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Political Parties and Elections Bill

I intervene to make a brief point. The noble Lord, Lord Tyler, speaks from the Liberal Democrat Benches and, as always, we know that the Liberal Democrats are whiter than white in the matter that he refers to as carpetbagging. I thought that I might relate to him a short story about elections that I have been involved with. I remember the 1983 by-election for the constituency of Penrith and The Border, where I live. A colleague of mine was elected for the Conservative Party. He was described as an "offcomer" who had come in from the outside, but as the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, will know, the Liberal Democrat candidate was a good local candidate; we hung on to his election literature. At the 1987 election, the same Liberal Democrat candidate stood in the Isle of Wight, where again in his election literature he was described as the local candidate. The Liberals are well known for this sort of stuff. It is not only other parties that are carpetbaggers; the Liberals are just as good as the others.