UK Politics
The skulduggery and opportunity of a snap election campaign
Published 04 October 2007
Beware the politician who promises to play by the rules. Beware the politician who complains when others play foul. Both have been much on display in these past few weeks as election fever takes hold. Labour, still buoyant in spite of a good conference for David Cameron's Conservatives, accuses the Tories of abusing democracy by allowing one immensely rich benefactor, Michael Ashcroft, to preside not only over key marginal seats but also over policy. The Tories have accused Gordon Brown of plagiarising parts of American speeches for his big conference address, leading the Prime Minister's aides to see in this the start of a dirty-tricks campaign by the opposition and its friends in the media.
Then came Brown's dash to Iraq and his announcement of troop withdrawals. This was denounced variously as a rehash of old decisions, an insult to parliament and a brazen attempt to steal the headlines from the Tory gathering. Certainly Brown's Iraq gambit raises questions about his professed esteem for the House of Commons, yet it is perhaps unrealistic to expect politicians to behave when power is at stake.
The very timing of the election can also be seen at least in part as a question of ethics. After his immaculate succession to Tony Blair, is Brown doing the right thing by the voters in seeking a direct mandate? Or is this a cynical manoeuvre to hit the Tories when they are down (though maybe not as down as one might hope), given that there is no constitutional requirement or political exigency for Labour to test its credentials at the ballot box?
In the end it doesn't matter which one it is, as Brown is perfectly entitled to do what his advisers have been begging him to do, and take the biggest political gamble of his life so far. After all, the new Labour project since 1994 has been to take and hold on to power. Key to that is sidelining the Tory party, which Labour has achieved with remarkable success over the past decade, through its own achievements, shrewd tactics, and rhetoric and policies more akin to the centre right than to the centre left.
This gives rise to a charge that is far more serious than spin or skulduggery. Will this election, if it is to take place, be fought under false pretences? Neither Brown, in his conference speech, nor Cameron, in his surprisingly bloodless variety performance, set out policies or overarching visions.
Over the next few weeks will many of the most important issues be ignored or glossed over, because they are too awkward, or because they don't fit the pattern of campaigning?
In foreign affairs, what will Brown say about a US attack on Iran? Having distanced himself from the Bush administration over Iraq, when will the Prime Minister call for a full judicial inquiry into the war? Is he hell-bent on renewing the Trident nuclear system, despite increasing opposition to the project? (We congratulate those who took part in this month's blockade of the Faslane naval base.) As for climate change, Labour's record remains poor, and Cameron's brief flirtation with radical policies appears to have been abandoned.
And worryingly, will the debate about economic policy be confined to rhetorical flourishes offering tax cuts? Where is the thinking about what it takes to produce a more cohesive and just society? Although the Tories' plan to cut inheritance tax helps the wrong people - the fairly rich - it is a travesty that it was a party of the right that came up with the proposal for a levy on non-domiciled UK residents, otherwise known as the super-rich. This is an issue on which the NS has campaigned for years. The Labour government has long taken the view that the super-rich should be left untouched, and that business should be left as deregulated as possible. Is it any wonder that, as we report on page 19, the UK now ranks so high among the countries that do most to fuel corporate corruption?
The fear is that, as with the 2005 election, the campaign will be fought on narrow terrain. Crime and immigration will be reduced to easy soundbites and cheap patriotism. Whereas Blair and Iraq took the lustre off Labour's appeal then, Brown has a chance to present an uplifting alternative. But will he seize it?
Beware the bedbug bites
You've probably heard of the bedbug epidemic that is raging through Britain's cities. Sited as we are in London, we were at first alarmed to learn that Cimex lectularius, the little brown creature the size of an apple pip that can suck up to four times its own weight in blood, has taken to riding the capital's Tube trains and buses and latching on to victims' clothes in order to get to its preferred abode - a regularly used mattress.
Advice from private pest control experts, freely offered on the radio and in the national press, has included avoiding sitting down on public transport, and a suggestion that you strip naked in your entrance hall on return from work, before washing all your clothes at very high temperatures. The consequences of not calling in the experts are, of course, dire. "I'm often called out to people with more than 150 bites," claimed one pest controller.
In your service we carried out a thorough investigation and have become suspicious. Have you been bitten? Do you know anyone who has? And isn't it rather a coincidence that North America has just recently been enduring a similar epidemic? In New York, newspapers report the story of 21-year-old Michelle Hopkins, who says she was nearly eaten alive by bedbugs in her college dorm. And a popular children's TV show, My Bedbugs, has gone nationwide across the US. Too uncanny for words.
As our grandparents once said: "Sleep tight. Mind the bugs don't bite!"
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