3/30/2008

Could a Tory be Antony Little's stalker ?

The controversy over a some allegations of stalking Conservative Councillor Antony Little seems to have excited Iain Dale and the hunt is on to discover whodunnit.

As always in these cases, the Conservatives drop big hints without actually pointing the finger (due to, well, no evidence) .So, all-in-all, Antony Little looks like the innocent hard-working Councillor and Lib Dem Youth are left to look a bit shifty.

And that's what started me thinking. Cases of harassment via the internet are not new or uncommon (sadly). If the Conservatives had left this alone, very few people would ever known or have cared. But ... Lib Dem involvement in a smear plot attracts a large readership of floating voters in Norwich South and from around the county.Could it be that this albeit rather time-consuming stunt was not designed to besmirch the good name of Cllr Antony Little (as claimed) but to give plenty of sleaze ammunition against his Lib Dem opponent ? After all, who would be stupid enough to be so clearly partisan ... which was bound to cause trouble? It just doesn't add up, and with the Conservatives being the only winners you have to ask if somebody with a lot of time on their hands and a devious mind could just have dunnit...

NOTE - The text above was largely taken from a posting Cllr Antony Little made a few months ago regarding a scammer attempting to impersonate and misrepresent North Norfolk Lib Dem MP on Facebook and via e-mail. The only parts of Cllr Little's own posting that have been changed are the parts in red or in italics, which largely involve changing the incident and the references to "Tories" for "Lib Dems".

Sadly, at that time, Cllr Little took the partisan and ill thought out line that it was all made up by the Lib Dems deliberately in order to smear the opposition.

Now the boot is on the other foot and the Tories, in the person of Cllr Little, is mentioning (although no clearly pointing at) the Lib Dems. Isn't there a touch of hypocrisy here ?

Now let me make clear from the outset, I actually believe Cllr Little in this case. I believe it is not the sort of thing that one would lie about and I think whoever is doing this to him is totally out of order. I also don't think, as my rather sensational headline (copied again from Cllr Little) states, that the Tories are behind this. Clearly the person doing this to Cllr Little has an axe to grind and I am sure it is not pleasant at all for Cllr Little and offer him by sympathy. But I hope it makes Cllr Little realise that when he hurls accusations around at the Lib Dems, like he did when Norman Lamb suffered from not too dissimilar problems last year, that he would think in the future before making claims that are upsetting and untrue.

"There but for the grace of God go I" is a good line to follow.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh ... hoisted by his own petard.

Anonymous said...

Norman Lamb was stalked on the net - Cllr Little is recieving phone calls, texts and having his data abused. I think you've got this wrong Nich.

Anonymous said...

The difference is that Cllr Little DOES have evidence and DID go to the police.

Antony said...

Thanks for a laugh Nich witht his post but the two are not in any way the same.

A senior LibDem has now admitted to at least some of this and resigned his position in the party. A decent and honourable thing to do given the circumstances. Well done him; I will update my blog later to reflect this.

Nich Starling said...

I am pleased this has been sorted out. It must have been a terrible worry for you.

I am also pleased you received more help from your political opposition that Norman lamb received from his opposition, and I hope you take my point that these things, from your own personal experience, are far too complex to inflict on one's self, as was your rather rude assertion some months ago.

As for the comments by mr Anonymous, made with two minutes of each other and from the same IP address (86.133.248.152), how brave you are ! i know you use Windows XP, MSIE and that you got here from a link from Antony's blog, now be brave enough to out yourself.

Pages