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g jones · 17-01-2010, 21:00

'RIGGED VOTE' FURY OF DITCHED TORY
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Thursday 28th Dec 1995.

CLAIMS by prospective Parliamentary candidate Hugh Neil of "vote rigging" have been denied by Hyndburn Conservative Association.

According to Mr Neil only one-tenth of the Association's 400 members were notified of a meeting at Oswaldtwistle Conservative Club when there was a vote of no confidence in his candidacy.

Mr Neil has also claimed the meeting was attended by 20 people from Rossendale Conservative Association who were not eligible to vote and are not members of the Association.

Hyndburn Association treasurer Derek Scholes said letters were sent out to all but 17 members, who had either indicated they wanted no correspondence or were very elderly.

He added that the people from Rossendale were eligible to vote because of new wards which were now within the Hyndburn constituency. According to Mr Neil, some members were so disgusted by his treatment they left and tore up their membership cards.

He added: "This rigged and disgraceful meeting does not reflect the feeling of the majority of the Conservative Association members."

Mr Neil has also claimed his late parents have been insulted and he has been the subject of discrimination.

Jim Foster, a vice-chairman of the Association, who is supporting Mr Neil said it was "pretty disgusting" that a copy had been obtained of the late Coun Mrs Ambrozine Neil's will.

Association deputy chairman Stan Horne denied either of Mr Neil's parents had been insulted.

He said "I believe Coun Mrs Neil was a delightful person and very well respected within the Party," he added.

He understood officers from North West area had obtained a copy of the late Mrs Neil's will following a statement by Mr Neil about an inheritance.

SUPPORT FOR TORY UNDER FIRE
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Thursday 4th Jan 1996.

HYNDBURN residents and politicians have voiced support for prospective Tory MP Hugh Neil, who faces de-selection by the area's Conservative Association.

Mr Neil received a vote of no confidence after Tory officials compiled a dossier which they said contained details of discrepancies in his CV, dating back to the 1980s.

Concern for Mr Neil's future is echoed by fellow Conservative Rennie Pinder.

Mr Pinder, ward chairman for Altham, Enfield and Huncoat, insisted Mr Neil was an excellent politician.

"This has come as a blow to the party and knocked us off-course for the next general election.

"I have worked alongside Mr Neil for some time and he has gained a lot of respect. No one is perfect and his past mistakes, on which some people are concentrating, seem trivial."

Tory councillor Jim Foster agreed: "The discrepancies in Mr Neil's CV has been blown out of all proportion."

Councillor Foster's wife Sandra was Mr Neil's voluntary secretary until late last year but she refrained from comment.

Bob Tuffnell, of Within Grove, Huncoat, a member of Huncoat Residents' Association, said that, as individuals, local people supported Mr Neil.

He said: "He is prepared to meet residents face-to-face. He is prepared to stand up to fight for us. We need someone like him to represent us and want him to know that we are here for him."

Another HRA member Sue Gradwell added: "Anyone who supports us is all right by me and he has a lot of positive ideas."

Mr Neil is now facing a January 16 deadline - when he will find out whether he will stand in the next general election - and is canvassing by post the association's members who did not attend the December 12 meeting.

But Hyndburn Conservative Association chairman Win Frankland referred to this as the "action of a desperate man".

MATHS PROBLEM
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Friday 5th Jan 1996.

IT would appear that the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Hyndburn, Hugh Neil, not only has trouble with producing an accurate CV, but also has a little trouble with his maths as well.

In your article, (LET, December 28), Mr Neil states that the vote of no confidence in his candidacy at a special meeting of Hyndburn Conservative Association was rigged and that only one tenth of the 400 members were informed of the meeting and that 20 members from Rossendale were there and were not entitled to vote.

First, the Rossendale issue: as I have it, there were 15 members from the two Haslingden wards (not 20 as stated by Mr Neil) which now form part of the Hyndburn constituency.

Therefore, they had every right to be there and every right to take part in any vote. In fact, Mr Neil made no mention of the members who were only enrolled a matter of weeks before that meeting to bolster his support.

Now, let's take a look at Mr Neil's figures. There are some discrepancies.

He states that only one tenth of members were informed of the meeting. If, as he says, there are 400 members, even leaving out the Rossendale members, there were 55 in attendance. Now, a tenth of 400 when I went to school was 40.

