Election: Labour candidate responds over Blair Donation question
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Josh Fenton-Glynn, the Labour Party candidate has responded to the LibDem challenge (see below) in a contribution to the discussion on the HebWeb Forum thread.
"There has recently been a large amount of hysteria stoked by local political opponents over whether I accepted a donation from former Labour Party leader Tony Blair.
The moment Blair's cheque reached my campaign headquarters I made sure it was sent, uncashed to the national party. In fact my campaign is being funded by local supporters all furious at the damage that this Tory coalition government is doing to our nation and community."
See discussion of election issues on the HebWeb Forum and the HebWeb Election section
The HebWeb has received the following challenge to Labour from the Lib-Dem candidate, Alisdair Calder McGregor
Election: Labour candidate challenged over Blair Donation
Friday, 13 March 2015
The HebWeb has received the following challenge to Labour from the Lib-Dem candidate, Alisdair Calder McGregor
Over the past few days, Tony Blair's decision to give thousands of pounds to Labour battleground seats has become public. Calder Valley is on the list of 106 seats supposed to be the recipients.
Despite being asked several times on Twitter, my Labour opponent Joshua Fenton-Glynn is ignoring everyone asking if he has accepted Blair's Blood Money to fund his campaign.
Labour's illegal war in Iraq – which was shamefully supported by the Tories as well – resulted in 100,000 civilian deaths, destabilised the entire region and has let ISIS take control of vast areas of territory.
Nobody is claiming the deposed Iraqi regime was nice, but when compared to ISIS, which has perpetrated the sexual slavery and torture of thousands of Yazidis, Christians and Muslims of other, more moderate sects it's obvious that what the Liberal Democrats warned at the time was right – that interfering in a complex situation would have huge unintended consequences.
Labour's decision to back George W. Bush's military escapades in defiance of international opinion, based only on a sexed up dodgy dossier of lies and misinformation, was the darkest hour of 13 years of an authoritarian Labour government that dragged the name of the UK through the mud in international diplomacy.
The Chilcott report into the Iraq war – and the decision to go to war – still remains shrouded in secrecy, not to be revealed until after the election. But for those of us who opposed the war from the outset, there can be only one real conclusion – that Tony Blair should not be swanning about the US making millions from speaking to American Conservatives, but defending his actions in a War Crimes trial in the Hague.
Joshua Fenton-Glyn needs to come clean about where his campaign money is coming from. Is Calderdale Labour funded by Blair's Blood Money?