It seems that there is no end to the lies that Claire Ward will peddle. Despite it having been made clear many times – including in a direct letter from Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

She is repeating her inaccurate allegations in her latest leaflet to be delivered across Watford in the few bits Labour still has volunteers:

Interestingly, in this latest leaflet Claire actually includes a photo of David Cameron – in the guise of the a mydavidcameron.com produced poster. It makes little sense that they would place Cameron’s photos on their leaflets, since the very reason that the Tories used Cameron in the posters was because he was deemed to be their best asset…

This is a continuation of Labour’s lies to the people of Watford. The Conservatives fully support Watford General Hospital and will keep it open and improve the services it offers, not cripple it under the weight of the target-ridden culture they have created.

Claire Ward is copying the tactics of Gordon Brown: lie about your opponents policies and then campaign against the straw man you have created. Rather than deal with the real policies of the Conservatives.

As I blogged yesterday, the Lib Dems published a quote in their leaflet purporting to be from the Watford Observer supporting their candidate, which was nothing of the sort. They had previously published precisely the same thing in 2007 and given “written assurance” that it would not happen again.

Which it did – and was then blamed by their PPC on “a volunteer who is new to Watford”, rather than accepting responsibility herself. Where does the buck stop with their own parliamentary campaign literature but with the PPC?!

But what has happened since? Well, the Lib Dems said that the undelivered leaflets containing this quote had been recalled… but I have heard that they are still being pushed through letterboxes.

So the Watford Lib Dems not only publish misleading quotes, they break promises and blame them on other people. And then they break their promises all over again!

They have distributed a constituency-wide election campaign leaflet saying:

Yet this is not a quote from the Watford Observer, but was actually nothing of the sort, but rather a quote taken from a story in May 2007, and clearly attributed to the Lib Dem Mayor of Watford, Dorothy Thornhill.

But what is possibly the worst bit of the apology from the Lib Dem PPC is this bit:

It was a mistake by a volunteer who is new to Watford and wasn’t picked up by our proof reader.

Blaming a volunteer for a constituency-wide leaflet! It’s not like a local one that might not have gone by her. She should take the full blame herself, not pass it on. The buck stops with her, not a volunteer!

And this is the second time that they have done this, and last time:

Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Watford Sal Brinton apologised for the error and promised a written assurance that it would not be repeated.

But they have done it again! Obviously the Watford Lib Dems can’t be trusted to keep their promises.

Look at the two pieces of evidence below. One is Ward’s leaflet, and the other is a letter from Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, stating categorically that there is, was, and never has been any intention of doing that.

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This claim started when Mike Pennning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, talking about the closure of Hemel hospital said:

If we start from scratch for a hospital looking after three big areas, it wouldn’t be in the middle of either Watford, Hemel or St Albans. It needs to look after all three of these areas.

If. Big if. But they’re not going to, because Watford General is going to stay open. If Mike Penning was not going to try and fight the corner of his constituency, he wouldn’t be doing a very good job as an MP, would he?

What Labour and the Liberal Democrats have done is taken this quote massicely out of context and tried to use it to attack the Conservatives, despite Andrew Lansley having previously visited the hospital and made it very clear that it is here to stay. And yet Labour keep on lying about it, with even Health Secretary Andy Burnham getting in on the act.

The Conservatives have made it very clear: Watford General Hosipital is here to stay. Anything else is a lie, and doing nothing more than undermining politics and democracy in this country. Claire Ward should be ashamed of herself.

And let’s not forget her second-home expense claims!

The sooner she loses her seat the better.

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Absolutely no mention at all of sainted Vince’s appearance in the town. In fact, all the advertising there has been on this is one little story in the Watford Observer – which, to be honest, most people don’t read.

When David Cameron came to Watford back in March to do an episode of Cameron Direct, adverts were everywhere: on the front page of the Watford Observer, leaflets were posted through doors, and I was even at Watford Junction very early one morning handing leaflets to commuters.

But Cable’s visit? Nada. Obviously the Lib Dems just want to fill the venue with their own supporters rather than opening it up to real constituents.

And yes, I have requested a ticket.

UPDATE: The Lib Dems have now put this up on their website – as a direct result of this blogpost. Which is nice. Pity I haven’t yet had any response on my request for a ticket…

Hertfordshire County Council has been asked to respond to a Government consultation on plans “to encourage” the introduction of 20mph zones or limits in residential areas and where there are lots of pedestrians and cyclists, such as schools, shops, markets and playgrounds.

The problem I have with this is that 20mph limits will do little to improve safety. Speed isn’t the enemy, inappropriate speed and lack of awareness is.

30mph is fine for pretty much all roads pretty much all of the time. Slowing motorists down won’t automatically make them roads safer for pedestrians or cyclists; it may even have the opposite effect as the slow speed encourages attention to wander and the thought that it too slow to really hurt someone – espite how inaccurate that is.

There are far better ways to increase the safety of cyclists: more cycle lanes. This is something I have written about several times. It’s a simple addition that will save countless lives, as well as making cycling far less nerve-racking for all. If there were proper cycle lanes in Watford, I might even go back to cycling to work!

As for pedestrains, more pelican crossings (that’s the zebra crossings with traffic lights if you don’t know) would help them. Alongside tougher sentences for dangerous driving – one the few things where I agree with my MP Claire Ward (Justice Minister, Blair Babe, and New Labour apologist). Dangerous driving is unacceptable and the current maximum penalty is just not long enough to deter people.

