Excuse me but WHO are the scaremongers?
Its been widely reported today that the Tories have set up a website –
www.stopthescaremongering.com
– which they are encouraging voters to visit. They want people to demand an apology for what they call a “sick” Labour leaflet warning that the Tories would damage provision for cancer sufferers.
Sorry – but wasn’t it the Tories who were trying to terrify the country witless a couple of weeks ago that anything other than a huge Tory majority at the General Election would have the £ tumbling and the city in meltdown. Now thats proper scaremongering if you ask me.
At the Tory website there is a predrafted lettter you can send to Mr Burnham. I’ve adjusted it somewhat……
Dear Mr Burnham Cameron
I’m appalled by the way the Labour Conservative Party has tried to exploit cancer sufferers everyones fear about the state of the economy.
It is completely unacceptable to scare them with false claims about what the Conservative party democracy would do.
This kind of scaremongering has no place in British politics, and I trust you will be apologising for it without delay.
I would be grateful if you could also confirm that you will stop these postcards being distributed to anybody else, and that you will be apologising to every person who received this scaremongering postcard heard your scaremongering statements.
I look forward to hearing from you at the earliest opportunity.
April 12th, 2010 at 11:50 am
‘I’m appalled by the way the Labour Conservative Party has tried to exploit cancer sufferers everyones fear about the state of the economy.’
That the whole point, very few are sufficiently concerned about the economy, but should be.
And no one has received a letter telling them they should be personally fearful of their share of the debt.
So a weak point poorly made.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
The Tories and their stooges are spreading this one internationally as well. ABC Australia’s equivalent of Radio 4 gets its UK political comment from The Sun (don’t even ask!) and their take on the coming election was that May the 6th would be a choice between a Cameron majority and a run on the pound.
To think, John Major once took the opposition to task for “talking down Britain.”
April 12th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Mark – so that well worn statement “its the economy stupid” is wrong? I dont think so. People do care about their jobs, their savings, their pensions. Telling people that the economy will go up in smoke if the Tories dont get their way is scaremongering – however you look at it.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
‘Mark – so that well worn statement “its the economy stupid” is wrong? I dont think so. People do care about their jobs, their savings, their pensions.’
I agree people are concerned about these, but I’m not aware of ‘scaremongering’ by the Tories on these issues, although arguably on deficit and debt.
Any raise in NI will have an adverse effect on employment so don’t see that as scaremongering, just stating the obvious. And this is something the Tories will do also but just by less.
Savings are earning minimal interest because the governments quantitative easing and other measures are helping keep interest rates artificially low. Nothing contentious about pointing that out.
And labour have hit private pensions hard and show signs they will do so again if re-elected. Scaremongering? Dont think so.
And certainly not to the level of the Libdems “VAT bombshell’ where saint Vince cooks up some numbers, says the Tries will raise VAT by this amount whilst giving no evidence this is so, and then has the bare faced cheek not to rule out such a rise himself! Talk about hypocrisy.
No the only area where the Tories could be realistically accused of scaremongering is on the national debt, and that all comes down to your view on its affordability.
April 12th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
All 3 of you are effectively 1 party when it comes to claiming that the world is currently warming so catastrophically that by 2100 “Antarctica will be the only habitable continent” & we must give you all more power over our lives & destroy more than half the economy to ameliorate it. Claiming t be annoyed at any lesser scare story seems dishonest & hypocritical.
April 13th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
@Mark: I think the scaremongering Angela is referring to is the idea that anything less than a clear Tory majority would cause financial panic.
As has been argued in many places (most recently in a rather good letter to the FT), the idea that a hung parliament would cause fiscal chaos is unevidenced, and goes against every statement on fiscal policy made by Nick Clegg and Vince Cable.
An excellent post