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| Setting the record straight... |  |
| The truth 'twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools'. "If you Google my name you'll read a lot of ill-informed nonsense arising from the 2010 General Election campaign. It's quite amazing how one newspaper after another repeated and embelished totally inaccurate reports of what I had written on my campaign website. I hadn't made a blunder or been caught-out by a reporter saying something silly which was intended only for private consumption. No, in the context of being a registered candidate in a democratic election, I made a sincere and deliberately public statement of the beliefs I held as a potential MP - a statement and beliefs which I will always stand by. Most politicians and political parties don't want the public to know what they really think or what they do behind their backs. In the minds of David Cameron and his cronies I made one big, unforgiveable mistake as a political candidate... I told the truth. Thankfully, this website sets the record straight - please read to the end and judge for yourself. Thank you." Philip Lardner, December 2010. One of the most scandalous events of the 2010 General Election was the way Prime Minister-to-be David Cameron and his team maliciously defamed and deselected one of their own candidates in order to seek to boost his electoral chances. His actions were not only unfair and unworthy of a man let alone a leader, but his malicious and unfounded comments opened up his Party's loyal candidate to a media fire-storm, with Cameron's lies damaging not only his candidate's political future, but his real-world career and reputation - as Kipling might have said, the truth was 'twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools'. That candidate was Philip Lardner from Renfrewshire. This webpage will prove that his integrity was unfairly questioned, and that it remains resolutely intact for anyone who is willing to see past a cheap and distorted media headline. A point worth noting in view of the 'phone hacking' scandal which has now revealed the extent of media and political corruption in the UK, is that David Cameron's media adviser when Philip was cynically defamed was one Andy Coulson, formerly of The News Of The World... Philip Lardner was selected by North Ayrshire & Arran's Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party to be their candidate for the May 2010 General Election. It would be fair to say that over several years Philip had become recognised in the constituency as a hard-working candidate who achieved some success as a would-be-politician in helping local people with problems; taking up many local issues and trying to maintain and develop employment opportunities in the area. Philip put North Ayrshire and Arran and his principles above petty party politics, and his local association, almost to a man and woman, supported his determination to do this - for them this was the mark of a traditional conservative and unionist. However, for David Cameron's new team at the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party, Philip's principles were becoming rather tiresome. Having spoken out against Cameron's plans to destroy pensions (public and private), and standing up for what he believed to be right for the country on countless issues such as climate alarmism, his public call in late 2009 for proven liars to be regarded as unfit to serve in Parliament, the Police or the Legal institutions was just too much - he was warned that any further utterances would lead to his sacking (after all, we can't have liars excluded from government now, can we?). In April 2010 a Christian couple from Arran who were long-standing Tory voters and party members contacted Philip to tell him that, regrettably, they could not vote Conservative in May 2010 due to David Cameron's anti-Christian agenda. However, after having learned more about him, they said they were delighted to be able to vote for Philip as an individual, despite David Cameron's damage to the party. When at Church the next Sunday, and after hearing of how the so-called 'Equality Act' would force Christian Churches to betray their mission, Philip faced a dilemma. As a Christian and a teacher, he could see that concerns about government policy (as expressed by the Christian Institute, amongst others, see http://www.christian.org.uk/news/parents-face-prosecution-over-gay-lessons-protest/ http://www.christian.org.uk/news/school-kids-could-be-taught-gay-messages-in-maths/ ) required someone to stand up for the rights of parents and Christians in the face of an onslaught of propaganda directed against children. Philip says, "In Church I felt the call to act, and so I went home and composed a respectful and carefully worded statement for my campaign website, to outline to voters in North Ayrshire and Arran how I would act in Parliament if elected as their MP. I felt called to defend the rights of Christians and parents and thought an honest outline of my principles would give voters the choice as to whether to back me or not." He did indeed post a statement on his website, and here it is repeated exactly, word-for-word, as it was written and posted on Sunday 25th April 2010: "Homosexuality is not normal behaviour
With experience as a teacher and as a believer in parental rights and responsibilities, as your MP I will support the rights of parents and teachers to refuse to have their children taught that homosexuality is ‘normal’ behaviour or an equal lifestyle choice to traditional marriage.
