Dirty campus politics

Posters for the Warwick Libertarians, Warwick Conservatives and Warwick Liberal Democrats have been defaced across campus.

The Liberal Democrats were particularly hard hit, with scrawls like “Lies. Anti-fa”, “No More Shit. Anti-Fa”, “Anti-Fa Say No” and “No More Bullshit” written over images of Nick Clegg.

Tom Wales, President of the Warwick Libertarians, said he had never seen anything like it in four years at Warwick.

“There is an unwritten agreement between societies that you don’t take down each other’s posters, even if don’t agree with the message,” said Wales.

He admitted he was “disappointed” and that “he hoped it didn’t become a trend”. Luckily, for the Libertarians, their event had already taken place before the incident.

Andrew O’Brien, President of the Conservatives, blamed Warwick Anarchists for the attacks. He said the style and message pointed towards their involvement, and that it was “childish” and “pathetic”.

“They clearly feel our posters are having an effect, so, in many ways, I’m quite glad,” he added.

Jonathan Barnes, President of the Liberal Democrats, said, “I’m really frustrated by people who did it. I’m also confused why the Lib Dem posters have been defaced by anti-fascist messages. The messages we promote are the opposite of those that fascists support and it seems counterproductive to deface inherently anti-fascist material with anti-fascist messages.”

Chris Browne, a member of Warwick Anarchists, said anyone could have defaced the posters, and “whilst it might seem like something our people would do, I’m fairly confident that no ‘anarchists’ had any involvement.”

Most of the defaced posters were located between the Humanities building and the library, but have now been removed.