Letter: Labour’s Allegations Should Have Been Challenged

Published on: 12 Aug, 2021
Updated on: 12 Aug, 2021

From Catherine Houston

Chair Guildford Lib Dems

I apologise for the delay in writing this response but I have been laid low by Covid for a few days and am just re-emerging into daylight.

I read this piece: Political Leaflet Provokes Accusations of Lying and was astonished that The Dragon allowed Brian Creese of Guildford Labour to make allegations about the Liberal Democrats producing an “unremitting barrage of misleading, dubious and lying leaflets and bar charts” apparently over many years, without being asked to provide the evidence behind such a claim.

If journalists allow politicians to make claims without substantiating them then, well, we get disasters such as Brexit. So we depend on you to ask your correspondents to explain themselves.

Obviously, Mr Creese has kept all our leaflets over the years so now, to retain any credibility, he must detail all these ‘lies’ so that we can correct any errors we may have made over anything we have printed as fact. Scrutiny is, as he points out, important – so let’s scrutinise his claims. I’m looking forward to seeing Mr Creese’s evidence, especially if a bar chart or two is involved.

Editor’s response: Brian Creese, chair of Guildford Labour, was invited to comment on accusations by the Liberal Democrats of local Conservatives “lying” in a political pamphlet and the article contained the views of most local political parties. It would simply be impractical to delay publication of a story until each accusation and counter-accusation was referred back but every individual reader and political party has the right of reply on The Dragon a right utilised with this letter.

We will alert Mr Creese to your request for a response.