I will always support the rights of homosexuals to be treated within concepts of (common sense) equality and respect, and defend their rights to choose to live the way they want in private, but I will not accept that their behaviour is ‘normal’ or encourage children to indulge in it.
The promotion of homosexuality by public bodies (as per ‘clause 28'/section 2a in Scotland,) was correctly outlawed by Mrs Thatcher’s government. Toleration and understanding is one thing, but state-promotion of homosexuality is quite another.
Why should Christian churches be forced by the Government to employ homosexuals as ‘ministers’ against all that the bible teaches? They are being forced by the Government to betray their mission – would the Equality and Human Rights Commission be fined for refusing a job to Nick Griffin?
Christians (and most of the population) believe homosexuality to be somewhere between ‘unfortunate’ and simply ‘wrong’ and they should not be penalised for politely saying so – good manners count too, of course.
The current ‘law’ is wrong and must be overturned in the interests of freedom as well as Christian values.
What does the Bible say about marriage?http://www.gotquestions.org/marriage-bible.html
(end of original statement in question)
Philip explains what happened next; "Two days later I was phoned by the Scottish Conservative Party and asked to pretend my website had been hacked into - apparently my statement had been used by my opponents to stir-up a story in the national media and they wanted me to lie about it. I would not. Partly because this would have been dishonest and partly because I was not ashamed of a word I had said. I did, however, agree to their demands to remove it from my webite and travelled home in my lunchbreak in order to do so. Again, I was not ashamed of a word of what I had said, but when one is a candidate for a Party one does have to follow some degree of discipline and I felt it fair of them to ask me to remove it on that basis. Soon afterwards however (and unbeknown to me, as I refused their demand that I take calls while teaching my class!) a statement was released by Tory HQ in London announcing my sacking." That statement read as follows: 'The Chairman of the Conservative Party in Scotland, Andrew Fulton says:
“The views expressed by Philip Lardner, the candidate for North Ayrshire and Arran, are deeply offensive and unacceptable and as a result he has been suspended as a member of the Conservative party.
“We therefore do not support Mr Lardner’s candidacy in the North Ayrshire and Arran constituency. These views have no place in the modern Conservative party. ”
ENDS
Lucy Gilchrist
Head of Westminster Communications for Scotland'
"Since I had been sacked and was no longer duty-bound by Party discipline, upon returning home I immediately uploaded the original statement back on to my website in full." So there you have it. Sacked as a candidate - and no one had the decency to even tell Philip directly, or the outline the reasons why or under what rules it was done. But, it is now crystal clear - the Tory Party finds a polite expression of mild Christian conscience as 'deeply offensive and unacceptable'. Little could Conservative Party members have known that within a few months Cameron would be forcing a corruption of marriage upon the Country in pursuit of his very unconservative and destructive agenda. During a visit to Moscow in 2011, President Medvedev joked about Cameron being a Soviet sleeper, and with Cameron previously having admitted that it was only after a school trip to Moscow that he decided to get involved with politics, it does make one wonder. During the cold war, Soviet strategists sought to destory Christianity and family values in the West as they were the bedrock upon which the West stood. They knew if they could undermine its Christian foundations then the West would fall. They successfully infiltrated and corrupted academia in Europe and the USA and although the West appeared to have won the cold war through military and economic endurance, it is now clear that the Marxist Soviets won the war of ideas (implanting corrosive and extreme intolerance, deceitfully masked by clever and impossible-to-argue-against buzz-words such as imperialism, racism, feminism, equality, etc.). Just look at the t-shirts around any campus in the West to see trendy, glamorisations of Che Guevara, Mao Tse Tung or Stalin. Have a look at Western or British civilisation now and compare it with the way it was in the 1950s - do you honestly think the quality of life, especially for the younger generations, has improved? The Rev Peter Mullen's excellent book 'The Secular Terrorist' touches upon this and other causes of our downfall as a people and a Christian nation. The next day Philip was placed under a precautionary suspension from his job as a teacher. So