- current Lib Dim council leader, Councillor Warren Bradley
- former Lib Dim council leader (and next year's first citizen of Liverpool, would you believe!) Councillor Mike Storey and
- would-be Lib Dim MP for Wavertree, Councillor Colin Eldridge.
All three stood in the dock as 'character witnesses' for Hurst.
So desperate was this Lib Dim high command to thwart justice that they even enlisted the slightly dotty Lady Doreen Jones, as a fourth character witness for Hurst.
What a sight it must have made - this rogues gallery traipsing in and out of the dock to protest, apparently straight-faced, that Councillor Hurst was a fine upstanding citizen.
'Couldn't possibly have been Steve. A man of the utmost integrity. A true democrat. Known him since he was a lad. Wouldn't put a foot out of line. A fine, upstanding public servant. No question about it.'
What utter hypocrites they are.
The truth, of course, is the direct opposite. Hurst is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, a vicious bully, given to threatening and malicious behaviour. He is a liar and a cheat and a fraud.
Of course, after being convincingly found guilty, he should now be instantly expelled from the Lib Dim group, chucked out of his party and suspended as a councillor. Lib Dim Leader Nick Clegg (who? ed) should disown him in the blink of an eye. Bradley should sack him. Cover Up should institute internal council proceedings. But hey, this is Liverpool, and none of that will happen.
It cannot happen because Hurst was just one member of a Gang of Four who were equally complicit. Together they hatched this despicable, sordid little episode in Liverpool's political history. Bradley, Eldridge and Storey - an evil cabal if ever there was one - were all part of the plot.
They printed the leaflet at the Lib Dim HQ on Smithdown Road (they even used the same pink paper for one of their own, more conventional Lib Dim leaflets) and Hurst donned a comic book disguise of baseball cap and sunglasses to hand deliver it.
We are reliably informed, however, that some principled Lib Dem party workers refused to deliver the leaflet, after reading the shocking contents - leaving Hurst to do it on his own.
It is to their credit.
'What does it all matter?' we can hear some ask. 'It's only a bloody election leaflet - and no one reads that kind of bollocks anyway.'
Maybe not. But this is why it matters...
The Hurst case graphically illustrates a rotteness at the heart of Lib Dim politics in Liverpool. This gang of toe-rags thought nothing of producing a gratuitously offensive and nasty, lying little leaflet, because they were so desperate to win a seat. And keep their grubby little hands on the rungs of power. So they got down into the gutter. To stop at nothing.
Worse. They think its funny. And they think its clever. This is what passes for sophisticated electoral campaigning in their sad world. And they are then prepared to lie on oath about it in a court of law.
How can anyone now believe another word uttered by Hurst? Or Bradley? Or Storey? Or Eldridge? They have, ironically, discredited themselves for all time. Shooting themselves in the mouth, as it were.
By using such gutter smear tactics, the Lib Dims have shown how they have poisoned the level of political debate and political activity in the city.
And do not, for a second, let anyone cynically tell you that "they are all as bad as each other. They are all at it."'
No, they are not.
Which other councillors? From which other political party? Have been found guilty of breaking which election laws?
None.
Just the Lib Dems.
And when caught out, the cowardly Hurst then had the sickening effrontery to try and stick an assault charge on his hapless victim, fellow firefighter Keith Walton, the husband of Labour councillor Pauline Walton.
Mr Walton's only crime had been to defend his own good name and his wife's reputation. Fortunately, after investigating, the police told Hurst were exactly he could shove his assault charge.
Read the accounts in the papers tomorrow and reflect on what it all says about the sad and depressing state of Lib Dem politics in Liverpool.
And work for change.
