Going Negative

The Tories go negative:

A new nationwide Conservative poster campaign to be revealed within days will show the party adopting a more negative message... By contrast, the second wave of posters will concentrate on Mr Brown and seek to convince voters that he is personally responsible for the state of Britain’s public finances. The change in direction is being supported by two US advisers recently hired by the Tories, both veterans of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

This makes perfect sense, really - at least if the Tories want to win this election. There seems to be a taboo around the use of negative adverts, and certainly the use of the "New Labour, New Danger" poster probably cost the Tories in 1997. But this time, Labour have gone negative first. That's what this "controversy" around Ashcroft is all about. It is negative campaigning, and if the Tories don't respond in kind then they end up looking like they have no backbone, and are unable to act as an effective opposition should.

Furthermore, there is a massive open goal available to them - namely, Gordon Brown. Going negative on Gordon Brown can be done without even being too negative - to a large extent, making critical comments is simply stating facts. Pointing out Brown's failures is like shooting fish in a barrel, and since the Tories seem unable to put forward any policies, then attacking Brown really is their best bet.

Hell, you could almost argue that a negative election campaign against Brown is positive, if only because it could have such a positive outcome - namely, the removal of Gordon Brown from Downing Street.

Against McCarthy, Against Dale

Dale's got a campaign going:

Over the next 12 weeks I will be highlighting Labour's Dirty Dozen - the twelve Labour MPs I'd most like to see kicked out of Parliament at the next election. Only 12, I hear you ask? Well, I'm going to concentrate on those who have majorities in excess of 5,000 and encourage my readers to help the Conservative candidates in that seat to win - either by making a small campaign donation or helping their campaigns in other ways.

Fair enough. Tory blogger launches a campaign to unseat Labour MPs - hardly a ground-breaking or particularly controversial proposal there, then. Until you consider who the first candidate for attack is:

I'm starting off the Dirty Dozen with Labour's self styled Twitter Czar, Kerry McCarthy.

See, I reckon I'm someone who knows quite a bit about UK politics, and here's what I know about Kerry McCarthy:

1. She's tedious
2. She's left-wing.

Which is hardly surprising, given her status as a Labour MP. She's not the person I would ever want to get to know in any way, but equally she's hardly the worst of the Labour MPs in the current parliament. Which does beg the question of why Dale has selected McCarthy for the first target in his Dirty Dozen campaign. His reasoning is there, but it is hardly convincing:

Kerry McCarthy has demonstrated that she isn't fit to be an MP. All you have to do is follow her online acitivites, especially on Twitter, to see why.

For those of us who couldn't give the first fuck about Twitter (which, mercifully, remains most of the population), complaining about activities on there is a lot like complaining about bad behaviour at some specialist internet club for geeks. Most people don't care about the club; of course they aren't going to care about people's conduct with in it. Yes, you can argue that how someone behaves on Twitter is a good indicator of how they behave in real life, but as soon as you mention Twitter to anyone who can't be arsed with it, they've stopped listening.

See, I think there is another reason as to why Dale has selected McCarthy as his first target. And I think it might have something to do with his recent online spat with her. Which is a perfectly understandable reason for targeting; however, we should be honest about the reasons behind the campaign. It isn't about getting the Dirty Dozen, it is about Dale pursuing a personal vendetta with the help of his readers. And I hope they have fun with it, but it leaves me cold.

As irritating as McCarthy appears to be, the truth is that there are no shortage of MPs to target in this Parliament - which does seem to have a bumper crop of bastards within it. And it isn't just Labour MPs who should be targeted; there are Tory MPs who are just as bad as those in the ruling party. Before targetting someone like McCarthy, I would want to see someone like the terrible Nadine Dorries lose her seat. But a Tory like Dale won't target someone like her; at heart, there is a (possibly understandable) party political bias to his selection criteria. Therefore, a genuinely independent campaign to cull the worst of the current ruling elite is something I could get behind; this campaign against McCarthy is something I most certainly cannot support.

Attack Ads of Old #2

The infamous Willie Horton Ad that did much to bury Michael Dukakis in his race against George H W Bush. Yep, it is the one that basically says "vote for my opponent if you want a black man with a beard to come round and rape you." This ad was certainly ugly; the terrible thing is, it was also very effective.

Interestingly, Lee Atwater - one of the figures behind this ad - later apologised for all his negative campaigning on his deathbed. Which is all very well, but the charge of too little, too late could really stick in this case.