One good smear deserves another ...
There are so many good policy reasons not to vote Lib/Dem that there is absolutely no need for those of us in other parties or in parts of the media who don't agree with them to go after Nick Clegg personally.
Instead of the torrent of personal attacks against Nick Clegg this morning I would have preferred to see it pointed out that
* The Lib/Dem plan to increase the tax threshold to £10,000 sounds wonderful but is completely unaffordable
* All the parties would have a major challenge on their hands to find the savings from waste and bureaucracy they have set out, but the Lib/Dem plans would be far and away the most impossible to achieve
* Their policy of scrapping the pound and joining the Euro would harm this country's economy and is totally against what most British people want.
Of course, in Copeland the national Lib/Dems also want to shut down the industry which employes a quarter of our working population.
I had been wondering whether any political party had a hand in some of these smears. Nick Robinson at the BBC has an interesting response to allegations from Lord Mandelson that the Conservatives had planted the stories about Nick Clegg.
Let's just remind ourselves: which party leader recently had someone in his office who was caught red handed fabricating smears to plant against his political opponents?
Does Peter Mandelson imagine that everyone has forgotten one of Gordon Brown's former closest aides, Damien McBride and the filthy lies he dreamed up, not just about prominent Tories but about their families?
Nick Robinson's article Does one good smear deserve another? asks if this wasn't
" ... simply a smear designed to lay blame for the smears against Nick Clegg firmly at the door of the Tories?
"Lord Mandelson has not provided any evidence that Andy Coulson was involved; indeed, there are plenty of reasons to think he may well have not have been ...
"as yet there is no evidence that the Tory leadership were behind this morning's stories and until there is we must conclude that Lord Mandelson is trying to make a story about the Liberal Democrats into one that is damaging for David Cameron."
Quite.
Instead of the torrent of personal attacks against Nick Clegg this morning I would have preferred to see it pointed out that
* The Lib/Dem plan to increase the tax threshold to £10,000 sounds wonderful but is completely unaffordable
* All the parties would have a major challenge on their hands to find the savings from waste and bureaucracy they have set out, but the Lib/Dem plans would be far and away the most impossible to achieve
* Their policy of scrapping the pound and joining the Euro would harm this country's economy and is totally against what most British people want.
Of course, in Copeland the national Lib/Dems also want to shut down the industry which employes a quarter of our working population.
I had been wondering whether any political party had a hand in some of these smears. Nick Robinson at the BBC has an interesting response to allegations from Lord Mandelson that the Conservatives had planted the stories about Nick Clegg.
Let's just remind ourselves: which party leader recently had someone in his office who was caught red handed fabricating smears to plant against his political opponents?
Does Peter Mandelson imagine that everyone has forgotten one of Gordon Brown's former closest aides, Damien McBride and the filthy lies he dreamed up, not just about prominent Tories but about their families?
Nick Robinson's article Does one good smear deserve another? asks if this wasn't
" ... simply a smear designed to lay blame for the smears against Nick Clegg firmly at the door of the Tories?
"Lord Mandelson has not provided any evidence that Andy Coulson was involved; indeed, there are plenty of reasons to think he may well have not have been ...
"as yet there is no evidence that the Tory leadership were behind this morning's stories and until there is we must conclude that Lord Mandelson is trying to make a story about the Liberal Democrats into one that is damaging for David Cameron."
Quite.
Comments
The Conservatives have conducted themselves admirably throughout this campaign despite provocation from Labour. Those filthy leaflets scaring people with regard to cold weather payments and receipt of prompt cancer treatment etc, sent to selected addresses were a disgraceful example of Labour's depravity and desperation. Last night, on the 'Leaders Debate' David Cameron showed justified controlled anger and told Gordon Brown that it was disgusting to frighten, often vulnerable, people. Gordon Brown responded by denying all involvement. What a pathetic response. At the very least Gordon Brown showed himself up to be ridiculous. Even if he had told the truth, he came over as a weak leader for not stopping it or not taking the perpetrators to task. Frankly I believe he was telling porkies. Labour do not have to stoop to such dirty methods, those are their methods. The strategy of losers.