Keep it clean, Kramer

But it's only good if political Parties put the community first and give people an honest choice.

Politicians are among the most mistrusted people in the country. Can they be surprised? Since being selected in Richmond, I have been appalled by the standard of Susan Kramer's literature. I have been hugely disappointed that proper political debate has been next to impossible [see below: A Catalogue of Grubby Politics].

For the record, I am sure that Susan Kramer is not a bad person. But like so many of our politicians, somewhere along the line she has forgotten that power is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The effect is that her pursuit of votes has come to trump all other considerations, including decency and honesty.

The Richmond Park constituency is full of intelligent people who can handle proper, grown up debate. In my own literature I will be critical of my rivals, but in a truthful manner and on issues that matter. I expect the same from Susan Kramer.                         

Please support my call for cleaner politics - Click here to sign the petition.

Zac Goldsmith

The information you supply us with will be treated by us in the strictest confidence in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and will not be passed on to any third parties. From time to time we may contact you with details of our campaigns and policies. If you do not wish your data to be stored in this way you should email us at: campaign@zacgoldsmith.com

• Read Zac's radical proposal for a new politics
• Click here for Zac's rebuttal of the latest Lib Dem smears
• Fighting dirty is not accidental to the Lib Dems - they are specifically coached and encouraged in how to do it, by their own party. This depressing Guardian article explains how.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/feb/03/lib-dems-elections
  

Example 1

Susan Kramer claimed - in Parliament - that Zac Goldsmith had “written to local papers arguing for the closure of Heathrow and its replacement with an estuary airport.” This, she added, “would definitely be a wrong decision.” Richmond and Kingston journalists know that this is a fabrication, as does Susan Kramer. Zac has never suggested closing Heathrow, and has never advocated replacing it with an estuary airport. His views on both are well-known and well documented. Residents and even national organisations such as Greenpeace have demanded that Susan Kramer either clarifies her comments or retracts them. So far she has refused even to respond.

Example 2

Susan Kramer tells residents "Zac Goldsmith has confirmed that he will move back to Devon if he fails to beat Susan Kramer". An entire page is devoted to informing people that Zac Goldsmith is "committed to Devon", not Richmond. "Local people," she says, "are asking if he really cares about them and this area." To reinforce the point, she even includes a map showing the 200 miles distance between Devon and Richmond. Her 'news' story is based on an interview Zac did with The Times, where readers can see for themselves that Kramer's allegations are utter nonsense. Zac grew up in Richmond and went to school in Richmond. He has lived in Richmond most of his life. He even turned down the ultra safe Conservative seat of East Hampshire in favour of Richmond Park, and has made it clear that Richmond is the only place he will ever seek to represent in Parliament. When he was selected for Richmond Park, the late Malcolm Richards, former editor of the Richmond and Twickenham Times, praised Richmond's Conservatives for its "wise choice in selecting a local boy". He added: "Zac will unquestionably give the Lib Dem incumbent Susan Kramer a run for her money'.

Example 3

In fact, the Conservative Party has flat ruled out any Third Runway after the next election. The pledge will form part of the Conservative Party manifesto, along with a promise to protect runway alternation and develop a high-speed rail network. The Lib Dems are keen to sow seeds of doubt about the Conservative position because they would prefer not to lose Heathrow as an election opportunity. But the fact remains that if the Conservatives form the next government, there will be no Heathrow expansion. For anyone genuinely concerned about Heathrow expansion, that is cause for celebration.

Example 4

Susan Kramer has gone to great lengths to persuade North Kingston Parents that the decision to build a new secondary school is down to her hard work. However just a year ago, Susan Kramer described the Conservative campaign for a new secondary school in North Kingston as "deeply irresponsible". She told Ham residents that a new school in North Kingston would threaten their own Greycourt. She told Coombe residents that the campaign would threaten Coombe Girls. But alarmed by an impressive parent's revolt, she now says: "I have been campaigning on this issue since 2004." Kramer's false claim has angered local campaigners who fought tooth and nail against the Lib Dems to secure their cooperation. Local parent, Angela Norton-Bilsby, who led the Parent's campaign said: "The Conservatives have helped to steer us through the processes, helped us to garner information and generally keep us informed where the current administration would have left us in the dark."

Example 5

Susan Kramer's Council angrily refused to support Zac Goldsmith's referendum on Sainsbury's in Barnes. Kramer herself even complained about Zac Goldsmith's initiative to the Electoral Reform Services. But when the community backed the campaign in huge numbers, the Lib Dem message swiftly changed. Kramer sent out a leaflet seeking credit for an initiative she opposed.

Example 6

Barn Elms was saved. But it was saved from Susan Kramer and the Lib Dems, not by them. It was Susan Kramer's Lib Dem Council that tried to sell Barn Elms to developers. In response, Barnes Vision emerged as one of the best examples of a community fight back. Commenting on Susan Kramer's 'newsletter' one member of the Barnes Vision said: "This is totally outrageous. We saved Barn Elms against Lib Dem opposition, not because of them. They were totally obstructive. How can Kramer take credit for this, when it was local people supported by her rival Zac Goldsmith, who pressured the Council and worked so hard to secure the funding?"

Example 7

Example 8

Zac's letters rebutting Lib dem claim's

Some reader's comments:

Comments
What really distresses is whispers of ruthless excess by the Liberal Council.

Comments
Ms Kramer, like many other politicans, should be focussing on her job, not what other people are up to and discrediting them. People really do need to wake up and realise that many politicans behave like this and actually complain, rather than sit back and do nothing as usual.

Comments
I was appalled by Susan Kramer's leaflet. It must be a sign of desperation on her part that she gets personal where she needs to be political. Disgusting.

Comments
It's about time South West London's Lib Dems dropped their codified book of ‘dirty tricks’ - “Effective Opposition” – with one of their mantras: "be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly". This has no place in politics today. The strength of the Lib Dems' political arguments should be enough - or there is something wrong with their arguments!

Comments
Politics is for grown ups with mature and polite debate.

Comments
For a cleaner picture in politics

Comments
Integrity matters - younger people have little respect for politicians and consequently are apathetic voters due to their perception of low standards of behaviour demonstrated by mps. Susan Kramer would do better to set an example to voters by conducting her campaign in a positive manner not falsifying about her opponents.

Comments
Unfortunately for her, she has come up against someone fiercely pro active in the community in yourself and is also up against someone who is successful in connecting directly with the needs of the locals and she is simply running scared at this stage pre election. Her behaviour and line of attack is sadly defensive.

Comments
Apart from improving the standard of her literature she must also tell the whole truth. I would also have liked her to bother answering emails, written to her when I had my own business, concerning Heathrow and travel a couple of years ago. I feel she concentrates on matters that give her the best publicity and are sure winners for her.

Comments
I have been appalled for some considerable time by the 'grubby' and underhand tactics of those who purport to serve us, not to mention the extraordinarily undemocratic way they go about forcing upon us schemes that many of us don't want. Keep it clean for the sake of the people you serve and show a bit of humanity, I say.

Comments
This MP and Council have provided outright lies to the borough for long enough, the disgraceful photograph and smear campaign aimed at Zac personifies the type of people we have in power, willing to distort any information to attempt to gain an advantage. Their latest little ploy is to have an innocent fact seeking questionnaire circulated that if completed in good faith provides her and the Council with data, that could easily be quoted out of context for use in her and her council cronies other reprehensible activities to extract more stealth taxes from the residents of this borough.

Comments
We expect gutter politics from the likes of the BNF - but surely not a once-respected party like the Liberals! It's time to put a stop to the ill-advised shenanigans of the Liberal spin doctors.

Comments
Politics needs to regain its credibility - sleeze and smear campaigns are not what voters, indeed citizens of this country want. We need morals, truth and credibility. Slanederous campaigning should be outlawed and all parties should subscribe to it.

Comments
What we want is people to represent the issues that are important to all of us living here. And just to focus on those issues, not wasting time slagging off the enemy. What a refreshing change if we could all work together.

Comments
I want my local MP to be someone who has a clear vision of what he/she is trying to achieve, who has a clear and distinctive voice at national level and won't be browbeaten by the party whips, and who has an instinctive grasp of what issues are important to local people and deals with those rather than ones which might make the best headlines. I do NOT want a dutiful party follower who is prepared to jump on and off any passing bandwagon, which is what our sitting MP seems to like doing.

Comments
Voters need to trust their politicians and twisting the truth will gain them no votes

Comments
Keep Richmond politics clean. I ask the Lib DEms to keep to the issues and discuss these openly and cleanly in the months ahead.

Comments
I am appalled by some of the literature that Team Susan Kramer churns out. In these times of information overload I would have thought she could find a better medium for some of the rather inanne messages that have recently made their way into the waste system.

Comments
I am appalled at the catalogue of subterfuge initiated by Susan Kramer and the Liberal Democrats. This dishonest behaviour deserves to be exposed as widely as possible.

Comments
Please start printing the truth!!

