15 August 2008

How To Attack Cameron.

Dirty Euro suggests Labour should stop playing nice around Cameron and...
go for the jugular-
"I know an approach
Paint him as a snobby nasty drug taking bully who wrecked the economy with Lamont and wrecked Carlton TV. Basically paint him as an over educated over estimated arrogant incompetent bully boy, who thinks he is better than everyone else. I do not feel that badly about him in reality but the Tories treat our leader like this, so we should treat their leader like that".
When you think about the personal abuse Labour ministers have to endure from right-wing blogs (criticising policies and approach is ok but not schoolground abuse), I think he has a point.

Obviously attacking him just because he is a toff as the Crewe debacle showed is bound to backfire. We have to be a little more subtle as the Right are - everyone knows he is a toff born with a silver spoon in his mouth, what we need to get across is how this has made him incompetent and arrogant and how he lacks real empathy with those less fortunate than himself.

The funny thing lately is that after Crewe and Glasgow East, and the soon to happen new byelection disaster in October, when Labour have nothing of substance to offer the electorate campaigning hard probably loses us more votes than it gains. Until we have something really radical (an English Parliament) to offer the voters then campaigning is a waste of time.

12 comments:

  1. You could start off by drawing less than flattering caricatures?

    ReplyDelete
  2. So what if Cameron is a toff, when I pointed out that Polly Toynbee was privately educated the other day, sends her children to private school and earns at least £140k per year you said that was ok!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Snafu: Cameron is the wrong sort of toff - he has no humility. As I explained before, Toynbee, Orwell and Peel are ok because they have opened their horizons and recognised how their privilege has given them an unfair advantage but crucially they don't try and defend this advantage as ok. Whereas Cameron defends a system that takes no account of the vast differences in life chances that make it much more difficult for the most disadvantaged to achieve a decent standard of living.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark, where is his jester's hat?

    ReplyDelete
  5. You can't blame products of a system for a system itself. But you can blame anyone who chooses to perpetuate its perversities. Especially when they happen to be one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It is one thing for right wing bloggers to be rude about Labour politicians. The bloggers aren't touting to be the next government and their attacks have little visibility to the wider public. If Labour politicians launch vitriolic personal attacks on Cameron then it will seriously rebound on Labour. Labour wants to form the next government; that means convincing people that it is to be entrusted with another five years. Calling Cameron a "nasty drug taking bully" will just undermine Labour's credibility even more.

    You are right that Cameron lacks empathy with those less fortunate than himself, but this is an accusation that could be made with equal force against the present administration.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So Labour Outlook's solution to Tory dirty tricks is ... Labour dirty tricks. Yes, that will really work. I can see millions of voters turning their nose up at Cameron on the strength of character assassination.

    When will you realise people are fed up of Labour because they're fed up of Labour policies?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Neil, this is Katrina Anon...

    I hate to be off topic, and really way off topic, but what is the sense in Europe over the Russian invasion/peacekeeping in Georgia? Europe seems incredibly quiet about this...

    ReplyDelete
  9. KA: I think it is mixed - the Murdoch press (Times, Sun etc) are pushing that Russia is threatening World War III, but generally there is a feeling there is little we can do and that US backed Georgia were foolish to bomb South Ossetia in the first place (whatever the provocation). The public in the UK are more consumed by UK success at the Olympics at the moment (our best medal tally for 100 years).

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's "playground abuse" not "schoolground abuse", actually.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "When will you realise people are fed up of Labour because they're fed up of Labour policies?"

    Why are they deserting Labour for a party which has exactly the same policies, then?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Why are they deserting Labour for a party which has exactly the same policies, then?

    Well on most important matters the policies of Labour and Tories are indistinguishable. Certainly with respect to administering the liberal economic state and the redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich, Labour and Conservative are effectively two wings of one monolithic party. The Tories are slightly to the left of Labour on civil liberties but whether that will survive election as the government, who can say. The Tories have always had authoritarian and libertarian wings. The libertarian wing appears to be in the ascendant at the moment. But I don't think that is why people are deserting Labour. The are deserting Labour because they are incompetent and unprincipled. The electorate will apparently tolerate a party if it is nasty - and Labour have certainly been cunts of the 1st magnitude - but when combined with bug-eyed incompetence, that's the end. In short, Labour are shit.

    ReplyDelete

Pages