I just cannot believe the way Labour are responding to the 'scandal' involving their politicians taking money from donors in an illegal way. The one thing Labour should not have done is try to 'spin' their way out of it. The man caught in bed with his best friend's wife, has only one course open to him - apologise profusely, show remorse and beg forgiveness. Inventing some spurious reasons will only make matters worse. But this is precisely what Labour have been doing. Well, let them carry on - because they are destroying their party. Already, it looks possible that Labour has gone into a decline which will result in the loss of the next election. If the 'spinning' carries on, this scandal has the potential to force an early election - which would necessitate the removal of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister for Labour to have any chance. What a bunch of 'Wallys' - or perhaps we should now say 'Pauls'.
The main 'spin' tactic has been to argue that all political parties are 'in this together'. Surprisingly, in Wales the leader of this strategy seems to be maverick MP, Paul Flynn. First time I've seen Paul playing the role of loyalist lackey. Its damaged him. On the Politics Show today, Paul's tactics defeated Adrian Masters by diverting the debate into discussion about Plaid Cymru. Same thing happened on Taro Post last week. Luckily, the public is not fooled and the tactic just looks devious (which it is) and damages Labour even more.
The next 'spin' tactic has been to blame it all on Blair. This backfired as well, and the usually reasonable Mathew d'Ancona really launched in today. And the latest 'spin' tactic is to divert attention by giving the impression that its something to do with taxpayers funding for political parties. I really hope that no-one falls for this one, because the basis of it is truly despicable - "unless we are given taxpayers money, we will be forced to get the money illegally". This is the drug addict's defence.
Labour are in a lose/lose position. Wendy Alexander, Harriet Harmon and Jon Mendolsson should all resign - but they cannot because the Prime Minister is afraid of 'the domino effect'. And if they stay, the stench of 'Donorgate' will hang around for months. Everyone in politics are now telling me that the General Election will be put off until 2010. I've never thought so - and still don't. I think it would be wise to call a meeting of my campaign team asap.
5 comments:
You seem to know a lot about how to deal with the "man caught in bed with his best friend's wife" scenario. So what's the real story here? "Share thus", and with "no spin". Ha ha ...
Christopher - no personal experience. Just seemed a good analogy.
Sorry Glyn - I seem to be in a festive Christmas-anything-goes mood today. Got to put up the Christmas tree and lights today or no supper for me.
i get the sense of Brown on the slide but still no real appetite in the rest of the country for Prime Minister David Cameron and a Conservative Government
In the meantime our political system suffers the fall out and we become a little bit more cynical about all our politicians, in this very cynical age.
anon - David seems to be building up support, perhaps not as quickly as Gordon Brown is losing it. I think this may be more 'solid' support than if it had jumped 20% overnight.
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