Eastleigh Lib Dems - 2021 Leaflet 3 "Its going to be very close in Bishopstoke"

leaflet · 20 March 2021 08:36

This post is part of a community led project to archive all local political leaflets to improve transparency and enable local discussion. See more

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ITS GOING TO BE VERY CLOSE IN BISHOPSTOKE
Make your vote count

Bishopstoke Voters are backing the Lib Dem team to stop the Conservatives here.

This year voters from every party are getting behind Lib Dem Anne Winstanley as the only chance to stop the Conservatives in our area.

Locally voters know it’s real local champion Anne Winstanley or Conservative failure and higher council tax.

A vote for the Liberal Democrats means real local champions fighting in our area and against Conservative cuts to vital public services. Source: 2019 Borough Council elections.

ANNE WINSTANLEY & BISHOPSTOKE LIB DEM TEAM
Local residents know that Anne Winstanley and the local Lib Dem team get things done in our area.

Residents are fed up with the Conservative County Council axing vital public services and hiking up Council Tax.

Locally, voters know that we need a hard working local champion to bring our community together and help us reach our potential.

A vote for the Liberal Democrats means real local champions fighting on your side for our health service, to get action on the climate emergency and to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

A POSITIVE PLAN FOR BISHOPSTOKE
Tackling Green Issues
Lib Dems in Eastleigh are planting 160,000 trees, boosting recycling and switching to electric vehicles

IMPROVING OUR ROADS
Action on Traffic - We’ve got funding to tackle traffic congestion through Bishopstoke and Fair Oak.

SAVE OUR LIBRARY
Anne and Lib Dems OPPOSE Conservative plans to slash library hours AND close Fair Oak Library.

adam · 20 March 2021 09:27

Where do I begin on how grossly misleading this information is, Eastleigh Lib Dems?

Let’s start with correcting Eastleigh Lib Dem’s bar chart to make it relevant.

You said:

Whereas as your leaflet is addressing Bishopstoke. The facts for the 2019 election in Bishopstoke prove that actually in 2019 the area overwhelmingly voted the Independents. Lib Dem are actually second:

Are you twisting this to try and get your own seat back per chance?

These people who voted Lib Dem no doubt believed some lies in your leaflets since the other parties are not drowning the area in underhanded and misleading leaflets. I wonder what the results would look like without this gross manipulation?

It’s not - independents won by 379 votes.

Yes - please vote for someone other than Eastleigh Lib dems, do not encourage a party that lies and manipulates. We have had enough of this in politics and it needs to stop.

No, they’re not - as per the true graph I state the 2019 local elections as evidence.

This is completely false. Anne Winstanley was a borough councillor from 1998 until 2018 when she was voted out by an independent majority. There is no evidence of anyone getting behind Anne other than other people in the lib dem party in order to maintain the stranglehold on Eastleigh.

Yes we do, and we now have them in Bishopstoke and they work tirelessly with no party affiliation and only do what is right for Bishopstoke. Thank you Bishopstoke Independents

This is simply not true. Eastleigh Lib Dem’s have used gross manipulation to maintain absolute power for over 20 years, as such are already in a position to tackle these things, and yet have not. Eastleigh Lib Dem’s have sole responsibility for planning permission in Eastleigh and as yet have not yet formalised a local plan causing excessive building all over the borough. See this letter from central government, to your leader of 26 years: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/693948/Annex_A9_-Eastleigh.pdf

But how many have you cut down, or seriously affected by overbuilding on or near ancient woodland? See https://add-eastleigh.org/ more much more evidence against you. One Horton Heath is huge, but with no known increase in infrastructure. You are the sole party driving these deployments. You own the private company which develops the houses, and then you approve your own planning permission. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10200615/filing-history

These investments with our tax payers funds are wrapped up in private companies, and hidden from public view with no transparency (We can freedom of information request the council, but not a private company).

You received funding from developers, but have no viable plan. You should not have approved the housing builds to go ahead without adequate infrastructure. This was literally your responsibility. When challenged on this you have passed the buck and said “Hampshire County Council are responsible for roads”.

mel · 20 March 2021 15:07

OMG! I can’t believe how misleading their propaganda is! Thank you for posting this and backing up their false statements with real evidence and facts. I hope more people read this so they can make informed choices come elections…

Rob_Byrne · 20 March 2021 16:40

A very good disassembly of a leaflet built of lies. Well done on this expose.

