Bad news and worse news

I am indebted to the North West regional office of Conservative Campaign HQ for the following story ...

A Labour ministerial advisor arrives at a campaign meeting at Labour HQ. She sees that everyone is looking very depressed.

"Whatever is the matter?" she asks.

"We've had some terrible news and some worse news." replies one of the people at the meeting.

"Well, let's start with the terrible news - what's that?"

"Pakistan has just tested a nuclear weapon at their underground facility, and then India have let off a nuclear weapon at their facility:" comes the reply. "And China has warned both of them that their actions could set off a regional war which might go nuclear."

"My word. Whatever is the even worse news?"

"Tony has just said he'll announce next week that he's staying as PM until the end of the year."

Comments

Anonymous said…
That joke is terrible. I imagine the Tory moron who came up with it was so chuffed with his little flash of comic genius that he fell off his chair and broke his Blackberry. It's that kind of crap that turns people off politics--snivelling, schoolboy humour, by people too lost in their cliquey little worlds to ever connect with the ordinary voter.

Fortunately, you won't win the next election.
Chris Whiteside said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chris Whiteside said…
Dear Andy W

You have your view and I have mine about whether the joke is funny.

But it is a matter of fact that the person who wrote it had sufficient intelligence and good taste to be able to make her point without resorting to insults like "moron" or "snivelling" and without using swear words.

It may be that when you are doing something more constuctive than writing negative posts on other people's blogs you can demonstrate similar abilities but you certainly did not do so here.

I suspect that the style of communication you used puts far more people off than the occasional political joke does.

An awful lot of "ordinary voters," including many who used to vote Labour and some who still do, have said things to me about Tony Blair over the past few weeks which are a great deal less complimentary than the joke which I quoted.
Anonymous said…
wow, the deleted post really angered you. Here's my ten penneth. I can't understand anyone from Bransty voting tory...why? lots of reasons, 1979 - 40 odd mines in copeland alone, 1997 - 30 in the whole of England - we now need to buy coal from Russia!!!, let's look at steel - oops, tories killed that too, lets look at car manufacture - oops, crushed again by tories (however, stupid striking era of mid seventies must be taken into account). Sellafield is the only 'real' employer in your immediate area. Please inform me how mr cameron deals with legacy and future nuclear issues? Lets move away from employment - please don't tell me that i shouldn't vote for labour cos of an annoying war in iraq - please stop listening to 'sun' headlines. If tories were still in power I wouldn't be doing the job I am now as they had a policy of 'keep the peasants down'. Sorry Chris but if you look hard enough into it you will realise how the tories of the eighties and early ninties were the real instigators of 'stealth taxes', not Mr Brown - he has just applied your model...look at pregnancy allowance - cut by tories, milk to schoolkids - cut by tories....etc all add up to stealth taxes for common people like me. I hope this discussion fits within your boundaries of decency and intelligence as I would really like a reply...
Chris Whiteside said…
Actually, Pelicon, nothing here angered me. The deleted comment was the first draft of my own reply to Andy W, I wasn't satisfied with it, so I deleted my own comment and started again. I never delete comments just because I disagree with them - only things which are obscene or highly offensive.

Although I have on occasion severely criticised the conduct of the occupation of Iraq, you will search this blog in vain for the suggestion that the Iraq debacle on its own is a reason to vote Tory. I do not see how I can make that argument given that most Conservative MPs also voted for the war.

It is always a terrible mistake to build the economy of any area around mining. It can only be a temporary source of employment until either the usable seams of whatever you are mining run out. Governments of both parties were equally responsible for that mistake in the past, and blaming whichever party happened to be in power when a coalfield closed more than 20 years ago is not a particularly good way to decide which party has the best policies today. Particularly as the closure of coal mines owed a great deal to what you yourself call "stupid striking" - a lot more mines were closed much earlier because of Arthur Scargill than would have been the case had the NUM been led by a more intelligent man who was following a more realistic strategy.

Answer to your other points follows later - have a family engangement

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