Former Lib president criticises Howard

John Howard won a fourth term based on a demeaning and deceptive campaign, former Liberal Party president John Valder said.

Mr Valder, who backed the campaign of former intelligence analyst and Greens candidate Andrew Wilkie in Mr Howard’s Sydney seat of Bennelong, said he wanted the return of a Liberal government but without Mr Howard.

“John Howard has been so deceptive, he’s won a great victory in this campaign,” Mr Valder told ABC Television.

“But I certainly don’t admire the methods by which he achieved it, which is a lowering and lowering of standards to the point where he demeaned himself by using the lowest form of marketing, telemarketing.

“A prime minister of any country demeaning himself to telemarketing. What sort of a prime minister is that?”

Mr Valder said Mr Howard along with US president George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were responsible for war crimes on a mass scale through their invasion of Iraq.

He said the latest count was 40,000 civilians dead and the three leaders were responsible.

Mr Valder said the Labor Party had failed to break the coalition’s stranglehold.

“… I said that I wanted to see the return of a Liberal government but without John Howard and I wanted to see a return to a much fairer, honest, decent and less divisive party,” he said.

“I think it’s the Labor Party that has failed in ensuring that that sort of brake was put on the government.”

Look out America, you’re next. Fear and greed will always win out over optimism and social justice.