Iain Dale's Diary: Labour About to Start Another 'Envy' Campaign in Henley?

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Labour About to Start Another 'Envy' Campaign in Henley?

I thought I would do the Labour Party a favour and publish their first Henley by-election campaign press release...

Jim Hood, Labour MP for Lanark & Hamilton East has criticised the Conservatives' choice of accountant John Howell, a former partner at City accountant Ernst and Young, to fight the Henley by-election.

Mr Hood said, " Is the Tory Party not running out of super rich male lawyers and accountants yet. What happened to David Cameron's, 'I want the Tory Party to be more representative of the whole country and select more women in winnable seats' pledge?

"Tut, tut, this will not do Mr Cameron."

So the grammar school boy who has lived in Henley for twenty years and sent his three kids to local state schools isn't good enough for Mr Hood. It seems that even after the Crewe disaster Labour is persevering with class war attacks. Look at the sneering reference to "former partner at City Accountant Ernst & Young. You can almost hear him spitting the words out. Apart from that, it's just bizarre to put the phrase 'tut, tut' in a press release.

58 comments:

Anonymous said...: Jim Hoodie, eh?; June 03, 2008 8:35 pm
Anonymous said...: Is being an accountant enviable?

:); June 03, 2008 8:36 pm
Man in a Shed said...: tey are out of ideas. All of their big flagship projects have been shown as failures. Their party is nearly bankrupt, and it members leaving en-mass.

Having sold their souls, campaigned as a party for the medical murder of children at 20-24 weeks gestation (but lacked the courage to admit to it), wasted over a trillion pounds of tax payers money, and destroying English liberties that have lasted almost a millennium their hatred and bigotry is all they have left.; June 03, 2008 8:39 pm
Anonymous said...: So is this another Scot being lined up to run the campaign and fail, like Stephen McCabe?; June 03, 2008 8:46 pm
Anonymous said...: of course they will - not with any chance of winning Henley but they are "running it up the flagpole" to see how it might work for 2010. I assume that their polling has shown: (a)GB is v.unpopular,
and; (b)there is still a reluctance amongst key Labour supporters to vote for the Torys in a general election.; June 03, 2008 8:46 pm
Anonymous said...: Hopefully Jim Hood will get so wound up about this local, hard-working, successful, grammar school and first in his family to go to university man, that he'll have another heart attack and die.; June 03, 2008 8:47 pm
Unsworth said...: Is this Hood person some sort of Scotchman? If so why doesn't he keep his tartan encrusted nose out of an English by-election? Do we really have to endure all of these afflictions and interferences from the Hibernian hordes? In short, what the hell has it got to do with him?; June 03, 2008 8:50 pm
Anonymous said...: If Labour MP's wish to make a ridiculous, bigoted, prejudiced spectacle of themselves then just let them.

Just checkout Ed Vaizey's comments on the equivalent Conhome thread to see how ridiculous Hood sounds.; June 03, 2008 8:53 pm
Anonymous said...: I take your point, Iain, and I agree with you (interesting to note that it's an attack from another Scottish Labour MP)... but, equally, if, time after time, Conservative candidates are well-off men then the attack may start to stick.; June 03, 2008 8:56 pm
Anonymous said...: Surely you ought not to be invoking the Tory candidate's impeccably ingident background as in his defence? Surely the principle that people should not be discriminated against because of their advantages or lack thereof is the only respectable argument here? If he were the son of the Duke of Devonshire with a palace in Monaco he would be an equally eligible candidate.; June 03, 2008 8:56 pm
Anonymous said...: This would be the same Ernst and Young grown fat on government contracts

£3billion
http://www.capgemini.com/resources/news/the_cap_gemini_ernst__young_group_wins_3_billion_uk_government_contract/

"The Transport Sub-Committee held a further evidence session on 27 February with the partners from Ernst & Young responsible for the independent review"
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmtlgr/680/68003.htm

"significant IT infrastructure upgrades to the National Assembly for Wales"
http://www.paconsulting.com/news/press_release/2004/pr_national_assembly_wales.htm

"Ernst & Young's early confidence was rewarded within weeks. By mid-March, it was reported that the CPA had awarded the firm a $13m contract to trace Iraq's loan contracts"
http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=183237&d=1032&h=1024&f=1026&dateformat=%25o%20%25B%20%25Y

"Government appointed administrators Ernst & Young had been called in after Metronet announced debts of £2 billion"
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/380389.html

2002 -- "£30.6m "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/politics/1792871.stm

I have got bored - it does seem the government rsepects Ernst and Young more than its pipsqueak backbencher - who I note comes from Lanark & Hamilton East. It seems labours attempot to sideline jocks and appeal to middle England did not last long.

