Chippenham Conservative candidate Michelle Donelan's election leaflet

I'm copying much of this thread from the Community Rail Partnership area, where Chris started the thread for reasons he explains - but I've not copied one post because it was made by another member who's permission I haven't yet got to make it available to a wider audience. I can - probably correctly - be accused of an element of naivety in trusting my words to be used in context ... oh well - lesson learned. Further comment may follow (that will be dangerous as I remain livid at .... )

Permission obtained - post edited to quote the final member's text too

Quote from: Chris from Nailsea on May 01, 2015, 00:08:53

I'm posting this here on the TransWilts CRP^▸ board, as it's perhaps slightly contentious - and purely for the record. Lips sealed

From the Western Daily Press:

Quote

Person pictured on Tory candidate Michelle Donelan's election leaflet hopes rival wins

The headline on Michelle Donelan's latest election leaflet in Chippenham claims 'local people are backing Michelle'

The section of Michelle Donelan's campaign leaflet in Chippenham which quotes TransWilts Rail Partnership's Graham Ellis

The form signed by Graham Ellis giving his quote, and permission for Michelle Donelan's campaign to use it 'in any medium'

A Tory candidate personally backed by David Cameron has been accused of 'a mistake or a deliberate stretching of the truth into a lie' after her latest election leaflet claimed the support of a transport campaigner - who actually nominated her direct rival.

The leaflet, issued by Michelle Donelan, the Conservative candidate in the marginal seat of Chippenham in Wiltshire, had a photo of her with railway campaigner Graham Ellis, who is named, under the headline 'Local people are backing Michelle'.

Mr Ellis denies supporting her to be the town's MP^▸ , although he did willingly provide a quotation on one issue for her to use on election campaign materials.

An outraged Mr Ellis has accused the Tory candidate, saying he did not back her at all ^ and in fact thought her Lib Dem rival would do a better job.

But in a bizarre twist, Ms Donelan showed that even though he protested about being named as her supporter, Mr Ellis had in fact provided her with the quote used in the leaflet - and released a form allowing it to be used signed by the rail campaigner.

Mr Ellis was one of the leaders of a campaign to create a new improved train service from Swindon to Salisbury, serving Melksham and Chippenham, which was successful in winning over First Great Western and transport ministers.

So impressed was Mr Ellis with the support of Chippenham's Lib Dem MP Duncan Hames that he was one of the constituents who officially nominated him, even though he admitted that in terms of national policies, he tended to side more with Conservative policies.

The Conservatives' most recent leaflet, delivered to thousands of homes in Chippenham, Melksham, Corsham and Bradford-on-Avon, quoted the TransWilts Rail Partnership backing Ms Donelan, alongside a picture of their two campaign leaders, Mr Ellis and Phil McMullen.

But in a subsequent blog, Mr Ellis said Ms Donelan would make 'an MP we could work with for the area', but if she won she would be 'more lobby fodder than effective'.

And he was not impressed with being portrayed as supporting her. "I see a party machine doing excellent marketing, and indeed overstepping the mark yesterday, in putting out a leaflet that appears to falsely claim my support for her as MP," he said. "Whether that's a mistake, or a deliberate stretching of the truth into a lie, I have no way of knowing ^ but in either case it's a serious worry if that's the way of the upcoming years.

"But we need a do-er and understander of complex issues, and at present that's not quite so clear to me," he said.

The Chippenham constituency in Wiltshire is one of the Conservatives' main targets nationally ^ it was where David Cameron launched his party's election campaign from, and big-hitters from the national party have returned regularly.

Ms Donelan's campaign to be Conservative MP in the marginal seat of Chippenham in Wiltshire has seen her team send out almost a million leaflets through doors in the constituency.

Polls have consistently put her in front of Lib Dem Duncan Hames, but it is not the first time she has been accused of claiming the support of someone who did not want her to win.

Earlier this month, when London mayor Boris Johnson visited Chippenham, both he and Ms Donelan told BBC^» Wiltshire that the town's mayor John Scragg, supported her ^ despite the fact he's a Liberal Democrat town councillor.

"That's not true, I didn't say that, I just said good luck. I wish every candidate good luck," the town's mayor said.

Michelle Donelan defended the use of the quote from Mr Ellis, and showed the Western Daily Press that he had contributed it himself to her campaign and signed his name on a form allowing it to be used.

She claimed she was the victim of a dirty tricks campaign. "Mr Ellis emailed me and made a similar point (about his non-support). It came completely out the blue though, especially as he wrote the quote and signed the release form at the same time. It's quite clear what he signed.

"I assume that Duncan Hames got to him and it scared him into trying to withdraw it. The Lib Dems are trying every dirty trick in the book at the moment. I will just continue with my positive campaign and we will see next Thursday," she added.

