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."
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
Fortunately, you won't win the next election.
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.
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