It is not just the Winning here! Posters sited in places where the Liberal Democrats have lost recent local and General Election seats that irk, but election leaflets that tell it as it isn’t.

The Liberal Democrats’ prospective parliamentary candidate for Guildford Sue Doughty’s latest election leaflet (emblazoned There is nothing to smile about Gordon) claims that the Conservatives will “sell off the NHS” and are planning “huge cuts to schools, policing and even defence”.  This is from a member of the party whose leader Nick Clegg declared that Britain needed “savage cuts”.

For the record, it should be reiterated that the Conservatives are the only party to have made a promise to increase spending on the NHS.  The maverick Daniel Hannan was slapped down by David Cameron for making his (very) minority comment about the efficacy of the NHS.

The “huge cuts” alleged rely upon regurgitated funny figures originally published by Labour, which have since been debunked elsewhere including (on the issue of education, for instance) on Channel 4’s FactCheck Blog.

It is generally accepted that whichever party wins the General Election on 6^th May 2010 a severe reduction in public expenditure will have to take place.  We shall just to have to accept the Liberal Democrats’ word for it that their savage cuts will be kinder than those to be imposed upon us by the post-General Election government.  It follows that the spending pledges made by the Liberal Democrats are not worth the leaflet they are printed on.

“Yet with Proportional Representation an entire election can be “wasted”. After a haggle between party bigwigs, the electorate may get no say at all in a choice of government or policy. A change from a system that allows the voters to “throw the rascals out” to one that guarantees Clegg and friends a permanent seat in cabinet with alternating Labour and Tory coalitions would be nice for Nick. But fair?

Vote Clegg, get Brown, could be one result of the system’s vagaries. Vote Clegg, get Cameron, another. Vote Clegg and get the Lib Dems for ever, would be an ironical end to an anti-Establishment election.”

Martin Ivens

“…it may be worth quoting from an official Liberal Democrat election manual, Effective Opposition, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, published by the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors in 2002 and still in use, judging by the techniques seen around the country. On page 21, it instructs Lib Dems to “be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly”. Page 23 advises: “Don't be afraid to exaggerate. For example, responses to surveys and petitions are always 'massive'. If a council is doing something badly, public expressions are always of 'outrage'.” Page 4 advises:“Positive campaigning will NOT be enough to win.”

Nick Clegg uncovered

Enough said.

“Even a small Lib Dem revival could hurt the Tories in target seats. Much larger swings are needed to threaten Labour in its heartlands. At its worst it could be a case of vote Clegg get Brown.”

Martin Ivens

“…the worst of it is that if you do vote Lib Dem in the demented belief that there could ever be such a thing as a Lib Dem government, you won't get Prime Minister Clegg. You'll get Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for five more hole punch-hurling years, because the Lib Dems almost always vote with Labour, and in my years in Parliament I can't remember a single moment when they opposed a Labour measure to expand state spending or state control.

I can't think of anything worse for this country than some great ghastly soggy Lib-Lab coalition, dripping with piety and political correctness and unable to take the decisions we need for fear of offending the vast hordes of public sector special interest groups they collectively represent.”

Boris Johnson

“The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the “raw” results of YouGov surveys in the month up to mid-March, covering more than 16,000 people, indicated that the Conservatives had a lead of more than 12 per cent. However, the figures – leaked to The Daily Telegraph – were then “weighted” using an undisclosed YouGov formula which reduced the lead to six per cent…. In recent weeks, YouGov and Experian, one of the country’s biggest market research firms, co-operated to compile a major study on the voting intentions of more than 16,000 people. Experian concluded that, overall, the Conservative lead over Labour was 12.5 percentage points, with the Tories on 40.8 per cent, Labour on 28.3 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 17.4 per cent. After “re-weighting” by Mr Kellner, the Tory lead fell to six per cent. ”

YouGov pollster “gives Labour an unfair advantage”