So much for an end to class warfare in British politics. At this morning’s press conference the Labour trio (Mandelson, Balls, Burnham) insisted they were not in the business of negative campaigning, despite evidence to the contrary.*
Soon after Lord Mandelson said:
“We know also what they would do for what Mr Cameron describes as ‘regional stuff’. Regional investment, regional jobs, regional infrastructure, but he looks down his rather long toffee nose at the regions.”
* Burnham on the NHS: “At a stroke they’ll take all this away.”
Mandelson: The Tories are giving “no detail of the pain ahead in what they would do to public services.”
Balls: “Labour stands for guarantees…the Tories stand for abandonment.”
UPDATE
On the subject of negative campaigning, Paul Waugh has the latest Labour videos for Scotland and Wales.
Not exactly positive. (Tories are supposedly the party of unemployment, repossessions, decay, poll tax, factories closing down….”they even took away our school milk!”) Labour fails to mention that manufacturing has declined faster under Labour than it did under the Tories.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey