Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Are Labour Candidates Ashamed of Their Own Party?


Click to enlarge

This is an election letter for a council in Lancashire. Its author, Alan Whittaker, is a candidate, but more interestingly is also a Labour County Councillor. it is very strange that nowhere in the letter does he mention the words 'Labour' and 'Party' and 'Candidate'. Is he ashamed of his mparty affiliation, or does he think their brand is now so tainted that he belongs to the Party that dare not speaks its name. Does anyone else have examples of Labour candidates who don't mention their own party on their leaflets?

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

It reminds me of those Tories back in the 90s who described themselves on the ballot paper as 'Your Local Man' or 'The Local Butcher'. This isn't a swipe at the Conservatives, but rather an observation that Labour is in deep trouble if it's candidates are behaving as the Tories did 10-15 years ago.

George Street said...

What do you think of academies, Iain?

Anonymous said...

I was too busy playing the little football game underneath yer post to bother reading the letter....

Anonymous said...

I seem to remember some of our own candidates being accused of doing the same thing in , oh let me see 1995................

Anonymous said...

He mentions the word "candidate". He does not say "Labour candidate".

Unsworth said...

Certainly seems to be catching. Derek Wyatt MP - a local figure - seems to have carefully excised most if not all reference to the Labour Party from his quite nice site. Mind, he has the great misfortune to be PPS to Margaret Hodge - possibly a Fate Worse Than Death.

But strange that the flag-waving, cheering, foot-stomping Labour triumphalism has given way to the whimpering of whipped curs - or the silence of the lambs.

Anonymous said...

Iain, off topic I know, but is your web site down again?

Anonymous said...

Last week I was the 999.999 vistor, this week I am the 999.999 visitor, is business slow in the blogging world?

I still haven't won that Audi A3 either.

hatfield girl said...

A return to the names of candidates only on the ballot paper would be good. Anyone would draw back from putting a cross next to Balls.

Anonymous said...

wheres my comment Iain? lets not censure debate here! :-D

Old BE said...

Labour's election rules might come back to haunt them - ballot papers have to carry the "official" party name and logo so no hiding away now!

Adrian Windisch said...

Remember the last General Election when Candidates didn't put a picture of Tony Blair on their leaflet. The man who wasnt their. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3791289.stm

Anonymous said...

Ken Livingstone! His have "Labour" in very small print in the bottom left hand corner.

Anonymous said...

On a point of order, he does in fact mention the word 'candidate' but addmitedly omits the prefix 'labour'. It's otherwise misleading in that the style and layout suggest that it is from a householder writing to neighbours rather than a political candidate canvassing votes. Grrrrrrrrr. Straight into the recycling with it.

Anonymous said...

On a point of order, he does in fact mention the word 'candidate' but addmitedly omits the prefix 'labour'. It's otherwise misleading in that the style and layout suggest that it is from a householder writing to neighbours rather than a political candidate canvassing votes. Grrrrrrrrr. Straight into the recycling with it.

Anonymous said...

In Worcester all the postal vote letters do not mention "Labour," the address is in blue and is headed by "local council candidate."

Anonymous said...

There is absolutely no mention of the Conservative Party in the 'Back Boris' leaflet being delivered in parts of Lewisham at the moment, either.

tory boys never grow up said...

And no mention that this blog is one of the sewers (to use the late John Biffen's terminology) through which CCO pumps its propaganda - can we assume that Mr Dale is ashamed of acknowledging of his unofficial spokeperson role for the Conservative Party? Or can we look forward to all feeds from CCO being properly acknowledged in the future?

Anonymous said...

Is it not a legal requirement to put the name of the party in the imprint? Nit picking but the law is the law.

Anonymous said...

The Labour bod we're up against has put out window posters advertising his name with his Labour affiliation on it. But he's changed their colour so they look more LibDem-ish. Is he hoping the good voters of Burslem South won't notice?

Anonymous said...

Handy having the candidates phone number on it though.....

Anonymous said...

Sue, with the greatest of respect you are being completely disingenuous in your comments.

There have been three election leaflets put out in Lewisham to date, all of which have been cobranded between myself and Boris' campaign. The first leaflet has Boris Johnson with the strapline "Conservative Candidate for mayor", mentions the word Conservative six times and has the party logo. The second has the Conservative logo just below Boris' name, mentions and mentions Conservative four times. The third again has the logo below our names and mentions the word Conservative 6 times.

But why let the facts get in the way of your anecdote, eh?

Anonymous said...

Andy
I'm looking right now at an A5 leaflet called 'London Transport is a mess' - it's a small A5 leaflet with a kind of spaghetti junction map of the tube on the front and I can't see the words 'Conservative Party' on it, just 'Back Boris'. I found it on the floor in a block of flats, so it's possible it was handed out at a train station or smthg and just dumped there rather than delivered. Haven't seen any of your 3 leaflets as yet, although I have had a couple of complaints from residents that Conservative supporters have been putting flyers under car windscreens wipers rather than through letterboxes, which didn't go down very well ;). Will meet you at the count no doubt, if not before.

Anonymous said...

"Are Labour Candidates Ashamed of Their Own Party?"

They should be. Traitors to the working class. Traitors to the party. Traitors to the country.

Anonymous said...

Alan Whittaker lost this District Council seat two years ago, in 2005he retained the County Council seat with a majority of 7. In fact this is a Tory seat in an increasingly Tory Borough where advertising one's Labour connections is not going to help you get elected. Whittaker will become Chairman of Lancashire County Council in May, a tacit recognition that he has no political future - dead man walking!