Tory Half-Truths

Here in Tyburn Ward a Tory leaflet landed on my doormat today (31.07.09). It contains certain (admittedly correct) facts, but omits to include many other facts. The purpose of this webpage is to draw those omissions to your attention.

The leaflet says :-

Did you know?

In Tyburn Ward the Lib Dems have finished 3rd or 4th at best in 19 of the last 21 elections!!!

My comment on that :-

True, but they fail to mention that the two elections where the Lib Dems did not finish 3rd or worse, were actually the latest two Council elections. Also they fail to mention that the Lib Dems actually won the latest Council election in 2008, the last year it was fought!

Also they fail to mention that in those last two Council elections, that the Tories finished 3rd in both of then, having finished 2nd for years prior to that. Indeed, as the Agent for the successful Lib Dem candidate in the 2008 Council election, I give credit where credit is due. That is, the Tories put in considerable effort in Tyburn Ward in that election - and still they could not improve upon 3rd place they obtained in the previous year.

Above a graph the Tories put :-

"It's a two horse race only the Tories can beat Labour in Tyburn ward now!", and under the graph,"Votes cast in Tyburn ward in 2009!"

Some points. Firstly, an election in Tyburn Ward in 2009? Well there has certainly not been a Council election this year, so they must be referring to the European Parliamentary election on 4th June. But they only quote figures for Labour (941 votes), Tories (796 votes) and Lib Dems (416 votes), and fail to mention that there were actually a total of 12 parties on the European Parliamentary election ballot paper.

Clearly the very minor parties can be discounted, but it is worth mentioning that UKIP gained 854 votes (pushing the Tories into 3rd place), the BNP got 505 votes, and even the Greens gained 201 votes. And remember, and this is very relevant, the European Parliamentary election is fought using Proportional Representation, so the electorate are more inclined to think that their vote for a smaller party will actually count, than than would in a first-past-the-post Council Election. No one seriously thinks that any of UKIP, BNP or the Greens have a real chance of winning a first-past-the-post Council Election, here in Tyburn Ward.

So to use a graph that actually excludes 9 of the 12 parties, and fails to explain what election they are talking about, and the Proportional Representation nature of that election, can easily be classed as a Tory half-truth. Indeed it could easily be described as a Tory quarter-truth!

A Final Summary

Having finished 3rd in the last two Tyburn ward Council elections, and now 3rd in the European Parliamentary elections, here in Tyburn Ward, the Tories are clearly the 3rd party specialists!

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