Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Dear Adrian Sanders,

I am writing you this open letter following the startling and rather disturbing revelations in Saturdays Herald Express under the headline ‘Mayday, Mayday, Lib Dems at War’.

I do not wish to be drawn into the bitter wrangling between your party and yourself but I am concerned on behalf of a large number of your constituents about allegations made concerning the Torbay First campaign launched last year to oppose a directly elected mayor.

Although the campaign was fronted by Cllr Ruth Pentney, one of your
employees, you repeatedly claimed that this campaign had nothing to do with you.

You were asked about your involvement several times and on each occasion you stated categorically that this was an independent campaign in which you were not involved.

It now transpires – according to your own council group leader Cllr Gordon Jennings- that the Torbay First scheme was apparently cooked up by you in your own home.

“It was devised in Adrian Sanders kitchen…. It was formed after discussions with Adrian, Party officials … and councillors including myself and Chris Harris” he says in Saturday’s newspaper.

So the campaign to stop Torbay having an elected mayor was, according to your most senior councillor, devised to ‘appear’ independent when in fact it was masterminded by you.

While you were assuring Torbay residents on the one hand that you would work with ‘whoever was elected’ you were frantically campaigning behind closed doors to stop residents having a Mayor at all.

The key issue here is one of trust. At a time when many feel that politicians need to be fully open transparent and accountable for their dealings and interests why aren’t you being open about yours?

Were you involved in this campaign as Cllr Jennings alleges?

And if you were, why did you not say so when you were asked about this by the Herald Express last year?

This is an important matter which I believe has the potential to call into question the integrity of your office as our Member of Parliament.
I therefore urge you to offer your constituents a full and open explanation as soon as possible.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours truly

Marcus Wood

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wondered if someone would pick up on this. Having read the article last week it does appear to highlight the lengths that the Lib Dems were going to in their attempt to win an election they didn't support!
I dread to think what sort of regime we would have had if a Lib Dem had won the mayoral election - though thinking about it we would probably just have had more of the same - Chris Harris MARK TWO!!

What spin will our friend Barrie Wood put on this one then?

Anonymous said...

I thought the most revealing quote in the article was attributed to Mr Sanders who said 'I just don't like losing elections' the clear implication being that he will go to any lengths to win.

Well done for highlighting this issue though, are the press going to do anything about it?

Anonymous said...

This affair will speed the arrival of Mr Sanders' P45 from the electors of Torbay, and not before time.

What kind of man attempts to blame the Lib Dem councillors for the bad result he had at the General Election and then hide behind and anonymous so-called independant campaign to do it?

What kind of a man is it who while he himself is paid thousands in expenses, employs his wife and has had a huge pay and pensions increase then complains when his own councillors accept an independently assessed pay rise which still makes them pathetically poorly paid for the hard work that they do?

What kind of man tells his council group to give in about the elected mayor even when there weren't enough names on the petition and then starts campaigning behind their backs?

What kind of a man is it who actively campaigns to undermine and discredit his own councillors?

Would you want to have this man as your MP? I know I don't.

Anonymous said...

Marcus - you have caught Adrian Sanders with his pants down again! Everyone can now see what kind of a man he really is - a double-dealing liar who will do ANYTHING to get elected. Nevertheless, I think that we should have all seen this one coming. After all, he was one of the conspirators and signatures on the letter to get rid of Charles Kennedy. And I bet he didn't consult the Lib Dem members in Torbay before he did that! Have you every wondered why Mr Sanders has never had a decent role in the Lib Dem Party? It is because they too know he is useless. Adrian would of course blame Charles Kennedy for overlooking his 'talents' remember he backed the wrong horse (Simon 'I'm not Gay I'm Bi' Hughes) in the previous Lib Dem leader elections. Yet Ming the Geriatric has seemingly overlooked him too. He is one of the longest serving Lib Dem MPs but has failed to achieve anything nationally of locally. His time has come to go. You are the one Marcus - Torbay Needs You!

PS – Almost a week has gone by and nothing but silence from Sanders…

Marcus Wood said...

Thank you for your comment 'former lib dem voter'.

I have had a reply (of sorts) from him and I'm trying to decide whether to post it....

Barrie Wood said...

Quite wrong former LD voter - Adrian Sanders has been made Deupty Chief whip by Ming. And, what is wrong with concentrating on his constituency unlike previous absentee Tory MPs !

Anonymous said...

To Barrie, apart from proving to be the less than honourable MP for Torbay, if he is such a great MP for Torbay, then can you please answer this simple question... What has he actually achieved in his 9 years of office? Which equates to £1/2 Million worth of allowances that he has personally claimed since being elected (not including what he pays his wife!)? And then ask yourself, is he really value for money or out of his depth?

Oh and finally on the website http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/shadow.html you will see the shadow cabinet – but no Sanders! Now I know you are going to say that Acting, Deputy, Assistant Chief Whip is a great position to hold and we should all be proud – but no! All MPs have a role of some sort in Parliamentary group at Westminster, the only question I have is – If Sanders has now been ‘promoted’ who is now making the tea?

Anonymous said...

"Who is making the tea"

Mark Oaten

Barrie Wood said...

The people of Torbay only a year ago deemed him 'better value' than a certain Mr. Wood I recall.

Anonymous said...

Barrie,

I see that you have not given us a single example of a great thing Mr Sanders has done for the people of Torbay? £1/2M is a lot of money, so c'mon, I'm sure you should be able to name lots...?

Barrie Wood said...

If you want to know what Adrian is doing go to www.adriansanders.org and even sign-up to his fortnightly email. That'll keep you informed.

What could be easier ?

Anonymous said...

Dear Barrie,

I have taken your advice and searched Sander's website for news. Apart from his latest picture which makes him look like death warmed up, there really is no news of what he has done for the people of Torbay. I mean, there is plenty of comment on what is wrong and jumping on a number of well-rehearsed bandwagons... but alas no news of what he has done for the PEOPLE of Torbay. It seems to me that he cares far more about dolphins than the people who elected him.

One final thing that proves that Sanders is a lying, dishonest fraud…

Look on this page of his own website…

http://www.adriansanders.org/constituency/7/index.phtml

Now you see the picture of Adrian with the delightful ‘Doctor’ who is listening so intently to every word… well she is not a Doctor, and worse still she is infact an employee of Adrian (paid for by us tax payers). She has been dressed up and set up to look like a Doctor! So surely you agree now that he is a fake and a fraud!

ps Liars and Cheats will always get found out!