Two malicious peas in same slimy pod

After a break from blogging, I've decided to get back into it. I've been asked to post the text of my 2006 Tribune article, in which I compared the Liberal Democrats to the BNP in pandering - in their campaigning methods - to the lowest common denominators in British politics. Nothing much has changed.

There are two parties where it is said that just talking about them gives them more legitimacy than they deserve: the fascist British National Party and the cosier Liberal Democrats. Neither is a party of solid, time-weathered principles. Both are active seducers of the angry, the impotent, the dissatisfied and the marginalised. They feed on issues that allow them to become receptacles for protest votes. Their entire existence relies on negativity.

In my years as a member of the Labour Party and active trade unionist in the GMB, I have fought the BNP on many doorsteps. As a press officer for my union, I was certain it was right to name and shame a “dirty dozen” BNP activists with criminal records. I received a range of surprisingly creative death threats as a result, which only demonstrated that the correct course of action had been followed.

A comparison between the Lib Dems and the BNP isn’t drawn lightly. The Lib Dems are not a bunch of overt racists. Nevertheless, there are similarities in their campaigning methods. Also, where they think they can win votes, the Lib Dems can be every bit as divisive as the BNP, particularly at a time when they are desperately seeking a unique political anchorage, with David Cameron’s chameleon Tories eyeing their territory. Look at the vicious campaign the Lib Dems fought at the recent by-election in Bromley.

True colours are never hard to discern. Look at Burnley where, in 2004, the Lib Dems were more concerned with ousting a Labour administration than opposing the BNP. Consider Birmingham, where the Hodge Hill by-election saw the Lib Dems putting out two kinds of leaflet: one for the Asian areas showing Asian voters, and another for the white areas with Asian voters expunged.

Look back to 1993 and the Isle of Dogs where the Lib Dems sought to exploit BNP propaganda and ended up assisting in the election of a BNP councillor. Further back, what about Simon Hughes as “the straight choice” against Peter Tatchell in the 1982 Bermondsey by-election?

Last October, I was the Labour candidate in a council by-election in Streatham South. The full, obsessive Lib Dem arsenal was aiming to gun me down. It misfired, and then exploded on itself in the borough-wide elections in Lambeth in May this year.

The Lib Dems’ shambolic alliance with a handful of Tories had been disastrous for Lambeth, with a 38 per cent council tax rise, £3 million lost in fraud and a parking fine system that amounted to piracy.

One of the most serious faults of the Lib Dems in Lambeth, apart from their obvious incompetence, was their willingness to divert much-needed resources away from the most deprived areas - often those with the highest black and ethnic minority populations. This was coupled with an enthusiasm to impose the borough’s least attractive amenities on those same areas. For instance, they were enthusiastic about bulldozing a public park simply to give Lambeth’s dustcarts a home.

Lib Dems exploit fear and division within communities to win votes. Consider this advice in a Lib Dem campaign handbook: “Be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly”. In Streatham, they claimed, wrongly, that Labour had cut 40 “local” police, and told voters we would be spending more money “in Brixton instead”.

In Lambeth, there is a subtle Lib Dem code for “black”. You won’t find it in any handbook. It relies on exchanging one “B” word for another. In Streatham, there were constant references in Lib Dem leaflets to Labour’s plan to “spend money in Brixton” and “snatch the money to build a second school just for Brixton”, clearly hoping to pander to racist sentiments. In the council chamber and on the streets, I’ve seen Lib Dems in full battle cry. These people, like the BNP, make themselves look ridiculous from one angle, yet they have the capacity to be poisonous from another.

For four years in Lambeth, they had two ethnic minority councillors, one of them a former parliamentary candidate. Neither reached the all-white Lib Dem executive. In spite of their claims about inclusivity, Lambeth Lib Dems returned only 2 black and ethnic minority councillors out of 17 at May’s local elections. Labour returned 12 out of 39. The Lib Dems lost 11 council seats. They remain bitter and ungracious in defeat. Few hands were shaken by Lambeth Lib Dems on the night of May 4. One of my newly-elected Labour colleagues was called “slime” for his efforts by a departing Lib Dem.

The architect of their campaign, a pure maths graduate who left Lambeth’s finances in disarray, was duly anointed as their leader. In one of London’s most diverse boroughs, he is a white, middle-class Surrey male who lists politics and Wagner as his major interests. He has sneered in the past about Labour’s “unthinking vote”. Perhaps the Lib Dems were the ones not thinking when they sought to disenfranchise a whole swathe of Lambeth’s black and ethnic minority population by cutting funds for electoral registration. People can draw their own conclusions.

Labour makes no apology for holding Lambeth’s Lib Dems vigorously to account for their failures. That is the job of a party in opposition. The response of the Lib Dems - the doyens of negative campaigning - was to accuse us of “negativity” and “lies”. It was all a bit rich coming from the party which warns its activists “positive campaigning will not be enough win control of the council”.

Labour in Lambeth ran a tight, focused and organised local election campaign in 2006. We crafted our manifesto and message carefully spoke to as many voters as possible. Unlike the Lib Dems, we believe that any voter is a thinking voter. Unlike the Lib Dems, we promised what we believe in, rather than saying something merely to win votes.

Experience had shown us what we were up against with the Lib Dems: crude propaganda leaflets - shrill and venomous, but effective. Just as the BNP resorts to ruthless sensationalism and shrieks out its message, so do the Lib Dems.

In Lambeth, we proved that Labour can be strongly local, strongly critical and overwhelm the Lib Dems’ output while remaining true to a positive agenda of our values. Like the BNP, the Lib Dems specialise in a brand softly-spoken pavement politics that actually rely on suggestion, smear and distortion. Labour refuses to go down that road.

We have a duty to defuse extremism in all its forms. In Lambeth, our first task is to implement our manifesto - thus delivering quality services and tackling inequality. At the same time, we will continue to shine a spotlight on Lambeth’s Lib Dems and Tories for their failings, nationally and in this borough.