Lets hope the govt give credit where credit is due during the by election.; June 03, 2008 8:57 pm
Anonymous said...: Just another woad painted Scotsman; June 03, 2008 9:03 pm
Jim Jepps said...: I quite liked the tut, tut actually.

But I'm sure I'm not the only one to find it strange that he's criticising the Tories for not selecting a woman candidate - not being a woman clearly didn't stop him from putting himself forward for the job and I'm sure he does not believe that every seat the Tories contest should be with female candidates... tut; June 03, 2008 9:05 pm
Anonymous said...: Forget Class War. It now appears that Labour has a problem with plain old successful people from seeking to lead the country. Perhaps the Tories should start advertising for candidates in job centres?

Greg.; June 03, 2008 9:08 pm
Anonymous said...: YIPPEE another toff campaign!!; June 03, 2008 9:12 pm
Shaun said...: God they're dim. Class - nobody cares, at least nobody in sufficient numbers to swing an election. 4 scruffy trots flogging Socialist Worker (a contradiction in terms, I fear) don't count.; June 03, 2008 9:13 pm
Anonymous said...: As Talleyrand said, they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.; June 03, 2008 9:21 pm
kinglear said...: Speaking as a Scot, I find it incredible that a Scottish Labour MP should make ANY comment about an English seat. It just shows how abysmally out of touch NuLabour are, in that they think a Scot mouthing off about an English seat will win them votes. Er, I don't think so.; June 03, 2008 9:25 pm
Anonymous said...: That would be Jim Hood, Scottish Labour MP and ex-union official...

Sounds like the PLP have some stereotypes of their own to deal with first.; June 03, 2008 9:28 pm
Anonymous said...: Wasn't the late, unlamented Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt something big at Arthur Anderson before she entered Parliament?; June 03, 2008 9:32 pm
Anonymous said...: Well to be fair, the Tories are playing safe with a white middle class male. Surely it is in these "safe" seats that the Tories should be trying to field ethnic and minority candidates?; June 03, 2008 9:36 pm
Iain Dale said...: Chorusline, what a fatuous comment. This is a byelection. You play safe in byelections. He's a local candidate with a track record.

Maidstone, Witham, SE Cambs, Windsor, I hardly think the Tories can be accused of not fielding BME candidates in safe seats.; June 03, 2008 9:38 pm
Anonymous said...: I wouldn't mind all this when it comes from the genuine hard left but I thought that New Labour actually quite liked the City?; June 03, 2008 9:39 pm
Anonymous said...: Iain, what are BME candidates?; June 03, 2008 9:43 pm
Andrew Allison said...: All I can say, Iain, is that I am very surprised. I thought they would have learnt their lesson after Crewe. I have been involved with the rough and tumble of elections over years, but the leaflets I saw in Crewe - quite frankly - shocked me. The nastiness of the campaign backfired badly. It looks like they need another kicking. Is there any chance they might loose their deposit?; June 03, 2008 9:45 pm
Anonymous said...: Jim Hood, is he the man who pretends to be an ex miner but who in fact went to University and was in fact an engineer? Surely not. Why waste our breath on this lot. They have hammered the poor and now they are finished.
freedom to prosper; June 03, 2008 9:46 pm
Anonymous said...: Chorus Line - and perhaps the constituents don't want to be test mice in an undemocratic social experiment.; June 03, 2008 9:48 pm
Anonymous said...: Aren't I right in thinking that "former partners at City accountant Ernst and Young" are ten-a-penny in Henley, thereby making him representative of the local electorate?

I can't wait for NuLab(rador) to tout how their man is "one of us"...

Surely it would be less humiliating if they didn't put a candidate forward?; June 03, 2008 9:53 pm
Anonymous said...: British politics can be summarised thus, when the people are awash with cash (and debt) we want it spent on the NHS and schools, and it gets spent on quangos and red-tape. When we are short of cash we want taxes cut, and they get cut across the board.

Surely it doesn't take a political genius to simply increase the ratio of front-office to back-office services.; June 03, 2008 9:55 pm
Anonymous said...: "Is the Tory Party not running out of super rich male lawyers and accountants yet."

Just how many of the Labour front runners are solicitors, barristers and other assorted legal types?