what did the papers and media say? Most just repeated Cameron's mock-outrage and cynical posturing without actually looking at what he had really said. When you look at his statement above, Cameron's response was completely absurd. For example, read Gerald Warner's criticism of 'Dave' in the Daily Telegraph: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100036753/the-sacking-of-a-candidate-by-pc-enforcers-demonstrates-why-the-vichy-tories-must-be-defeated/ and here too http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100037711/why-is-philip-bad-but-philippa-ok-and-are-the-tories-accusing-our-troops-of-atrocities/ ...or in The Scotsman: http://www.scotsman.com/news/gerald_warner_vichy_tories_denounce_the_last_conservative_worth_his_deposit_1_1366284 ...where Mr Warner described Philip's statement as "a temperate, measured but uncompromising statement based on Christian conscience and personal freedom. It is not abusive or offensive. " Peter Hitchens in the mail on Sunday of 10th May 2011 criticised Cameron's treatment of Philip too: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1275350/PETER-HITCHENS-If-thought-female-vampires-Dr-Who-scary-.html Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail noted at the time that, "For this expression of traditional Christian - and, indeed, liberal - values, he was not only deselected as a Tory candidate at the speed of light on the grounds that his remarks were 'deeply offensive and unacceptable', but suspended from his job as a primary school teacher. " Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-1270880/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-The-Orwellian-logic-thats-turning-faith-Britain-built-crime.html#ixzz1gARrwmrQ Conservative MEP Roger Helmer, one of the few great and honourable politicians of recent times, reflected on Philip's treatment in August 2010, shortly after The Freedom Association's summer party in the Cotswolds; "Reading the words complained of, the overall impression is of a reasonable, careful man, falling over himself to be courteous and respectful – indeed almost apologetic. He affirms his respect for all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation. He insists that homosexuals should have the same rights as everyone else." See http://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/a-grave-injustice/ Roger adds that "Despite (or perhaps because of) being disowned by the Conservative Party, [as an independent] Philip came a respectable third in this safe Scottish Labour seat, with 15% of the vote, beating the Lib-Dems into fourth place." The Conservative Party refused point blank to explain why Philip was deselected or under what Party rules - they knew David Cameron had clearly broken the Party's rules - but their denial of natural justice is now standard practice. Just look at the corruption shamelessly evident in the internal voting of the Scottish 'Conservative' Party during the recent Glasgow Regional List procedures for the Scottish Parliamentary Elections in 2011. As a result, the Party is now led by someone who wouldn't even have been elected as an MSP at all but for dirty tricks and skullduggery. Philip hopes that this website will convince anyone of a fair mind that he was maliciously defamed by David Cameron and the Conservative Party. If he had the financial resources he would sue them both. Perhaps you would like to help? Philip can be contacted at philiplardner@aol.com As of December 2011 Philip's job situation is still unresolved, but due to legal technicalities he cannot comment further. He remains resolute that he did nothing wrong and events which have transpired since he made his statement (such as the proposed re-definition of marriage) have vindicated his judgement that the alarm had to raised. His strength continues to come from the Word of the Lord: Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day (Psalm 91,5); The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower (Psalm 18,2). _______________________________ A little footnote from History... 'There is no dishonour in a lost cause - the shame is on those who betrayed you' - Spitfire pilot Alex Henshaw (author of 'Sigh for a Merlin') inscribed this message in a copy of his book which he sent to The Hon Ian Douglas Smith (himself a WWII Spitfire pilot), Prime Minister of Rhodesia, 1979.  "It always gave me much satisfaction to know that I was not in politics to make a living and that consequently I did not have to keep my job at all costs. And here I touch on one of the weaknesses of our democratic system: representatives are always looking over their shoulders and compromising on their true beliefs in order to win votes, a process which produces politicians who are followers, not leaders." - The Hon Ian Douglas Smith. |
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