Sunday, April 17, 2011
Going negative
In his Wales on Sunday column this morning, Matt Withers points out that all the parties in this election are going negative on the record of the others. That is the nature of modern elections.
However, as he further elucidates, it is one thing to go negative, quite another to do so whilst pretending to be whiter-than-white and accusing your opponents of taking the lead in dissing the others.
Matt refers to the statement issued by Labour on Friday afternoon in which they say that: “It will be interesting to see if the other parties rethink their incessantly negative campaigns in light of the recent polling. But whatever they decide to do, we will be sticking to our plan to set out a positive vision for Wales that contrasts with the actions of the Tory/Liberal Government in Westminster.”
As he says that is a contradiction in the space of one sentence:
Because Labour have, of course, been as relentlessly negative as anyone in this campaign. Their whole campaign – the line pushed at every opportunity – is that the election should be used “to send a message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg”, the implication being that, on May 6, the pair will awake to discover Labour has a 31-seat majority in the Welsh Assembly and immediately bring a halt to all spending cuts.
Perhaps Labour need to instill a bit more honesty in their campaign.
However, as he further elucidates, it is one thing to go negative, quite another to do so whilst pretending to be whiter-than-white and accusing your opponents of taking the lead in dissing the others.
Matt refers to the statement issued by Labour on Friday afternoon in which they say that: “It will be interesting to see if the other parties rethink their incessantly negative campaigns in light of the recent polling. But whatever they decide to do, we will be sticking to our plan to set out a positive vision for Wales that contrasts with the actions of the Tory/Liberal Government in Westminster.”
As he says that is a contradiction in the space of one sentence:
Because Labour have, of course, been as relentlessly negative as anyone in this campaign. Their whole campaign – the line pushed at every opportunity – is that the election should be used “to send a message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg”, the implication being that, on May 6, the pair will awake to discover Labour has a 31-seat majority in the Welsh Assembly and immediately bring a halt to all spending cuts.
Perhaps Labour need to instill a bit more honesty in their campaign.
