Save Bedford Hospital-Lib Dems up to no good?

Hey ho what a surprise-the Lib Dems are using a local NHS problem for their own ends. Dr Rant and Dr Informed both have blogs on this topic. The facts are as follows: On a background of catastrophic budget deficits across the South East there is a strong suggestion that at least one of the region's hospitals may be forced to close or downgrade services, Barry Monk, a consultant dermatologist at Bedford Hospital, inspired by "the kidderminster experience" has decided to run for parliament, as reported HERE. Note the date of report: 18th September. Dr Monk has gone so far as to register "save Bedford Hospital" as a political party. Now have some fun: type "save bedford hospital" into Google.. 7 Links to lib dem sights organised by local lib dems. Hmmmmm could it be just an astute bit of local campaigning and political nous?

Yes but...now lets look at some domain names on whois:

1) savebedfordhospital.com = Conrad Longmore registered at 16.29 on 18.9.06;
2) savebedfordhospital.org registered by Conrad Longmore on 18.9.06
3) savebedfordhospital.co.uk Tim Prater Registered 18.9.06...are we beginning to see a theme here?...
4) savebedfordhospital.net Conrad Longmore 18.9.06;
5) savebedfordhospital.org.uk? Tim Prater registered 18.9.06. Need I go on.

I can tell Dr Monk that they seem to have missed "savebedfordhospital.biz" if he is looking for a website for his party.

In case you haven't guessed, Conrad Longmore is a Bedford Lib Dem who specialises in website parodies. Tim Prater comes from Folkestone in Kent and is..yes you guessed it a Liberal Democrat. Maybe they know each other. Or perhaps just a coincidence.

Now type any of these links and surprise surprise back we are at Lib Dem campaign HQ

So Sherlock Holmes is not required to realise that Conrad buys the local paper on 18th September and reads about Dr Monk and Save Bedford Hospital. A charitable explanation is that he thought"cor! is there a problem with Bedford Hospital? I hadn't realised. I'd better register a website (or 2 , or 3) and start a campaign to save the hospital."

I am not charitable. I believe he thinks "This is a live political issue and will a) get a lot of publicity in the next couple of days and b) be a votewinner if we can get rid of this doctor or maybe get him to turn out for us. Oh and look the silly boy hasn't registered a domain name for his funny new political party. Come to think of it, save bedford hospital has a sort of catchy ring to it" So he registers every savebedfordhospital domain he can find. Later in the evening he rings his friend Tim who points out a couple of sites he has failed to register and out of charity does it himself, even though he appears to have no connection whatsoever with Bedford

Now this seems to me to be ungentlemanly to say the least. One thing to take advantage of political naivety on behalf of a Labour or even Conservative Candidate, but to rough up an independent in this way is not likely to be popular locally and could well backfire. Lets hope so

I must say that I would argue that Dr Monk would be ill advised to stand. I admire his integrity and commitment, but this seat would very likely be a Conservative gain in the next election and the best way to save Bedford Hospital would be to get rid of Patricia "the woman who put the pat back into patronising" Hewitt and get some common sense back into NHS finances. Judging by the kidderminster experience, he might win but if he didn't he could turn a 2 way marginal into a free for all which the Lib Dems might gain from-especially if people thought he was one of them because his political party's site redirects to the Lib Dem one....