Thursday, February 26, 2009

South Mcr Distorter: Readers' Letters Innumerate and Immoderate



Former Labour Councillor and current full time angry old bloke Sam Darby is using the letters pages of the esteemed South Manchester distorter to give a master class in obfuscation.

In the recent Didsbury West by-election Labour's candidate David Ellison polled 638 votes. And he correctly claimed that the Labour vote had gone up in absolute and percentage terms.

In 2008 Labour's Jenny Lennox polled 620 meaning that in both percentage and absolute terms the by-election represented a small increase in our vote rather than the meltdown painted in some quarters. The Tories and the Greens did experience quite a slump, but Labour did not. That's the truth of the matter.

Militant Darby goes back to 2007, the last time Ellison himself stood, and where there was a 150-or-so higher turn out, to make a very disingenuous case for a decrease. For goodness sake Sam Darby. Skipping a year of elections that makes Ellison's point and shatters yours.

Next Sam you'll be regaling us with dishonest bar charts for spurious years and borders as those toxic and miserablist Lib Dems do.

It is not hard to understand why ex-Militant Labour and the independent left as a whole don't particularly like New Labour middle-way / third-way / pragmatic-social democracy in national government. Even though there have been various and at times mighty anti-poverty, equality and public services improvements there have been setbacks where the dirigist canopy has ignored the grass roots, for example on the Housing 4th option. Some of us agree, to a greater or lesser extent naturally. There are few absolutes and certainties in grown up politics.

Even quibbling with Manchester Labour in the Town Hall is understandable - ever pragmatic, yet ever progressive - who have not quite managed to subvert and Labour-ise everything the centre has sent down.

Why Sam Darby would want to facilitate and celebrate Lib Dem wins in local wards or the local constituency, or indeed a Tory return to government I really don't know.

MEANWHILE: The Distorter have headlined a very partisan and provocative letter from "Esther" of Didsbury as "Final thoughts on Gaza debate". So much for fairness and balance. And they've printed some water-muddying on MMR vaccination. And Leech muttering. And so on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Surely the perfectly valid point about comparing January's Labour vote in Didsbury to that of 2007 rather than 2008 is that the deceased councillor was elected in 2007 and therefore a direct comparison can be made. This is a widely accepted practice.

Either way, the final result demonstrated that you were either lying or deliberately trying to mislead in claiming that it was a "three horse race" - a claim that you have yet to substantiate or apologise for.

Chris Paul said...

Welcome back, idiot.

"Widely accepted practice" my arse. Dave made a completely true claim about the change in votes from 2008 to 2009 which is actually the normal and logical way to look at these things. As the deceased councillor was not taking part it is utterly perverse and rather offensive actually to tout any "direct comparison".

Sam Darby is like you PUP. He could have a row with a mirror. He tries to contradict a completely truthful analysis and claim someone is fibbing by disingenuously stating another true fact as if the two facts were mutually exclusive.

And he appears to want Lib Dems and Tories to win elections even though he claims to be a socialist.

If you really think that the "three horse race" banter is "lying" or "deliberately trying to mislead" you really should get out more.

It's an election cliche which I was ripping the piss out of. It is mostly used by Lib Dems. Who usually say two horse even when they are lying third or fourth.

If you want to get all anal on our asses perhaps you should contact Rob Addlard and David Bean and demand an apology for their claim that they had in fact overtaken Labour and were lying second. Apart from being plain wrong that would've driven the Lib Dem vote and was piss-poor politics.

Anonymous said...

So when Adlard and Bean tell a lie they are lying, but when you tell a lie it is some sort of post-modern irony?