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LORRAINE HIGGINS SAYS she will report the defacement of two of her election posters with abortion graffiti to the gardaí.
The Labour senator, who is running for the European Parliament in Midlands North-West, said that one of her posters was stolen while two others were defaced with the slogan ‘Pro Abort’ in Leixlip and Maynooth.
“This is wilful criminal damage and dirty tricks and I am going to report it to the gardaí,” she told TheJournal.ie this lunchtime.
“I hope they take action in order to deter others. If people want to argue they should do it in a democratic way. This goes against everything that political discourse should be.”
The two defaced posters refer to the Labour party’s support of the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill last year and long-standing support for the legalisation of abortion in certain circumstances including fatal foetal abnormalities.
Higgins said that the graffiti had been carried out by people who are “against this government who introduced legislation based on outcome of the X case”.
She said that she was happy to debate the issue, but not in such a “distasteful” way.
Higgins said that in reporting the matter to gardaí she hopes that those responsible will “realise fully the repercussions for defacing and defaming”.
The candidate added that a number of her posters have been removed around from areas around the vast, 15-county constituency and later replaced with other candidates’ posters, describing this is as the “usual dirty tricks in a campaign”.
Meanwhile, another Labour poster was defaced with this message in Cork earlier today:
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Hong Kong’s great days are well gone- I would not even transfer flights there again. Nothing patriotic about his “election”
The lease was up, the British handed it back, there was some assurances given by Beijing at the time but this was just lip service, it’s part of China now, what did we really think was going to happen? This is how China rules, most of the mainlanders were questioning why HK was getting special treatment. That Beijing is not liked in Shanghai either.
@SPQH: *that said, Beijing is not liked by the average Shanghai person either
@SPQH: The Hong Kong man is very real there. Should we also give the CCP Taiwan, Vietnam, Tibet, Bhutan, all of the south China Sea islands, Macau, Mongolia, north India and more simply because of what the CCP claims is historically part of China?
@Paul Cunningham: you’re making an argument where there isn’t one to be made. It wasn’t a claim, it was on a lease. The UK handed back, no one is handing back any of these other places. What’s you’re argument about? That China has leased all these other places?
@Paul Cunningham: I’m not pro China btw, I’m just pointing out that I’m not surprised the way it’s unfolded, and I fear for ROC/Taiwan
Stripping out every value of democracy that HK was supposed to enjoy for another few decades but keeping all the financial institutions of course. it’s all about money, never the people.
have your say