Spinning Spending

Witness The Guardian rushing to the aid of Gordon, when the nasty Tories call him a liar over spending cuts:

Again, the Karl Rove down-and-dirty playbook has proved handy. Seeking to rubbish Treasury statistics, the Tories have gone for Brown's character and reputation, with accusations of dishonesty, lying and untruths happily bandied around. This week's try-on by the Tory frontbench about being denied access to government figures was all part of the same pitch. And, what is more, they are helped by a well-oiled and well-mobilised blogosphere who quickly wade in behind the Conservative line to take. The loyalists at ConservativeHome; the bright young Turks at the Spectator "Coffee House" site; the cloyingly sanctimonious Iain Dale; the masterful Guido Fawkes – not quite the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but nonetheless a dedicated cadre of Conservatives dominating the new media and immediately following the central office talking-point. And their most resonant line of attack is to accuse various members of the government of lying. It is nasty, negative and yet surprisingly effective in taking attention away from Tory party policy and setting the agenda for the mainstream media. By the middle of the week, the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson was asking Brown whether he was a liar!

Now, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the problem with this paragraph. The problem is that, when Gordon and his drones talk about increasing spending when the government coffers have been spent on propping up failed banks, they are lying. On this issue, Gordon is a liar. Of course Nick Robinson is asking him about it - it is a valid question!

Which may also account for the paranoid alliance detailed above. I doubt that there is any effective union between Dale, Gudio, the Spectator and ConservativeHome - the fact that they are all reporting on the same story in the same way is a result of the story itself. When Gordon claims he won't cut spending, he is lying. Of course people who aren't slavishly and insanely loyal to Gordon are going to comment on that. 

Perhaps the charge that could stick against the Tories is that they have finally worked out how to spin things effectively. Lansley puts foot in mouth, the Labour party rubs their hands in glee, only to to find moments later that they are the ones in trouble with the media. Yet Labour getting the hump about someone else being good at spinning really is the pot calling the kettle black, given their behaviour under both Blair and Brown. And besides, what is this Guardian article if not spin - on behalf of the Labour party rather than the Tories? I mean, it even invokes Karl Rove - the master of the political dark arts who helped Bush Junior into the White House on two occasions. And referencing him (when there are other examples from the Labour camp like... ooo, I don't know, Peter Mandelson) is simply a piece of emotive, cynical spin. A bit like calling Gordon Brown a liar...

All we have here is an indignant yelp as Labour lovers everywhere realise that the Tories have suddenly got better at playing politics than them. And all this article represents is yet another distraction from what should be the key political question of today. Not whether spending cuts are coming, but rather where the spending cuts are going to fall. Yep, Gordon Brown is a liar if her claims that he won't have to make cuts - he's a deceitful, delusional lunatic if he refuses to now start talking about where the Labour party will make those cuts.