Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
When the smart-arsed media pundits confidently predicted a General Election in the Autumn of 2007 they were acutely embarrassed when the Prime Minister made them all look a bunch of tits by not actually doing any such thing. These influential people in the know who had spent weeks telling their readers, listeners and viewers that Brown was about to call a snap election, that Party workers were on standby, that poster spaces had been secretly secured, had to try to explain to their readers, listeners and viewers why they had been talking complete cobblers. 'The election that never was' story was born. They didn't get it wrong... Gordon Brown 'bottled-it'. He was frit and indecisive. From that moment on, the media narrative, which up to then had praised Brown's handling of the terrorist threat at Glasgow Airport, the flooding in Southern England and the BSE crisis, turned dramatically.
David Cameron is now on the cusp of a similar dangerous situation, and he must be cursing Lord Cashpoint and William Hague for their stupidity in allowing the non-dom story to fester and grow. Instead of the bold young challenger, speaking without notes to his Party faithful, we have seen images of Cameron out jogging with captions questioning whether he could run a piss-up at Marston's. When his Shadow Ministers have ventured out to make their initiative-a-day vacuous policy statements, they have been met like the hapless Gove this week with a barrage of questions on the taxation issues surrounding his Party Deputy Chairman. If you Google 'Gove' and 'Schools' you see initiative overload this week alone, but none of it headline making stuff as Lord Cashpoint's woes dominate the front pages.
Cameron has only himself to blame. The media have been pressing this question for years. Hague's embarrassing Newsnight appearance should have set the warning signals flashing red last year. But still they thought they could get away with it. Stuttered explanations now that Hague only found out about his party Deputy Chairman's true status 'a couple of months ago', despite Paxman's repeated "why don't you ask him?" question, or a shifty looking Liam Fox saying David Cameron only knew 'within the last month' lack credibility. If the Tories are lying and they did know they look like crooks, if they are telling the truth and they didn't know they look like incompetents. The issue is nothing to do with Lord Cashpoint or his tax affairs, but about David Cameron's integrity and his credibility.
As Brown's crew found out in 2007 and Cameron is realising now, you can only spin the media so far. If you go beyond that invisible line and try to make them look foolish, it will come back and bite you on the arse big-style. Cameron may survive the current storm, it may just be a 'Westminster Village' story, but his credibility as honest joe as taken a massive dent, and if he doesn't turn the media narrative around, he may find it is fatal.
I was not impressed by Cameron's claim, when his lead dropped down to 2 points in the polls, that he liked a close fought contest. Then why all the fuss about bring it on now when he was 17 points in the lead?
I'm not going to defend Cameron & co. over Ashcroft because you can't basically. I think they took a punt years go that it would only ever be a Westminster village story and it was worth the risk for the money. That's looking like a bigger gamble each day.
I think you're a bit off the mark on the 2007 election though. The media have uncovered receipts for hoardings, massive print runs ordered and not a single Minister has denied the 'cars circling Parliament Square' story because there are too many sources. I think Brown did 'bottle it' on that ocsasion...
Liam, whether he bottled it or nor isn't that relevant. My point really was that he should have done something about it earlier, either way. Even if he was undecided, once the story had hit the media he was doomed if he allowed the narrative to run away out of control. As it was he made the pundits look fools, and they really don't like that.
The story wasn't "he's going to call an election" - it was "he's considering calling an election". Subsequently ministers and others have confirmed that. How was that them being made to look foolish if they were right?
The Guardian in full on election mode has had Ashcroft on the front page two days running ( why is it so much more sycophantic than say the Telegraph ? ) .Like most voters I am rather bemused , he is behaving legally to minimize his taxes. Government departments employ people to do the same thing as does every sizeable Company and donors to New Labour who, (with the ridiculous Liberals ) have vastly larger questions to answer.
Outside the Guardian and the BBC I do not detect any interest , rightly or wrongly the entire cash for honours’ left most people cold .We do not expect saintly behavior and Lord Ashcroft is at least doing his best to reduce taxes for the rest of us .
Quite what goes through the head of a Labor donor when they decide their own children will go to Public school and they will not pay the taxes they support is something or a mystery to me . That is the sort of person that I think many cannot understand , a pontificating fraud who prates on about how nasty everyone is and asks them to pay.l
Liam, perhaps the media is different in your neck of the woods, but I doubt it. The 'commentators' as opposed to journalists, like to pretend they are in the know, and before Labour's Conference they were not 'predicting' an election, they were giving us their nod-nod, wink-wink... there IS going to be a snap election story. When it wasn't called, their whole 'insider' status was blown.
I'm not impressed by any party that runs to claim money from people who do not live here and pay tax here, Ashcroft is a tosser but rich, Paul wants to become Lord Paul and bought it, the Mittels wanted a letter written so they could buy a steel company and we watched as the parties running after this money.
Thank god I'll not be voting at the next election.
March 5, 2010 11:21 AM | permalink
I was not impressed by Cameron's claim, when his lead dropped down to 2 points in the polls, that he liked a close fought contest. Then why all the fuss about bring it on now when he was 17 points in the lead?