Election promises
I was pleased, although somewhat saddened to read Mr Inderpal Sindhu’s letter in your publication dated March 29.
I am saddened that Mr Inderpal feels the need to effectively ask the local political parties to treat the electorate with the respect they deserve by not printing and distributing misleading articles in their literature. This should simply not be necessary and residents should be able to accept what candidates and elected representatives of all parties publish at face value.
I am pleased that Mr Sindhu is clearly interested in and cares about his local community and presumably is seeking to vote in the local election in May having read the various leaflets and wanting to have confidence in what the parties and candidates are saying so he can make an informed choice. I am pleased to give Mr Sindhu and all the other residents of Wokingham Borough the assurance he is seeking on behalf of Wokingham Borough Liberal Democrats. I expect all of our local parties Councillors, candidates and activists to be truthful in their leaflets; to set out for residents the genuine changes that a Liberal Democrat led Council would make to the Borough and what they as Councillors and campaigners are doing and will seek to do for local residents – whether already elected or seeking election in order to represent them.
Clearly there will be differences of opinion and policy between the local political parties and that is fine. This provides the electorate with choice, the essential underpinning of democracy. I am only too aware that not everyone agrees with me on everything, but that is a very different matter to deliberately seeking to mislead people to try and gain votes.
If it is brought to my attention that any of my local party’s leaflets do contain unsubstantiated and false claims and that is genuinely the case (not just an accusation), then I commit to Mr Sindhu and the other residents of Wokingham Borough that I will issue a letter to this newspaper identifying the false claim and apologising on behalf of the local Liberal Democrat party.
I fully support Mr Sindhu’s wish to bring honesty and integrity back in to the political arena and I hope this view is widely shared among the residents of Wokingham borough and the other local political parties will make a similar commitment, if they have not already done so. Stephen Newton Chair, Wokingham Borough Liberal Democrats