We already have a 20mph stretch in my part of Watford – and it is pointless. It is in a place where there are very few pedestrians and is rarely if ever obeyed – even the buses speed through it! 20mph limits can be useful if they are in the correct area – and even time-limited, such as during school starting and ending times – but they rarely are.

What is interesting is the reaction amongst the Lib Dem blogosphere and twitterati to this. They all automatically and without question fell into line behind her as soon as her so-called “clarification” was published – because Lib Dems, despite their rhetoric, are the most tribal of all political parties. What is most amusing is the attempts by Lib Dem Voice to smear Iain Dale as a “churnalist” after his post on the issue, saying:

Tory blogger Iain Dale should perhaps have paused before clicking ‘publish’ on his latest – highly inaccurate – post, How Very Illiberal of a LibDem Mayor. Those few seconds’ hesitation would have been sufficient for him to do a quick Google and find out what he was about to write was nonsense.

Except (a) I don’t believe that it that wasn’t published when Iain wrote his post and (b) doesn’t answer why this ban was brought in. The reason put forward by Dorothy Thornhill has changed from “they might be paedophiles” and “the government made us!1!!” to “the staff can’t do their job with parents there”. Make up your mind, dear.

Of course, Lib Dems just can’t accept that one of their own could have possibly been wrong. Some just go around trying to make out that this is some kind of non-story, despite the fact that it quite obviously is. And neither can they pass up the opporunity to make party political points when accusing others of doing precisely that!

In fact, I don’t think I’ve found any Lib Dem who isn’t blindly supportive of Dotty and her illiberal ways – whatever the reason they eventually settle on as the “real” one, there is no denying that it is illiberal. Not that it should surprise anyone that the Liberal Democrats aren’t exactly liberal.

a positive decision to safeguard children, by ensuring that all children left at a supervised play session are only left under the care of qualified CRB checked and legit staff.

This was her original defence of the ludicrous plan – backed up with the assertation that she was merely enforcing government policy. This was then branded “a joke” by Ofsted – as only those who are working with children, not to prevent parents from being with their kids.

Not very surprisingly, Dorothy took fright when it was picked up by the national media and she realised that she was going to have to explain herself. So she deleted her original post – though her tweets still had links to it! This post was later re-made after it had been reclaimed from the ether.

Dorothy now had to change her reasons as she must known – or was then told – that her original excuse was fallacious. She then spent her morning working out how best to spin it (presumably at the cost of Watford taxpayers) and came back with the so-called “real story”. Which is almost a complete reversal of her original post.

No mention of Ofsted or CRBs or protectiong kids from paedophiles now, but rather this ban was put in place because “a handful of parents have been staying on, not just dropping their kids off” and that “staff that run the facility felt that the presence of these parents was hampering their ability to supervise the kids properly”. If that’s the case, these so-called “play rangers” (what a stupid name) aren’t properly trained.

This is a clear case of local government jobsworths. Dorothy Thornhill decided to ban parents because she’s illiberal, picked the currently popular “everyone’s a paedo until proven otherwise” line and ran with it, obviously not expecting to be challenged.

But she has – and has been roundly criticised for the fool she is (serously, I don’t think there is a single non-Lib Dem person who supports her in this, something I’ll come to in another post). And it has even been suggested that this may ensure that the Lib Dem’s won’t win Watford at the general election. Which would be good.

I am a Government whip which means I tend to be in the house for longer periods than other MPs… [I] often work until around 10.30pm at night. I often have to come back to the House very early the next morning.

If your party work is what keeps you at the Commons, then your party should be paying for your second home – not the taxpayer. But that’s just her standard pig-in-the-trough attitude rather than real point of this post.

Now she has been exposed, she has decided to change tack and go down the old Blairite “whiter than white” route, saying now

I voted for these proposals because I recognise the need to support a package of proposals that will bring about change to MPs expenses and allowances.

If you thought that MPs within 20 miles of London shouldn’t be able to claim more than the £7,500 London allowance, why have you claimed so much money for a second home? If you believed in a transparent parliament, why have you voted against almost every bill to make parliament more tansparent – except for these last two? Would that not be simply because your boss Gordon Brown decided that he needed to do that to try and get some authority back, rather than because you believe in it?

Let me answer that last question for you: Yes, that is precisely why. You didn’t vote for these bills because you believe that it is wrong for MPs so close the Westminster to have a second home on the taxpayer but because political expediency made you. If you believe what you voted for, you would repay the excess money you have claimed over the years…

You are a hypocrite, Claire Ward. Watford deserves better.

Claire Ward has claimed the full second home allowance of £23,083 for the second year a row, despite her constituency being so close to Westminster – barely more than half an hour by public transport!

How can she possibly justify claiming so much of our money rather than have an hours worth of communting every day? Yes MPs work long hours, but that’s no excuse for charging us an extra £23,000 a year! I’m really not surprised that she voted to keep her expenses secret now know what they are.

Gordon Brown, for whom Ward works as a senior Whip, has now decided that the second homes allowance should be scrapped. That’ll upset her, I bet. She’d no longer be able to get rich off our backs!

However, the second homes allowance won’t be scrapped, and it shouldn’t. But it sure as hell needs a huge overhaul.

Watford deserves better.