James_Charlesworth · 20 March 2021 17:31

Can anyone find any stats where this even makes sense? These stats are baffling to me

adam · 21 March 2021 08:51

Welcome aboard @James_Charlesworth, good to have you here!

I have no idea, and wondered exactly the same.

I’m pretty sure the Lib Dem’s don’t base any of their bar charts on fact. I have a feeling they are all created centrally at Lib Dem HQ and then people copy and paste the pre-made bar charts onto their leaflets and then they add the “vague meaning” locally.

It’s kind of brilliant because unfortunately people fall for it every single time! But very very very deviously misleading.

adam · 21 March 2021 09:30

According to my friend google;

lie: an intentionally false statement
misleading: giving the wrong idea or impression.

So to me a lie seems a bit more direct and I would say provable if you know it is a false statement. Misleading I would say means you can’t be caught out on it as logically.

“Bishopstoke Voters are backing the Lib Dem team to stop the Conservatives here.” for example I would say is misleading, but not a lie. some voters in Bishopstoke will surely back the lib dems, so the statement is valid its just misleading as its a very low percentage.

“Tackling Green Issues” I would say is misleading for the same - they are tackling some green issues, but ignoring the huge gaping other ones that the lib dems themselves are contributing to.

"The result across the borough last time shows its Lib Dem or conservative here". Is an outright lie, but twisted to be misleading because they say “across the borough” so use different stats to try to make their point.

That’s my thoughts. Someone else may be more of an expert than my 5 minute google though ;). I should have listened in english class. Anyone know an english teacher?

James_Charlesworth · 21 March 2021 18:35

Thanks Adam, thought I’d finally join. Normally with these things you can trace the statistics around to specific result. I checked all of the Bishopstoke results and I can’t find one like that, be it from a Local or General Election…or By-election. Maybe I’m missing something and it’s from a result somewhere else. Or maybe they conducted a poll somewhere?

It’s definitely misleading, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a lie without any proof but definitely the Lib Dems should apologise. Is this skewing allowed?

James_Charlesworth · 21 March 2021 19:13

Ok, having looked at all of the 2019 results I can only find 2 that semi match the leaflet with neither being Bishopstoke, neither having an Independent and only one of them having a Green candidate. Nothing fits exactly.

Did they use Bursledon & Hound North or Hedge End South and add in Greens and Independent to the leaflet just to have them on there? Really want to know the source.

jtonline · 21 March 2021 20:58

Those graphs are so annoying!

Presumably exaggerating their support works, and unfortunately the Lib Dems aren’t the only party to do that. Maybe PR would help.

TIRAS1 · 21 March 2021 22:55

Hi Sam
Transparency is proving to be rather interesting whilst I cant go into detail we do need a back up. The idea is to get some info. from other councils Fareham is my next step I have got several bits of data but I thought if we could draft in other members to share the work it would help. I intend to ask Cathy to lend a hand received Focus full of nothing but the trouble is the punters believe it

adam · 22 March 2021 07:38

I have no idea - must be since its been going on so long as this obviously isn’t the first time, or the first place… I can’t think of anyone responsible for policing it except for the people themselves by punishing them at the polls for it!

I guess the only way to be sure is to email Anne and ask, the leaflets do say she and her supporters are ready to answer anything.

I see this as a human flaw. We seem to want to back the winning party these days. Once upon a time we used to back the under-dog!

jtonline · 22 March 2021 19:42

Despite attempting to save a few deposits in my time, I don’t remember when backing the under-dog applied to elections.

I would love to have seen the data that suggested there was a Labour surge in Eastleigh, unfortunately us ordinary voters don’t get to see information collected by political parties. Maybe we weren’t the only ones being misled.

jtonline · 22 March 2021 20:26

Thanks but I think I’ll stick to being independent.

adam · 18 April 2021 17:59

Hah, and here’s the real bar chart from the independents in Bishopstoke, which also demonstrates “how really close it is!”. Well done Bishopstoke Independents for being honest and straight.

Source: 2021 Vote to keep Bishopstoke independent on 6th May

jtonline · 18 April 2021 21:34

Wow, I’m genuinely impressed- a bar chart with relevant data, a clear scale, actual numbers and no missing parties! Much better than the usual suspects, and the party claiming it’s time for change.

20210418_222330

I would personally still rather not have the bar charts at all but I can see why they get used. (Unfortunately Labour do also use these kinds of bar charts, just not in Eastleigh for obvious reasons.)