Where does Dr Sarah Wollaston stand on Law and Justice?

Today I sent the following email to Dr Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Totnes, and to my local paper, the Totnes Times.

I will publish Dr Wollaston's reply in full when I receive it.

~

Dr Sarah Wollaston,

I was in the audience for last night's hustings in Totnes and was struck by your answer concerning Poland's Law and Justice party. As the questioner stated, this party has a record of homophobia. You first denied this (leading the questioner to yell out "its on the record") and then you staked your own personal credibility on the issue, stating that you would never have joined the Conservatives if you knew they were aligned with parties that held such views. I then yelled from the front row "look into it."

I imagine you are too busy/not interested to look into it, so I've looked into it for you. Law and Justice are one of a number of far right parties David Cameron has struck a deal with. I focus on Law and Justice here as they were the party specifically mentioned by the questioner and yourself at last night's hustings.

Law and Justice was established in 2001 by the Kaczynski twins Lech (who died tragically in the plane crash last Saturday, 10th April,) and his brother Jaroslaw, the current party chairman.

Amnesty International, in a report last year titled "Poland: LGBT rights under attack" state:

Amnesty International are concerned about a climate of intolerance in Poland against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, characterised by the banning of public events organised by the LGBT community, openly homophobic language used by some highly placed politicians, and incitement of homophobic hatred by some right-wing groups. We also note with concern the recent abolition of the government office responsible for promotion of equal treatment for sexual minorities."

Here is the link: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10290

Further extracts:

"When he refused for the second year running to authorize the Equality Parade in Warsaw in May 2005, the then mayor of the city, Lech Kaczynski of the Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc) party - who was later elected the President of Poland - held that such an event would be "sexually obscene" and offensive to other people's religious feelings.
The improvised parade still took place on 10 June, gathering more than 2,500 participants. Less than a week after that, the mayor authorised the so-called "normality" parade, during which members of the All Polish Youth reportedly demonstrated on the streets of Warsaw and shouted slogans inciting intolerance and homophobia. In September 2005, a Warsaw court ruled that the mayor's decision to ban the Equality Parade was illegal."


The public outcry of the Conservative Party aligning themselves with Law and Justice is well documented:
From The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/5418173/European-elections-Polands-controversial-Law-and-Justice-Party.html
Extract:
"Its critics regard the party as homophobic owing to both the Kaczynski's apparent opposition to gay rights. When Warsaw mayor, Lech, who is now Poland's president, banned a succession of gay pride marches, while his brother said homosexuality would lead to the "downfall of civilisation"."


The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/02/david-cameron-alliance-polish-nationalists

Extracts:

"In government from 2005-2007, the Kaczy´nskis' PiS formed a coalition with extremists and ultra-nationalists, conducted witchhunts of opponents, pursued deeply illiberal policies and was turfed out of office as a national embarrassment."

"Cameron is ditching two decades of Conservative co-operation with the mainstream centre-right Christian democrats in the parliament, the European People's party (EPP) – to the fury of centre-right grandees in Europe – on the grounds that it is dominated by European federalists and supporters of the Lisbon treaty which the Tories oppose. "Cameron's campaign has been to take his party back to the centre in every policy area with one major exception: Europe," said EPP leader Wilfried Martens, a former Belgian prime minister. "I can't understand his tactics. [Angela] Merkel and [Nicolas] Sarkozy will never accept his Euroscepticism.""

The Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6289822.ece

Extract:

"David Cameron’s new allies in Europe are set to include a homophobic Polish party...Poland’s Law and Justice Party has been criticised for its opposition to gay rights [...]"

What is less well known is that your party ignored an internal report into Law and Justice:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/11/conservatives-report-extremist-polish-allies

Extracts:

"David Cameron forged his controversial EU alliance with rightwing Polish politicians despite a secret report by his own party which warned that they had homophobic and nationalistic tendencies, senior EU figures have told the Observer.

The report, drawn up by Tory officials in 2007, concluded that the Conservatives should be wary of a link with the Polish Law and Justice party (PiS) because its members were on the far right, with some tending towards antisemitism.

...

Edward McMillan-Scott, the former Tory MEP who was expelled from the party after raising concerns about Kaminski and Law and Justice, said: "I knew the report existed but I never saw it. I took my party at its word at the time when it said that it would not sign up with those from the wild fringes of European politics. But I was wrong.""

Last night you publicly stated that you would not have joined the Conservative party if you knew they were aligned to homophobic parties. They are. I expect you to publicly explain your position in light of these facts, through the pages of the Totnes Times (CCd into this email) and in public comments during campaigning leading up to Election day. I feel deceived by your answer last night and feel you let yourself down by giving the churlish "I would never have joined..." answer, allowing you to move on without expressing your own views.

Please answer the following questions:

1. Why do you think David Cameron has aligned himself with Law and Justice?

2. Do you condone or support the banning of gay pride marches, and why?

You are guilty of either ignorance or dishonesty. I've written this email in the hope that you were unaware of the depths of Law and Justice's homophobia, and unaware of your party's secret internal report advising against alignment. I hope you were ignorant because the alternative is that you very knowingly lied to the electorate last night. Whatever the case, you now know. Knowing the facts, if you have any integrity you will withdraw your candidacy and make a public statement outlining your opposition to David Cameron's alignment with Law and Justice.

I look forward to receiving your full reply soon,

Name and address supplied.