With apologies to The Clash

I've been following with interest the ongoing blog debate about Gordon Brown's position. Particularly interesting has been to see what Kevin Maguire of the Mirror, the man who is often "credited" with the idea of trying to paint David Cameron as a toff, had to say about Crewe and Nantwich - and the reaction of those who posted comments.

You can read his article "Brown's Crewe Cut" at

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/maguire/2008/05/browns-crewe-cut.html

The extraordinary thing is that Kevin Maguire apparently can't help himself and could not resist using the expression "Toff Cameron" in the article.

The Labour campaign in Crewe and Nantwich has got to go down as the most inept by-election campaign for fifty years. Lowlights included insensitive racial comments apparently designed to play on the worst kind of paranoia against the local Polish community, Labour material publicising the fact that some Conservatives had delivered leaflets in a Bentley when these cars are actually made in the area and the Conservatives concerned were supporting a local industry, and some unedifying comments unworthy of a serious party about crime. But in a campaign marked by remarkable incompetence which contributed to the size, if not the existence, of the Tory win, the most spectacular boomerang of the lot was the "Toff" attack. And then Maguire, even as he admits that the result was a disaster for Labour, cannot deprogramme himself from writing "Toff Cameron."

The "Comments" posts have a great deal of fun with this. To give you a sample of the response to his article, a gentleman calling himself "Serf" posted the following alternative words to "I fought the law" by the Clash.

Serf said:
With apologies to The Clash:

Campaigning in the hot sun
I fought the Toff and the Toff won (twice)
I needed a job cause I had none
I fought the Toff and the Toff won (twice)

I lost a by election and it feels so bad
Guess my race is run
It’s the best chance that I ever had
I fought the Toff and the Toff won
I fought the Toff and the

Insulting Timpson with a class war
I fought the Toff and the Toff won (twice)
Tax the poor, what’s Labour for
I fought the Toff and the Toff won (twice)

I let down Gordon and it feels so bad
Guess my race is run
It’s the best chance that I ever had
I fought the Toff and the Toff won
I fought the Toff and the

I fought the Toff and the Toff won (7 times)

Comments

Newmania said…
Now I `d have thought you were more of a of a 12th century recorder music buff Chris .
8:56 am
Chris Whiteside said…
Naughty naughty, Paul - you know very well that I'm into a wide range of classical music and especially choral music. Doesn't mean I don't know enough 20th century pop music to appreciate the odd joke.
11:25 pm
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