Lib Dem programme, after Mr Stephen got fed up answering - or rather not answering - difficult questions about his party's possible coalition deal with the SNP.

This has obviously gone to the Transport Minister's head as he has taken to putting his own "spin" on the campaign so far by briefing selected hacks about his post election plans.

I have absolutely no doubt that nothing untoward is going on but, still, if I was Mr Stephen, I'd ask for a transcript of yesterday's meeting between Mr Scott and his three scribbling pals.

But then Trash-it does have a record of mucking things up. That he's made the Fibs look obsessed with constitutional matters shouldn't be a surprise.

After making much of their commitment to the yoof vote it would appear from the Fib's own site they have a new policy - cropping them!

It doesn't say much for Mr Thingey's claim that the public are dying for him to be First Minister when his own candidates can't even get his name right:

Swimming Star meets with Nora Radcliffe and Nicol Stephens

Thu 12th Apr 2007

Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Nicol Stephen and local candidate Nora Radcliffe last week met with Inverurie swimming star Hannah Miley to congratulate her on behalf of Gordon and the North East of Scotland.

And just in case it's changed here it is for posterity:

Old Porridge has been contacted by a viewing conspirator who raises an interesting point about the supposed "locality" of the FibDems candidate for Inverness East and all those other places - a one Craig Harrow.

Craig has been punting himself about (hand in hand with Dodgy) that he is a "local" candidate. Here is doing it here and here. It also appears he is describing himself as coming from the "south Highlands". He was also Dodgy's election agent in 2005.

According to the Highland Council's website it would appear that his "address" for this campaign is Aviemore.

However Old Porridge's viewing conspirator has pointed to the 192.com site which paints a different picture on Craig's locality.

A search for "Craig Harrow" and "Aviemore" conjures up this response:

Odd. But my viewing conspirator tells me to search for "Craig Harrow" and "Crieff" which conjures up this response:

Oh dear. Yet another example of the FibDems trying to fool the voters.

Squealer was just tuning into Radio Scotland where they are doing a hustings in Inverness. Its basically like one of those games you get at the amusement park where you bash things with a hammer. The only thing that is popping up is Lib Dems. One audience member said ‘they would get into bed with anyone, they are the prostitute party’. Fib cllr Mr. Michael Foxley responded that the libs were actually picky about who they got into bed with...given Stephen's gaffe about what policies were for sale puts that in doubt.

They really should listen to the people. Friday from 12-1:30 on "listen again" is what you are looking for. Start at 1:23. Or listen to the whole thing...its a Lib Dem Bash fest.

Squealer is really scratching his head after the Fib’s manifesto launch. Apparently the sound system didn’t even work at the launch but the hacks didn’t mind…there wasn’t anything to cover anyway.


Doing the math so far the Liberal Democrats have promised 100 new local health centres, 2000 nurses, 1000 cops. Well we aren’t the first to notice that this simply doesn’t wash. What were they doing for the LAST 8 YEARS in Government? Given their recent amazing polling figures, it seems the electorate are wise to this con as well.




Fred, Nicky, Jeb, Nicol Stephen was happy he could get Irn Bru in his future home


Note: It appears that Squealer and Co. are really starting to get to the Fibs. Although not mentioned by name, we proudly consider ourselves cyber-bullies. Sorry Ms Teather.

Tavish's claims of winning the Tour de France were put in doubt when he had to ask the way in the under 12's bike race

This is a proper laugh and half. Hat tip to Anastasia Beaumont-Bott for this one. Squealer couldn’t believe his own eyes. This gem came from the “Penicuik Gazette”. Jeremy Purvis wants more cops to stop crimes committed by the Libs. With policies like this they might win!

Fib HQ tried to dissuade Stuart on his choice of campaign poster

Hat Tip to Politicalopinions

UPDATE: It appears Youngster Stewie isn't the only Lib on the sauce.

"No Mr Thingey. There are five people on this bench."

A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT MSP has sparked outrage after becoming the first Holyrood politician to use a publicly funded mortgage scheme to help buy three separate properties.

Mike Rumbles, the member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, made gains of nearly £40,000 following the sale of two flats partly paid for by the taxpayer.

His latest acquisition is a £300,000 flat in an exclusive district of the capital, partly financed by a public subsidy.

The Parliamentary Allowances office were a little suspicious when they visited the latest FibDem Edinburgh flat

Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson said: "It is a huge amount of taxpayers' money that is not warranted to be spent on this."

Here’s the full roll-call of honour of those Lib Dem MPs who did oppose the allowance:

Baker, Norman; Barrett, John; Brooke, Annette; Bruce, rh Malcolm; Carmichael, Mr. Alistair; Clegg, Mr. Nick; Farron, Tim; Goldsworthy, Julia; Harris, Dr. Evan; Heath, Mr. David; Holmes, Paul; Horwood, Martin; Howarth, David; Hughes, Simon; Huhne, Chris; Laws, Mr. David; Leech, Mr. John; Öpik, Lembit; Rennie, Will-lie; Sanders, Mr. Adrian; Stunell, Andrew; Swinson, Jo; Taylor, Matthew; Webb, Steve.

The full list from the division lobby of ayes and noes is available here.

Ming congratulated Jo on another successful hustle on the taxpayers