Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Labour Accused by DD on Political Advertising

Ben Brogan reports on a letter David Davis letter to the Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell today, complaining about a series of Home Office adverts, supposedly aimed at businesses, which had subliminal party political messages to swing voters on immigration. Strangely, even though the target audience was supposedly businesspeople, the adverts only appeared in the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Mirror and The Star.

Bearing that in mind, read this quote from the Chipmunk (Hazel Blears, for the uninitiated) in tonight's London Evening Standard...
"We have to persuade people in Hastings, Basildon, Harlow and Luton we are firm but fair on immigration, that we understand their apprehensions..."
Now, which papers do many people in those towns read? You're ahead of me. Yet another example of taxpayers' money being used to help the Labour Party.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Tories being completely innocent of this charge of course

Ross said...

Labour have been doing this for years. They see no distinction between the government and the governing party.

It is worth bearing in mind when discussions on spending limits for elections come up. Labour vastly outspend the other parties because of the government's advertising budget.

Prior to 1997 I can't remember seeing or hearing adverts emanating from the government apart from those health and safety ads that used to always be on late at night.

Any deal on party funding has to include a means of putting the government's advertising budget under the control of a neutral body.

Anonymous said...

According to an urban dictionary entry for Hazel Blears:

"Cockney rhyming slang for a vaginal smears test.

Hazel Blears is the annoying ginger dwarf who is the Labour Party Parrot MP for Salford, UK.

"Hey Vera, can't chat now as I am off to get me Hazel Blears done. I will be back in an hour!"

Anonymous said...

The Government is now the biggest single advertisor, outspending Proctor and Gamble.....

Anonymous said...

Hazel's right, I live in Harlow, and read the good old Sun, plus the Telegraph, Guardian etc. I love the Sun for its campaign for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Did Hazel see the stunning results of Harlow's Referendum? When are she, Brown & co going to listen to Harlow's angry 'apprehensions' about that?

Where Hazel's very wrong is that she appears to believe that we're thickos here in Harlow, obsessed with immigration.

Of course out of control migration is a worry, but it's way down our list of angry issues:

Economic Slowdown
Growing redundancies
Rising prices and taxes
Living under Stansted's flightpaths
Chasms in our roads and services
Our hospital, too full to treat us
Massive developments dumped on us
Yet no housing for our adult kids
Council officers' huge salaries
Harlow's undemocratic Quangodom
Police state UK and its
Growing intrusion in our lives
Can't even have a fag in peace
Living in a Respect Zone
Yet there's no respect
Breakdown of law and order
Breakdown of our traditional values
Breakdown of society

How about addressing those angry apprehensions too, Hazel?

No, on second thoughts, forget it, we've heard enough lists of your government's alleged great achievements to last us for a VERY long time.

You and your lot have blown it big time, gal, too late now to come outside of your luxurious political bubbles and feign listening to us.

Because we aint listening any longer.

Man in a Shed said...

You should add last weeks Economist 15Mar08 UK Edn. page 19 to the list.

Full page advert.

Geezer said...

Government advertising spend, has massively increased in the last ten years Hoover Cam.
Not only do Liebour use it as a taxfunded propaganda weapon (to go alongside the BBC), but, if you listen or watch any commericial broadcasters, or read printed media, a very sizeable chunk of their advertising is government related. Labour are basically using taxpayers money to prop up their media friends, (Guardian, being the most obvious example) many of whom, are on the boards of large commercial media organisations, coincidentally, such as Dickie "Labour luvvie" Attenborough being President of Capital Radio.
It's another example of government wasting taxpayers money to prop-up their network of media cronies and cement the support of the MSM.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they're just trying to cheer people up and to alleviate unnecessary anxieties caused by reading too much guff from miserablists such as you.

PS Is the reason for your Blears obsession that she's so cheerful all the time and you're so unremittingly gloomy? Envy is an awful master.

Anonymous said...

@cheerful chap

So weak!!!!

Twig said...

The BBC has to be the biggest abuse of taxpayers money for propaganda.
In turn BBC use the Guardian to recruit for jobs. This ensures that they hit the target audience of champaign socialists and at the same time supports another like minded lefty organization.

It's interesting that a broadcaster with the reach of the BBC with a £200,000,000 website has to advertise jobs in a newspaper.

Why not have a 5 minute job slot after the news once a week? After all it wouldn't be commercial advertising, and it would be fairer to the parts of the country that don't take the Guardian.

Chris Paul said...

Bloody marvellous! Campaign in red tops (ooh and The Economist) gets FREE below the line coverage in quality media like the Evening Boris and now Iain Dale's Diary!!

A meisterwerk. This is how the tax payer gets VFM on important truths that need to be shared.

Anonymous said...

This advertising doesn't just appear in print. It has also featured on a local radio station in the Midlands. This is a pop station: it plays records and the advertising pretends to be for employers. Made me puke every time I heard it.

I have also been receiving recorded phone messages instucting me to listen 'to a free public service message'. I've no idea what it's about as I hang up as soon as I hear the creepy sound of Peter Hain's voice.