Comments
About time somebody blew the whistle on our not so Honorable Member

Comments
The Lib-Dens have nothing to offer the British people - either at government or council level. In order to hide this fact I suppose they will have to resort to less than honest tactics. It is the only weapon they have. Good luck to you Zack Goldsmith

Comments
Lib/Dems will steal or claim glory for anything they think will promote their cause. It is common for them to resort to dirty tactics by avoiding issues on which they have no policy and promoting personal attacks on rivals as a means of distraction for their incompetence.

Comments
Polititions who play dirty are obviously forgetting how to get their point accross as all we, the public, do is switch off and not vote for them. Polititions should be reminded of why they are there and for whom they are, or should be, working for.

Comments
It is high time that politicians took cognisance of the fact that we as voters are not prepared to tolerate unacceptable behaviour lacking in moral values.

Comments
Susan Kramer has repeatedly tried to mislead the voter with inaccurate statements. Ms Kramer should remember that "what goes around comes around"

Comments
Politicians should work to improve conditions in their constituency, not waste time mud-slinging

Comments
It was ever thus during the last fifteen years--the liberal stance seems to have been 'dirty ' politics at best certainly underhand.It also follows the Labour mantra of repeating something often enough and it will be accepted as true.

Comments
Keep it clean. We are here intelligent people no matter you think of us!

Comments
I must say that the standard of her literature smacks of desperation

Comments
very unimpressed with her attempt to jump on new school in Kingston band wagon, having so completely disregarded it previously. Complete about-face when she realised Zac was on a winner.

Comments
It's very clear that political literature, particcularly from the Lib Dems, has become too personal and negative.

Comments
When someone is known to lie about one thing,how can anything else said be believed?

Comments
I have noticed a distinct tendency in Lib-dem literature to smear the conservative candidate unfairly and to exaggerate the achievements of the current member for Richmond Park.

Comments
I had been aware of Susan Kramer taking credit for policies she had previously opposed. This leaves her open to accusations of dishonor and shame. Richmond deserves better.

Comments
I am sick to death of hearing/reading of members of Council/Parliament negatively 'rubbishing' their opposite numbers rather than positively informing us of that which they, themselves, intend to do to enhance our and our environment's life and freedom ...

Comments
People expect and should be able to trust those candidates they have elected to represent them in Parliament. Resorting to grubby politics is the sign of a desperate politician

Comments
We want facts not fiction in our politics, and truth would be helpful too.

Comments
Honesty should be the only policy. Deceit and corruption in Government, even at the very top,is being practiced and should not be tolerated. There should be some form of redress and retribution.

Comments
Standards need to be addressed. We must remember that politicians need to promote decency and respect when attempting to retain their seat

Comments
In this day and age it seems that politics and honesty don't mix. The Liberals seem to take every photo/tv opportunity going and regarding our local party they have a lot of questions to answer before shouting their credentials. Every politician is only where they are because of us (the public), we employ them and expect them to consult and act with us to make this a realy great nation as it once was.

Comments
Politics should be civilised, and the Liberal Democrats are at serious risk of being exposed as being underhand in their dealings while always professing the highest standards - hypocrites in short.

Comments
Susan Kramer does herself no favours by making personal attacks on her political opponent. Zac was, after all, born and brought up in the Richmond Park constituency and has a home here. He has lived in the constituency for longer than Susan and is totally committed to improving the lives of residents of the constituency.

Comments
I was very disappointed at the tone of the latest Susan Kramer newsletter that I received through my door. I support strong debate of the issues but not the nasty comments.

Comments
I am appalled at the lies the LibDems and Susan Kramer churn out. It's so blatant. And not very grown up. Does it smack of panic? It's certainly not good for democracy.

Comments
I was infuriated by SK's volte face on the boys school for North Kingston. I was also very surprised at such tactics fron her. I will now mistrust much of what she says.

Comments
The truth will always come out and politicians should not treat us as people with no memory or intelligence.

Comments
Many people I have contacted here in Richmond are tired of her intrusive arrogance.

Comments
Negative Politics will turn voters off ... we need to debate issues with solid facts.

Comments
The Liberal leaflet that was delivered this month plumbed news debts. It was worse than unpleasant, it was vile!

Comments
I have lived in the borough for 40 odd years and the Liberal literature has always been untruthful and misleading (except in Jo Grimond's time)and I have been ashamed that such people are running our great Borough of Richmond.

The information you supply us with will be treated by us in the strictest confidence in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and will not be passed on to any third parties. From time to time we may contact you with details of our campaigns and policies. If you do not wish your data to be stored in this way you should email us at: campaign@zacgoldsmith.com

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