Also given the fact that there were 52 apologies for absence received - which makes around 107 who definitely knew about the meeting - this rather blows a hole in another Hugh Neil statement.

From the other angle, if one tenth of the membership is 107 then Hyndburn was 1,070 members. I know treasurer Derek Scholes has done a great job on membership recruitment, but I don't think he has done that well.

JOHN D FARRER, Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle.

SHUT UP OR SUE US MR NEIL
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Tuesday 16th Jan 1996.

UP FOR the chop tonight, Hyndburn candidate Hugh Neil, the bizarre young man who aimed to become Britain's first black Tory MP, fires a remarkable parting broadside as his deception of his party and the voters reaps a come-uppance.

He accuses us of falsehood.

And, at a public meeting, he launches a vicious personal attack on Lancashire Evening Telegraph journalist Rosalind Train, saying it would be a miracle if she wrote one thing that was truthful.

Let him understand this: we stand by every word we have written about him.

And we stand by our reporter, whose experience and professionalism he seeks to impugn.

Mr Neil, of course, is a desperate man. For he has been exposed by us as a sham, a liar and a person not fit, by law, to be an MP.

He has exaggerated his background and credentials - literally beyond belief.

He has been revealed by us to be an undischarged bankrupt.

Yet, even when dismissing this fact as a "wild accusation," he was actually seeking to have his bankruptcy discharged - as we disclosed last night.

And, as he claims to be the victim of a racist smear campaign, let him understand also that our exposure of the truth about him has, simply, been in the public interest and has nothing to do with the colour of his skin.

It matters not to us whether he is black, white or polka-dot.

Of course, if he doubts that or disputes anything we have written, he has recourse to the law - that covering racial discrimination and that pertaining to libel.

So we say: Sue us, Mr Neil.

Or, for goodness sake, shut up - and clear off.

It is Mr Neil alone, not us or anyone else, who is the author of his misfortune.

As he is deselected tonight it is all that he deserves.

IS THIS WHY THEY WANT TO GAG THE PRESS?
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Friday 12th Jan 1996.

SO THE shambles of Hyndburn candidate Hugh Neil's bid to become Britain's first black Tory MP reaches new heights of sham and farce today - with this newspaper's revelation that the man is an undischarged bankrupt.

And that's on top of all the other things he is, or isn't - in contradiction to his glittering CV that dazzled the gullible Tory selectors.

Embarrassing for them?

Too right, it is.

After all, the man they picked could not, as an undischarged bankrupt, be an MP anyway - by law.

And that's apart from the fuss and fury so far over Mr Neil allegedly lying about his background and the row he stoked up with claims that racist bigots in Hyndburn were out to get him.

But now that he awaits the formality of inevitable deselection, having already been mortally wounded by the Tory association's vote of no confidence, is there not one question that Conservatives at Hyndburn and, moreover, at the party's Central Office need to answer?

Namely, if this newspaper could find out the truth about Mr Neil, why couldn't they?

Just how does a person who is an undischarged bankrupt - never mind, all the other bogus stuff in the background which Mr Neil gave the party - get on the approved list of candidates?

Does no-one check?

Amazingly, Central Office today says it has a comprehensive system for checking the background of candidates.

Well, they could have fooled us.

According to the chairman at Hyndburn, who presided over this debacle, all they relied on was the integrity of the people putting themselves forward.

They have certainly made fools of themselves - and virtually lost any chance they had of clawing back this important marginal seat.

But now the embarrassing truth is out, let us reflect on where it came from - the inquiries of a newspaper investigating the real story in the public interest.

And let us reflect, too, why so many politicians are keen on laws to gag the press - if it is in their interest to keep secret the truth about themselves.

For make no mistake about it, if privacy laws as envisaged had ever come about we would have had a well nigh impossible task in exposing Mr Neil's deception.

TORIES IN BITTER WAR OF WORDS
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Thursday 11th Jan 1996.

THE SPLIT between Hyndburn Conservative members widened this week as would-be MP Hugh Neil returned to the borough to prepare for his de-selection meeting.

Conservative association chairman Win Frankland described Mr Neil as being "on the verge of committing professional and political suicide."

The prospective parliamentary candidate retaliated by saying Miss Frankland and her supporters were "out of touch with modern politics."

