that pesky election count incident again...

in May, at the election count in Reading, a violent incident was reported to have happened.  Gareth Epps it was, LibDem of this parish, who broadcast that an incident had taken place, in which he, Epps, was violently attacked, perhaps head-butted, by a Labour activist, George Loughlin.  Later, Epps apparently reported the incident to the police.  No other witness has come forward, though Epps and Loughlin were presumably not the only occupants of the room at the time.  Was has not left this alone, and posts about it from time to time.  The LibDem hierarchy appears to have taken it as true that an incident of this kind did happen, according to an email from one of them he quotes.  Other parties have not denied that an incident happened, although Labour has said things like "If an incident did happen..." Loughlin's name has disappeared from later mentions of the alleged incident, so it is my unalloyed pleasure to place in print again the name of that thuggish little git, George Loughlin, for whom a violent attack of such a kind would be entirely in character.  However, that is not to say it did happen.  Was says that Epps is a liar.  He may be right, I wouldn't know.  Was also says that the LibDem hierarchy believe Epps and do not check allegations he makes.  This is what party hierarchies tend to do in respect of their favourite sons, unfortunately.  What interests me here is that Labour has not denied it, so in the unlikely event of there having been no Labour witness to any incident, Reading Labour believe it is possible that such a thing happened.  They are right.  We do not know yet what if any view is taken by Her Majesty's Constabulary.  So this story needs to be kept alive, in my view, for what it has already exposed, and what it may yet expose.  An aside - Was informs us that Epps was intending to take a dog-whistle to the Church ward count.  Why did he not do so?  If I had been there I certainly would have done so.  Which leads us to...

Reading Labour racist dog-whistle

Oh yes, she's one of us.