I guess the difference is the Conservative ones were successful...; June 03, 2008 9:56 pm
Anonymous said...: Henley is dull and expensive.. very suitable for an accountant.; June 03, 2008 10:04 pm
Anonymous said...: If Jim Hood had been at the - old fashioned - public meeting David Cameron held here in Harlow this evening, which I've just returned from, he'd be choking on his over-spun words.

It was like a return to real politics this eve; to the hustings which used to be an integral part of our country's democracy, before nulab's cowardly and despotic 'modernisation' of democracy began to abolish all of that.

David Cameron gave the people of Harlow a 100% question and answer session, one unpunctuated by speeches or self aggrandisement of any kind.

A very charismatic, yet surprisingly modest, Cameron removed his jacket and - without a stab vest, Ms Harman - walked around the floor, on the same level as us, inviting and answering random questions from without any prior warning of what our questions might be.

He gave a hugely impressive performance and demonstration of real democracy in the raw.

Cameron LISTENED to us and empathised with us in way that the real toffs - the millionaire elitists of nulab, have long forgotten how.

Not one of the Harlow audience mentioned the word toff or Eton.

Why? Because, faced with this man who was so clearly one of us - a populist man of the people - it was the very last thing on our minds.

All we were interested in was Cameron's view of the issues which have been burning holes in our brains and our pockets in recent years: a referendum on the Lisbon Constitution, the massive over-development destroying our town which does not reduce our housing list one jot, the NHS and special provision for special needs, pensions, immigration, grammar schools, student fees.

And, of course, Boris.

We in Harlow had forgotten that there was such a thing as open public meetings, it's been so very long since we last had one. And you know what? We love them. And we're quite taken with Cameron too.; June 03, 2008 10:27 pm
Anonymous said...: Iain, I think you meant NW Cambs (Shailesh Vara) rather than SE Cambs (Jim Paice)...; June 03, 2008 10:41 pm
Anonymous said...: Dear God, unsworth, do you really think that "Hibernian" means Scottish? You need a good Caledonian education.; June 03, 2008 10:41 pm
Astro-Turf Lawnmower said...: Labour activists used to call their by-election candidates 'ABBAs'.

Another Bl**dy Barrister Again...; June 03, 2008 10:52 pm
Anonymous said...: So is he not a former partner of E&Y then Iain? If he is it rather makes it a statement of fact.; June 03, 2008 11:02 pm
tory boys never grow up said...: Good to see that the Tories have selected someone who doesn't have the usual Tory xenophobic attitudes to the EU and Eastern Europe - or at least he didn't when that particular hand was feeding him when he was at Ernst & Young. Don't remember too many flattering comments from him at the time regarding the Tory government's attitudes to East Europe after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.; June 03, 2008 11:02 pm
Johnny Norfolk said...: Labour have totaly lost the plot.

They are just going on as if nothing had happened at Crewe.

They just dont get it. What are they going to do about the current situation in the country, not just having a go at the Tory.

You would NEVER see Brown at an open meeting like Cameron had at Harlow. Well done DC.; June 03, 2008 11:06 pm
Anonymous said...: Unsworth, fyi Hibernia was the Latin name for IRELAND.

Nothing Hibernian about Jim Hood.; June 03, 2008 11:11 pm
Anonymous said...: Jim Hood,

I'm glad you've openly expressed your Neanderthal class hatred, because it elucidates so much about you, your party and its leader, Gordon Brown.

Brown has never considered our little English town of Harlow worthy of a visit from his ungracious majesty, let alone an open meeting. When Tony Blair came to Harlow (disguised as David Blunkett, for that's who those invited believed they were to see) he crept in furtively, to a tightly controlled, tiny, invitation only, rent-a-crowd affair, populated by the few party loyalists he had left here.

That's what most of us great unwashed would call toffee nosed, toff behaviour.

When did Gordon Brown or any other nulabber last hold a real, open and truly public meeting, advertised in the press in advance and not by party member invitation only? When did they last engage with us in a real way? A decade or more ago? Never? Brown and Blair and nulabbers, they're the real toffs and elitists, not Cameron.

Every minor nuance of Brown's being screams that he's a toff. Every tic, every horrified gape and gasp just oozes Brown's horror and loathing of all of us outside his luxury political bubble, lined wall to wall with privilege and wealth and his deluded, narcissistic belief in his own superiority..

A dictionary definition of 'toff:

"wealthy, over dressed, affected speech and manners".

In a nutshell, that's Brown, Blair, Miliband, Blears, Gorbals Mick and nulbbers all.

