
TODAY IS THE DAY.
After an intensive by-election campaign, the day of polling has arrived.
Apart from the rain, I have enjoyed the experience tremendously! I have met some wonderful people, walked miles and miles and miles of Denton streets, and helped a few people along the way.
For every resident I have met, I would like to thank them for their support, warmth and encouragement.
During the campaign I have done my utmost to present a positive and passionate alternative to the tired ways of Labour. As you will see from this blog, I have presented my arguments and told you how they can be resolved. I have highlighted Labour failings and outlined my proposals. My aim has been to inform and enlighten.
It has only been in the last week of the campaign that I have felt the need to respond to Labour’s negative and deceitful campaign.
You would think, that after the scandals that have engulfed the Labour Government in recent months, and the death of a gentleman like Martin Wareing – whose passing prompted the by-election – that the Labour powers-that-be would have sat down and decided to run a campaign based on hope and optimism.
Sadly not.
It was campaign that had its foundation in the gutter and its facts in fairy land.
For instance, whilst Labour were claiming that the Conservatives would close down children centres because “they don’t use them”, my Conservative colleague, Hyde councillor Ruth Welsh, was full of praise for the one she had used regularly near her parent’s home in Newton.
Then there were the “10 per cent” cuts lies, and the suggestion that David Cameron would single-handedly close down local community centres such as Denton Festival Hall and Duke Street Youth Centre.
Utter garbage! When did David Cameron suddenly become leader of Tameside Council?!
Furthermore, there was, of course, no mention of Gordon Brown’s projected 13 per cent CUT to public spending, or his laughable boast of a “zero per cent rise” in total Government spending were Labour to win the next General Election.
And then there was the ‘Tories split/website’ story that took up half the back page of one of Labour’s leaflets. A work of pure fiction, we had a good laugh about that one in Manchester Road Conservative Club!
If only Labour had taken the trouble to research their fairy tale they would have known that the supposedly aggrieved former Conservative candidate – Georgina Greenwood – had actually nominated my candidature, and my alleged opponent for the Conservative candidature – Stacey Knighton – had been out almost every day delivering leaflets on my behalf. There was no Conservative split – apart from in the fevered imagination of Labour-friendly bloggers - just a concerted campaign to get our message out to voters.
Neither were there many policies offered by Labour.
Indeed, one of their last leaflets – a glossy A3 leaflet – said very little. The best it could muster was four reasons for voting Labour. Only four, and one of which was the fact that their candidate lived locally. Don’t all Denton residents live local to Denton? There was nothing about local Labour policy or the policies of their Government.
So now it is D-Day, and we shall see which way the voters of Denton North East have swung. Such is the arrogance of Labour that they believe they are going to win and publicly said so days ago on their Denton North East by-election blog.
Now is the opportunity to prove them wrong!
For you have a choice: you can vote:
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For the continuation of the insipid policies of Gordon Brown’s Labour;
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To waste your vote on one of the minority parties – none of which have ever stood in Denton North East before nor have any chance of winning; or,
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FOR ME, FLOYD PATERSON, THE ONLY CANDIDATE WHO CAN END LABOUR’S MONOPOLY IN DENTON AND OFFER A MORE OPTIMISTIC FUTURE FOR OUR GREAT TOWN.
Once again, I thank the people of Denton North East for all their support, and no matter the outcome this evening I look forward to seeing them out and about around Denton in the future.
In the meantime, THERE IS JUST A HANDFUL OF VOTES BETWEEN ME AND LABOUR, so please help me, Floyd Paterson, deliver a knockout blow to Labour in Denton North East today!
Floyd