Chesham ans Amersham

[Borin' Baggie]

So you don't have any evidence then? Could have just said that. There isn't a shortage of Lib Dem campaign leaflets you could have posted or anything as evidence. Maybe next time you should have a look at real evidence instead of just parroting what Paul Staines' blog, The Spectator and The Telegraph tell you?

There's a stark difference between voters having a protest vote against HS2 and the Lib Dems campaigning against HS2, the first may have happened (probably did) whereas the latter most certainly did not. The Lib Dem campaign was rather explicit in not campaigning against HS2, unlike the Green Party. The fact is that your accusation has no merit, the Lib Dems didn't campaign against HS2. I've not said anything about farming the NIMBY vote with regards to the housing development in the Chilterns as that most certainly did happen but what most certainly did not is this narrative that the Lib Dems campaigned locally against HS2.

As for Andy Street, my problem with him is that he's campaigning against a specific housing development within my constituency that is under the jurisdiction of Warwick District Council and Warwickshire County Council and not him or the WMCA. Bit different as he's flat out lying that he actually can do anything about it.

The Tory press and Tory toadies scrambling and saying it was all to do with HS2 is pathetic. And you've fallen hook line and sinker for it. Maybe in Batley and Spen they can actually bother to canvass and door knock before the day before the by-election and not have the constituency office closed on the day. Maybe they could have bothered to fix the appalling roads which was an issue that came up repeatedly on the door. Blaming HS2 is an easy excuse but the reality is that neither Sarah Green nor the Lib Dems campaigned against it, and wanting HS2 Ltd to publish their risk assessment with respect to tunneling effects on ground water aquifers is not campaigning against HS2 as she was not saying that she would not push to halt construction of the line, in fact she was rather explicit in her not being able to do anything about construction of the line.

Oh do bore off Borin. Her opposition to HS2 was clearly a dog whistle for a protest vote whether or not it was part of the 'official' campaign or not. Same goes for all those Tory MP's 'personally opposed' to the Heathrow expansion. The accusation has plenty of merit, I know plenty of folk in the 'Chalfonts' alone who voted Lib Dem specifically to give the Tories a bloody nose on HS2 (and the horror of addtional housing).

The biggest hollow laugh I have is that the vast majority of LD voters down there last week were probably also in favour of unfettered FoM. Clearly they didn't realise that 5.3m EU migrants might need somewhere to live.

Don't tell me to bore off when you are making shit up about the Lib Dem campaign in C&A. It has zero merit, if the Lib Dems were opposing HS2 in C&A then it would have been referenced in the campaign literature of which there was plenty (30 leaflets IIRC) yet it isn't and neither you, Paul Staines, The Telegraph or The Spectator can provide any evidence as it doesn't bloody exist.

Voters might well have voted Lib Dem as a protest vote against HS2, but the fact is that the Lib Dems and Sarah Green both made it explicitly clear that the issue of completing HS2 and the route it is going to take was not up for debate. They are two very seperate things, and the Lib Dems weren't even the best party to vote for if that was the predominant issue. The Lib Dem position was in line with that of Fleet and the Tories whereby it was about scrutinising local effects such as the aforementioned effect on water used in the tunnelling replenishing groundwater aquifers in turn potentially contaminating them, do you not think that is worth examining? The Lib Dem and Sarah Green's position on HS2 was much much more for it than Reform UK and the Green Party, both of whom explicitly opposed the construction of it in their campaigns and the latter of whom were posting literature pointing out that the Lib Dems were pro-HS2. If you wanted to vote to cancel HS2 there were parties that were actually offering that and none of them were the Lib Dems. Hell, Cheryl Gillan in particular was a vocal opponent of HS2 and kept getting re-elected on that as a key local campaign issue, much more so than Sarah Green did in the by-election, despite it being in direct contradiction of government policy that she stood for and the Conservative manifesto.

As for the biggest laugh, you're a self professed "liberal" directly contradicting Adam Smith and John Locke on FoM. You like the proposed planning policy do you? You like the centralised state planning system endemic of a big state taken straight out of Stalinist Russia? You like the fact that it bypasses democratic accountability by empowering the Civil Service and concentrating power into the Housing Secretary, the current holder of said position is notably corrupt and seemingly having zero accountability? You like the fact that it doesn't touch on the issue of land banking nor actually bother to incentivise developers to build houses? You like how it doesn't address the problem of individuals or small companies and local trusts not being able to actually purchase land and build on it where there is demand? Just because it loosens planning regulations doesn't make it a good policy, that's the only good thing about it and it's buried in a pile of shite. It's a subtle nod to liberal development wrapped in a nice little authoritarian, big-state package designed to empower the state and the oligopoly that is large housing developers. We're not going to get new houses with this policy, all that will happen is it will be easier for the big developers to land-bank and they will continue to donate to the Tories who will continue to help them land-bank.

The fact is that you don't get a 25% swing on two issues, one which is mirrored by the incumbent party. Your gross oversimplification and parroting of the Tory press desperate to try and downplay their lax and complacent attitude to their heartlands is Labouresque. You want to know why the Tories lost? Because they didn't bother to try and keep the seat.