Lib Dem smears Green rival as 'extremist' in Norwich by-election

The Lib Dem candidate in last year's Norwich North by-election came under fire from even her own side for a campaign leaflet that accused her Green Party rival of holding "extreme views" on the 7th July terrorist attacks.

As seems to be the form in such examples of Lib Dem mud-slinging, no direct quote was given and comments denouncing the Green candidate, local councillor Dr Rupert Read, are ascribed to the nameless pair "one local person" and "another Norwich resident".

So far, so dirty. Even more so when you take into account Dr Read's response, in which he calls such depictions of his views "both baseless and (in a number of cases) libelous" and condemns "any terrorist attacks on civilians" - together with defending himself against a range of other smear attempts.

Sadly this experience of Lib Dem tactics in Norwich North was probably all too familiar for Dr Read, who wrote an article titled "Those FibDems" exposing false claims made by the Liberal Democrats about the Green Party's chances during the earlier European parliament elections.

According to Dr Read, the main Lib Dem election leaflet delivered to all households across the Eastern regional euro-constituency set about "systematically misrepresenting the facts about the electoral arithmetic".

The leaflet included statements like "The Green Party has no chance of electing a European MP for the East of England", inappropriately basing the view on results in completely different elections.

The lie was given to the claim when, in fact, the Greens missed out on a seat by a little over 1% of the vote.

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