You may recall that I previously posted on the blog about Tony Blair begging the people of Scotland not to "give him a kicking" by voting SNP. Now we have Jack McConnell on Radio Four repeating his master's message.
How convenient for Jack to try and obscure the fact that the election is to form the next Scottish Executive which HE has been in charge of since 2001. What exactly does Tony Blair have to do with this. It is he who will get an electoral "kicking" on 3rd May, and d
eservedly so. The campaign of the Labour Party in this election has been one of the most unremittingly negative going.
eservedly so. The campaign of the Labour Party in this election has been one of the most unremittingly negative going.Meanwhile we took the positive message of the SNP to the streets of Kilsyth and Cumbernauld, as well as finding time to pop by the Tesco at Craigmarloch (pictured) where we found a great and warm response from the members of the public we spoke to there. And I didn't have to suggest they kick anyone at any time!
7 comments:
i think its a wee bit rich when the snp say they are running an entirely positive campaign, but keep hammering the character of labour's leaders. saying blair is untrustworthy and that mcconnell was cowering before he agreed to debate with the other party leaders would count as negative campaigning. either have a wholly positive campaign, and allow the people of scotland to deduce for ourselves that blair brown et all are a poor choice, or you can attack labour, but you can't do both. i don't trust blair, and i've got no confidence in mcconnell, but when the snp do things like this it makes it hard for me to vote for you.
Tiresomecynic: McConnell knocked back BBC Question Time FIFTEEN TIMES! The guy is First Minister and instead of stepping up and promote his policies, he stuck Baron Foulkes of Cumnock in his place.
I don't think pointing this out constitutes negative campaigning.
tiresomecynic, I'm glad you are keeping an eye on Jamie Hepburn's blog as so am I.
The main points of the Labour 2007 campaign have been: Scotland has a budget deficit of anything from six to 13 billion pounds (depending on which day of the week), Scotland can't afford independence and lives off the English taxpayer, the SNP will make everyone pay £5,000 extra in tax, the SNP will close schools and hospitals, the SNP will cost jobs. "Break up Britain, end up broke" is their slogan.
The main points of the SNP 2007 campaign, as well as the democratic right to decide on independence, have been: it's time to make class sizes smaller, for more bobbies on the beat, to dump student debt, increase small business growth, keep healthcare local and abolish the Council Tax. "It's time for the SNP" is their slogan.
Compare and contrast.
BTW, if raising Iraq, Trident and Cash for Peerages along the way is classed as "negative" then I don't mind. It has to be done.
Willie, I agree they are important issues, but it's the claiming the snp campaign is ENTIRELY positive which irks me. don't get me wrong, I’m not accusing them of the gutter tactics adopted by the labour party, but I just wish they would be honest about their methods and tactics.
anonymous:
“Negative campaigning is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies. In the broadest sense, the term covers any rhetoric which refers to an opponent, if only by way of contrast, but can also include attacks meant to destroy an opponent's character, which may veer into ad hominem." - wikipedia
I’m afraid that accusing your main opponent of cowering does constitute negative campaigning.
With the Dux of Plockton High School supporting your campaign there is no way that you can fail on 3 May!
Best wishes
Hibee
To be fair, I think Labour definitely win the most negative campaign award. I think by involving themselves strongly in a campaign for which they're not standing, Brown and Blair have left themselves wide open to attacks on issues that are not technically in the remit of Holyrood, such as Iraq, Trident, etc, etc
As someone who was at the hustings on friday as an undecided voter I have to say that Jamie's performance did little to encourage me to vote SNP. I felt he spent most of the evening bashing Labour rather giving me reasons to vate SNP. If you want my vote and many like mine you will need to get more positive with your message rather than Labour bashing, we are quite capable of doing that our selves.
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