Miss Frankland, who has served the association for 30 years, added that she has a "good idea of which way things will go" at the decisive meeting on January 16.

She said she had received a great deal of support since Mr Neil was given a vote of no-confidence when Hyndburn Conservative Association met to discuss discrepancies in his CV.

"People want a candidate to be squeaky clean," explained Miss Frankland, who initiated investigations into Mr Neil's CV last October.

"Mr Neil continues to misrepresent himself every time he is questioned about his past."

She continued: "I don't feel that the association can trust him. He is a very charismatic man but lacks the control needed to be a top politician."

A clearly angry Mr Neil, who is 33 on Saturday, fumed: "I'm a good politician and willing to go out and get involved."

He added that his CV was an honest representation of his achievements.

He said recent events were destroying the association. "We look set to lose the general election now. We had stood a good chance of winning it."

But Miss Frankland insisted: "I think the constituency has been brought together by recent events."

Hyndburn's Labour MP Greg Pope said: "It is clear that there is the same disarray at local level as national level."

Yesterday (Jan 10) Hugh Neil inferred he would sue London-based Afro-Caribbean newspaper The Voice.

It had published an article which made allegations about his private life.

Stan Horne, deputy chairman of the association, also said he was considering legal action against the paper.

RACE CARD
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Friday 19th Jan 1996.

SO THE ghost of Hugh Neil has finally been laid to rest and the actions of the officers of the Hyndburn Conservative Association have been totally justified.

Even so there are questions that need to be answered.

Just what did Mr Neil hope to gain by carrying on with his masquerade - even when he knew he had been rumbled?

Why play the race card - when this was never the issue and he knew it? We must also ask questions of those people who gave him total support.

At worst, they can be seen as stupid to take the word of a man they had only known for nine months against that of people who have worked for the local party for years.

At best, they can be charged with total lack of judgment. Whichever is the case, I feel rather sorry for these people - most of whom I know personally and have always held with the highest regard - that they have been totally betrayed by this man.

Let us now hope we can get back to the business of bashing Comrade Slynn and the Brothers and finding a genuine candidate who will wrest a seat back for the Tories which has been on loan to Greg Pope for the past few years.

JOHN D FARRER, Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle.

