The real "nasty party"
John Harris: The tactics of Crewe expose a truly nasty party: Labour (The Guardian)
An exposé of the "dog-whistle" tactics being used in the campaign for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election next week, in which Labour have circulated a flyer lampooning the Conservative opponent's wealthy background (he is from the Timpson family, which runs a chain of shoe repair and key-cutting shops):
The Labour campaign, under the command of the Birmingham MP Steve McCabe, has rebranded its chief adversary "Tory Boy Timpson", and is going for him with an eye-popping ferocity. Volunteers have been stalking him dressed in top hat and tails; now, there comes a very nasty leaflet titled "Tory candidate application form", replete with questions and ticked boxes. Number one is, "Do you live in a big mansion house?" Question two is - and, really, the sense of humour on display is quite something - "Do you think that regeneration is adding a new wing to your mansion?" The third reads: "Have you and your Tory mates on the council been soft on yobs and failed to make our streets safer?" But the best is saved for question four, at which point pantomimic class hatred is suspended and we get something altogether more sinister. "Do you," it asks, "oppose making foreign nationals carry an ID card?"
I had thought that the daughter of the much-respected Gwyneth Dunwoody, who died last month, would not face much of a contest, but if they need to descend to this level of personal nastiness and thinly-veiled racism, mentioning local yobs next to the bloody foreigners, clearly they are pretty desperate. Dunwoody junior herself, by the way, is listed in Burke's peerage, so she is not exactly working-class herself even if some of her ancestors were. Really, it typifies why Labour are going down the drain: they have no ideas left and really are trying to be the "red Tories", having dumped not only their pro-labour policies but also any progressive stances they once had.
Comments
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Posted by: andromeda | May 16, 2008 5:19 PM
Do you have any views on Abdal Hakim Murad AKA Timothy Winter?
Posted by: andromeda | May 16, 2008 5:25 PM
Assalam-alaikam, I agree it is a below the belt. Labour are done for next election and they will really need to sort themselves out if they want to be serious contenders the one after. Respect is also finished and I have even heard a few of their counsellors threatening to defect to Tory because they can't bring themselves to return to Labour.
Its such a shame that right now I can't see any political party that makes me want to vote for them at all.
Posted by: Umm Salihah | May 16, 2008 6:36 PM
According to this year's election results, the Muslims appear to be returning to Labour, especially in London. The explanation is pork barrelling because Labour is willing to spend millions of pounds on Muslims such as new mosques in order to make up with them after the war with Iraq, and the Muslims can't resist it. Respect sadly doesn't have access to millions of pounds which is why the Muslims have stopped supporting them like they did a few years ago.
It all reminds me of my time at primary school when everybody was told not to accept sweets and money from strangers. Can the Muslim community leaders and imams pluck up the courage to turn round and say NO to Labour when they are offered a large sum of money to spend on a community project? If they can't then it will confirm they are weak spirited money chasers.
Posted by: M Risbrook | May 21, 2008 11:10 AM
Well, Respect not only does not have access to money but also has little credibility left, with the Galloway wing (with the building) split away from their SWP organisational base who have formed the Left List. Respect only managed one success in an election, namely in the East End with George Galloway in 2005. They could not even get Salma Yaqoob elected in a Muslim-heavy constituency in Birmingham. Apart from this they bragged about every councillor who defected from Labour or whoever, but that did not translate into electoral success.
To some extent, "pork barrel" policies have always been a factor in Muslims voting Labour - think of Jack Straw in Blackburn, whose support for easier marriage visas for Indians outweighed any local anger over the Iraq war. However, although I'm sure many people do vote in council elections as if they were parliamentaries, the issues really are different and not all Labour politicians are associated with the policies which put many Muslims off Labour. In any forthcoming general election, I can't imagine Muslims being swayed from Labour while the Tory leadership is known to be hostile to Muslim interests, as demonstrated by certain recent think-tank reports and their enthusiasm for the anti-Muslim bigot Boris Johnson.
Posted by: Indigo Jo
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May 21, 2008 12:37 PM
Tell me if I'm missing something, but why on earth would any Muslim want to associate with Marxist loonies from the SWP? Anybody with one brain cell would have noticed that the Respect Coalition was a fundamentally unstable organisation guaranteed to split. Logically, a more Muslim dominated fragment of Respect with few lefties is in a better position to target the Muslim community than the original Respect Coalition was. Will Respect become a Muslim party or will it fade into oblivion? They are the only two directions it can take.
The derisory result from the Left List shows they have virtually no support and are a political irrelevance.
Posted by: M Risbrook | May 21, 2008 1:57 PM