A Lib Dem source said Mr Ellis had written his blog denying he supported Ms Donelan without talking to Mr Hames first, and it was clear Mr Ellis had not realised his quote would be used 'in such a context'.

Comments:
Graham_Ellis | April 30 2015, 5:26PM
It's my quote - I said and signed this: "TransWilts is a vital link for Melksham. Michelle knows how important it is and it is fantastic that she has shown she is to fighting for it to be continued." At least 4 of the 5 canditates support this continuation too, and I was (and remain) happy for Michelle to confirm that in her election literature. But for her team to extend that into suggesting that she has my personal vote in preference to the other candidates isn't correct - and I read now that I'm not the first to have my comments stretched in this way.

As I wrote above - I'm only posting that here, 'for the record'.

* * *

My personal opinion (for what it's worth):

I have met, and have been very impressed with, Duncan Hames. He has given a tremendous amount of very visible and effective support to the TransWilts campaign over the past few (sometimes very difficult) years. Duncan mentioned grahame by name, favourably, in a debate the House of Commons, for example.

I haven't met Michelle Donelan, and I certainly don't doubt her support for the TransWilts campaign. However, as an outsider, I feel the continuity offered by having Duncan Hames re-elected as MP for Chippenham does make sense, from that perspective alone.

I really shouldn't get political on the Coffee Shop forum. Embarrassed

Quote from: grahame on May 01, 2015, 01:37:32

I am "splitting blood" ... "used in any context" to me does NOT give her authority to draw unfounded implications and add extra words implying more (much more) than I said. She's broken trust on this - I applaud her for her support for the TransWilts, which (however) has had to be reminded to her / confirmed a couple of times ... and I'm afraid she's lost my respect by stretching the quotation under a headline and implication that had nothing to do with it.

Just arrived in Newark, New Jersey after a day travelling. More in the morning, and that won't be my usual early morning as (a) I'm tired and (b) I need to let my hair down and let my blood pressure drop too!

Quote from: TeaStew on May 01, 2015, 16:03:08

This makes little difference to the principle which has your hackles upwards - that the proximity of the "local people are backing her for next MP etc" with your words implies you are one of said local people.

BUT: reading it, I don't take it that way at all.

This must be the only piece of her campaign material I have not received (have not yet seen my post for today though) and from the beginning there have been things like this showing her with local people that have made me feel uneasy and makes me think this is just an attempt to associate a name with a good thing.

That probably wont make you feel any better about it but that is my 2d worth. I can definitely see why you are annoyed and the fact the response is that of complete shock and lack of understanding of your point gives me some more to think about in the next week.

Quote from: grahame on May 02, 2015, 08:53:30

When Michelle was initially selected as the candidate, she made and broke three appointments to meet me to learn about rail, campus and Chamber of commerce issues, and to talk to the Chamber at a meeting. Now I'm just one of around 75,000 people she hopes to represent, so I'm rather honoured she took out the time to make those plans - but I became worried even at that point about her organisational skills. But we all have to learn, and once she became a full-time candidate (giving up her day job, and with a minder / assistant almost always with her), such problems have been eliminated and we have seen the reliability to keep appointments much better (there are still, naturally, occasions ... but that applies with anyone in this business).

Previous election material was lacking in technical logic on transport - a survey to constituents from her asked in a single question "Should Bradford-on-Avon have a more frequent train service and Corsham station be re-opened" with a "yes/no" choice offered. My personal view is that every 30 minutes is fine for B-o-A but the trains could do with being longer (NO) but that there should be a reopened Corsham station with an appropriate service on the line so that it's there for more than show (YES). But no way for me to give that answer, and no indiction as to what statistical use could be made of the answer. Very good for getting her name associated with transport though, whatever the views of the responders were on that.

Another previous piece of election material - written for Melksham specifically - has a set of bullet points "what I would do for Melksham. They included a new station at Corsham, improvements to Chippenham station, but no bullet about ensuring that the train service at Melksham that was growing so rapidly, but under threat of cutback in the refranchise this September and further next year, should continue.

It was in light of that latter concern, where Melksham and the TransWilts appeared to be on the sidelines and off the radar, that the quote was written. You'll notice that it refers to Michelle confirming her support for the TransWilts. And it was made not so much to help her electioneering (in terms of confirming she is onside), but also to get her commitment to the service from Chippenham to Trowbridge via Melksham.

This element of the story has not come out ... I am happy for my comments in this thread to be quoted in public.

Michelle could make a good MP - but we have a first past the post system and it's my personal view that Duncan Hames would make an excellent one for the next five years. That's an evidence based view. Should Michelle gain a lot more local knowledge over the next five years and put the various issues raised behind her, she too could move from "good" to "excellent" for 2020. But make no mistake - TransWilts is crossparty, and TransWilts can work with a good MP just as we have worked with an excellent one for the last five years, and indeed we can take a pride in helping said good MP become excellent through knowledgeable assistance with our public transport.