17-01-2010, 21:00	#231
g jones Senior Member+ Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,125 Liked: 14 times Rep Power: 732	Re: Potential Conservative Candidate for Parliament 'RIGGED VOTE' FURY OF DITCHED TORY From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Thursday 28th Dec 1995. CLAIMS by prospective Parliamentary candidate Hugh Neil of "vote rigging" have been denied by Hyndburn Conservative Association. According to Mr Neil only one-tenth of the Association's 400 members were notified of a meeting at Oswaldtwistle Conservative Club when there was a vote of no confidence in his candidacy. Mr Neil has also claimed the meeting was attended by 20 people from Rossendale Conservative Association who were not eligible to vote and are not members of the Association. Hyndburn Association treasurer Derek Scholes said letters were sent out to all but 17 members, who had either indicated they wanted no correspondence or were very elderly. He added that the people from Rossendale were eligible to vote because of new wards which were now within the Hyndburn constituency. According to Mr Neil, some members were so disgusted by his treatment they left and tore up their membership cards. He added: "This rigged and disgraceful meeting does not reflect the feeling of the majority of the Conservative Association members." Mr Neil has also claimed his late parents have been insulted and he has been the subject of discrimination. Jim Foster, a vice-chairman of the Association, who is supporting Mr Neil said it was "pretty disgusting" that a copy had been obtained of the late Coun Mrs Ambrozine Neil's will. Association deputy chairman Stan Horne denied either of Mr Neil's parents had been insulted. He said "I believe Coun Mrs Neil was a delightful person and very well respected within the Party," he added. He understood officers from North West area had obtained a copy of the late Mrs Neil's will following a statement by Mr Neil about an inheritance. SUPPORT FOR TORY UNDER FIRE From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Thursday 4th Jan 1996. HYNDBURN residents and politicians have voiced support for prospective Tory MP Hugh Neil, who faces de-selection by the area's Conservative Association. Mr Neil received a vote of no confidence after Tory officials compiled a dossier which they said contained details of discrepancies in his CV, dating back to the 1980s. Concern for Mr Neil's future is echoed by fellow Conservative Rennie Pinder. Mr Pinder, ward chairman for Altham, Enfield and Huncoat, insisted Mr Neil was an excellent politician. "This has come as a blow to the party and knocked us off-course for the next general election. "I have worked alongside Mr Neil for some time and he has gained a lot of respect. No one is perfect and his past mistakes, on which some people are concentrating, seem trivial." Tory councillor Jim Foster agreed: "The discrepancies in Mr Neil's CV has been blown out of all proportion." Councillor Foster's wife Sandra was Mr Neil's voluntary secretary until late last year but she refrained from comment. Bob Tuffnell, of Within Grove, Huncoat, a member of Huncoat Residents' Association, said that, as individuals, local people supported Mr Neil. He said: "He is prepared to meet residents face-to-face. He is prepared to stand up to fight for us. We need someone like him to represent us and want him to know that we are here for him." Another HRA member Sue Gradwell added: "Anyone who supports us is all right by me and he has a lot of positive ideas." Mr Neil is now facing a January 16 deadline - when he will find out whether he will stand in the next general election - and is canvassing by post the association's members who did not attend the December 12 meeting. But Hyndburn Conservative Association chairman Win Frankland referred to this as the "action of a desperate man". MATHS PROBLEM From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Friday 5th Jan 1996. IT would appear that the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Hyndburn, Hugh Neil, not only has trouble with producing an accurate CV, but also has a little trouble with his maths as well. In your article, (LET, December 28), Mr Neil states that the vote of no confidence in his candidacy at a special meeting of Hyndburn Conservative Association was rigged and that only one tenth of the 400 members were informed of the meeting and that 20 members from Rossendale were there and were not entitled to vote. First, the Rossendale issue: as I have it, there were 15 members from the two Haslingden wards (not 20 as stated by Mr Neil) which now form part of the Hyndburn constituency. Therefore, they had every right to be there and every right to take part in any vote. In fact, Mr Neil made no mention of the members who were only enrolled a matter of weeks before that meeting to bolster his support. Now, let's take a look at Mr Neil's figures. There are some discrepancies. He states that only one tenth of members were informed of the meeting. If, as he says, there are 400 members, even leaving out the Rossendale members, there were 55 in attendance. Now, a tenth of 400 when I went to school was 40. Also given the fact that there were 52 apologies for absence received - which makes around 107 who definitely knew about the meeting - this rather blows a hole in another Hugh Neil statement. From the other angle, if one tenth of the membership is 107 then Hyndburn was 1,070 members. I know treasurer Derek Scholes has done a great job on membership recruitment, but I don't think he has done that well. JOHN D FARRER, Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle. SHUT UP OR SUE US MR NEIL From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Tuesday 16th Jan 1996. UP FOR the chop tonight, Hyndburn candidate Hugh Neil, the bizarre young man who aimed to become Britain's first black Tory MP, fires a remarkable parting broadside as his deception of his party and the voters reaps a come-uppance. He accuses us of falsehood. And, at a public meeting, he launches a vicious personal attack on Lancashire Evening Telegraph journalist Rosalind Train, saying it would be a miracle if she wrote one thing that was truthful. Let him understand this: we stand by every word we have written about him. And we stand by our reporter, whose experience and professionalism he seeks to impugn. Mr Neil, of course, is a desperate man. For he has been exposed by us as a sham, a liar and a person not fit, by law, to be an MP. He has exaggerated his background and credentials - literally beyond belief. He has been revealed by us to be an undischarged bankrupt. Yet, even when dismissing this fact as a "wild accusation," he was actually seeking to have his bankruptcy discharged - as we disclosed last night. And, as he claims to be the victim of a racist smear campaign, let him understand also that our exposure of the truth about him has, simply, been in the public interest and has nothing to do with the colour of his skin. It matters not to us whether he is black, white or polka-dot. Of course, if he doubts that or disputes anything we have written, he has recourse to the law - that covering racial discrimination and that pertaining to libel. So we say: Sue us, Mr Neil. Or, for goodness sake, shut up - and clear off. It is Mr Neil alone, not us or anyone else, who is the author of his misfortune. As he is deselected tonight it is all that he deserves. IS THIS WHY THEY WANT TO GAG THE PRESS? From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Friday 12th Jan 1996. SO THE shambles of Hyndburn candidate Hugh Neil's bid to become Britain's first black Tory MP reaches new heights of sham and farce today - with this newspaper's revelation that the man is an undischarged bankrupt. And that's on top of all the other things he is, or isn't - in contradiction to his glittering CV that dazzled the gullible Tory selectors. Embarrassing for them? Too right, it is. After all, the man they picked could not, as an undischarged bankrupt, be an MP anyway - by law. And that's apart from the fuss and fury so far over Mr Neil allegedly lying about his background and the row he stoked up with claims that racist bigots in Hyndburn were out to get him. But now that he awaits the formality of inevitable deselection, having already been mortally wounded by the Tory association's vote of no confidence, is there not one question that Conservatives at Hyndburn and, moreover, at the party's Central Office need to answer? Namely, if this newspaper could find out the truth about Mr Neil, why couldn't they? Just how does a person who is an undischarged bankrupt - never mind, all the other bogus stuff in the background which Mr Neil gave the party - get on the approved list of candidates? Does no-one check? Amazingly, Central Office today says it has a comprehensive system for checking the background of candidates. Well, they could have fooled us. According to the chairman at Hyndburn, who presided over this debacle, all they relied on was the integrity of the people putting themselves forward. They have certainly made fools of themselves - and virtually lost any chance they had of clawing back this important marginal seat. But now the embarrassing truth is out, let us reflect on where it came from - the inquiries of a newspaper investigating the real story in the public interest. And let us reflect, too, why so many politicians are keen on laws to gag the press - if it is in their interest to keep secret the truth about themselves. For make no mistake about it, if privacy laws as envisaged had ever come about we would have had a well nigh impossible task in exposing Mr Neil's deception. TORIES IN BITTER WAR OF WORDS From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Thursday 11th Jan 1996. THE SPLIT between Hyndburn Conservative members widened this week as would-be MP Hugh Neil returned to the borough to prepare for his de-selection meeting. Conservative association chairman Win Frankland described Mr Neil as being "on the verge of committing professional and political suicide." The prospective parliamentary candidate retaliated by saying Miss Frankland and her supporters were "out of touch with modern politics." Miss Frankland, who has served the association for 30 years, added that she has a "good idea of which way things will go" at the decisive meeting on January 16. She said she had received a great deal of support since Mr Neil was given a vote of no-confidence when Hyndburn Conservative Association met to discuss discrepancies in his CV. "People want a candidate to be squeaky clean," explained Miss Frankland, who initiated investigations into Mr Neil's CV last October. "Mr Neil continues to misrepresent himself every time he is questioned about his past." She continued: "I don't feel that the association can trust him. He is a very charismatic man but lacks the control needed to be a top politician." A clearly angry Mr Neil, who is 33 on Saturday, fumed: "I'm a good politician and willing to go out and get involved." He added that his CV was an honest representation of his achievements. He said recent events were destroying the association. "We look set to lose the general election now. We had stood a good chance of winning it." But Miss Frankland insisted: "I think the constituency has been brought together by recent events." Hyndburn's Labour MP Greg Pope said: "It is clear that there is the same disarray at local level as national level." Yesterday (Jan 10) Hugh Neil inferred he would sue London-based Afro-Caribbean newspaper The Voice. It had published an article which made allegations about his private life. Stan Horne, deputy chairman of the association, also said he was considering legal action against the paper. RACE CARD From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Friday 19th Jan 1996. SO THE ghost of Hugh Neil has finally been laid to rest and the actions of the officers of the Hyndburn Conservative Association have been totally justified. Even so there are questions that need to be answered. Just what did Mr Neil hope to gain by carrying on with his masquerade - even when he knew he had been rumbled? Why play the race card - when this was never the issue and he knew it? We must also ask questions of those people who gave him total support. At worst, they can be seen as stupid to take the word of a man they had only known for nine months against that of people who have worked for the local party for years. At best, they can be charged with total lack of judgment. Whichever is the case, I feel rather sorry for these people - most of whom I know personally and have always held with the highest regard - that they have been totally betrayed by this man. Let us now hope we can get back to the business of bashing Comrade Slynn and the Brothers and finding a genuine candidate who will wrest a seat back for the Tories which has been on loan to Greg Pope for the past few years. JOHN D FARRER, Mallard Place, Oswaldtwistle.