Cameron achieved much in Harlow this evening, but above all else he proved who the real toffs are and that he is not among them.; June 03, 2008 11:11 pm
Andrew Zalotocky said...: Labour shot themselves in the foot with their anachronistic class war campaign in Crewe & Nantwich. Instead of learning where the real target is, they seem to be thinking "hey, I've got a second foot, I'll try that again and see if it works better this time!". Muppets.; June 03, 2008 11:31 pm
Anonymous said...: By the way, my 25 year old daughter who was not previously a Cameron supporter and who until now has described herself as politically confused, was so taken with Cameron's performance in Harlow today that she says she will now vote for him.

A work colleague of mine who previously disliked Cameron, left the meeting saying, "I'm impressed".

Eat your heart out Jim Hood and Gordon, because your strange and anachronistic class hatred and toff campaigns merely serve to highlight what rotten and pathetic wretches you are in contrast to the decent and honest bloke that is Cameron. It must be so painful for you...; June 03, 2008 11:34 pm
Anonymous said...: The BBC and Nick Robinson followed Cameron around Harlow today and there's a piece about it on the beeb's news website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7434783.stm

Nick's report appears to suggest that Cameron's visit was the same old corrupt party same old. However, in my experience, that was not the case.

There were many people who were not party members or even Conservative voters at the meeting I attended - these include my daughter and a colleague of mine. whom Nick seemed uninterested in interviewing...; June 04, 2008 12:45 am
Anonymous said...: This approach will totally "bomb" in Henley. Let's hope they keep rolling this pseudo-toff line out at every campaign. . It didn't work at Crewe and Nantwich and it most certainly won't work for Labour here.; June 04, 2008 7:09 am
Anonymous said...: dougal said...

"Wasn't the late, unlamented Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt something big at Arthur Anderson before she entered Parliament?"

No. She merely got a big pay cheque from them before becoming a minister. Money well spent perhaps, as nulab reversed Thatcher's ban on using Andersons for govt. work.; June 04, 2008 8:42 am
Anonymous said...: What are the English Labour MP's on? WTF is a JOCK doing 'masterminding' an ENGLISH by-election?!?! Are English labour MP's spineless? Apparently so.; June 04, 2008 11:23 am
Anonymous said...: The only class war now should be against the professional political class at least the tory candidates have had work experience.; June 04, 2008 12:04 pm
Oscar Miller said...: This is truly bizarre - not only have Brown's boys learnt nothing from C&N - they're now trying out their failed class war tactics on a much much more middle class seat. Considering just how many people they risk offending personally by this campaign, I guess we should be grateful that not only have Labour become the nasty party - they are now officially the stupid party.; June 04, 2008 12:51 pm
Anonymous said...: From Defamatory Vileness.

If one of Mr Hood's children (assuming he has some) were suffering from a serious heart condition, would he prefer him/her to be operated on by the best surgeon available or would he insist on one who was from a "working class" background?; June 04, 2008 1:41 pm
Hey said...: While idiotic, I could understand trying to shout "e's a TOFF!" in the C&N by-election. Not exactly a Con. stronghold and fairly working-class.

But HENLEY? What next, they'll run on an anti-toff platform in Windsor, only Con since 1874? I'm sure they'll hate the Eton boys! Maybe Kensington and Chelsea (or rather Kensington and Chelsea&Fulham) would be ripe for this attack? Down with Billionaires, their private gardens, 5 floor townhouses, Chelsea Tractors!

This could actually be fun! Get Labour to run a republican, anti-toff candidate in both locations. See if the Coldstream Guards have any dungeons lying around!; June 04, 2008 4:28 pm
Anonymous said...: I used to live in an Oxfordshire constituency next door to HOT, and it sure as heck was NOT an 'ok yah' poshos area. It was/is solid 'working class' constituency whose people (the majority) have a work ethic and are not 'unemployed pathetic pity junkies'- like most 'Labour' voters- and sure as s*it would NEVER vote LyingLabour. The LabourJocks do not understand the difference btwn working class seats in the South of England and those 'elsewhere'. The 'class war' is over, and the thick Labour MP will have to get to grips with that. A previous poster made the astute observation about the next class war being btwn the 'political class' and 'those that are not'. This 'class war' is the most odious. So-called 'socialist' 'working class' LyingLabour MP's milking the 'claims' system whilst milking the working class tax-payer. Labour MP's and their supporters are scum. Simple as that.; June 04, 2008 5:06 pm
Tony said...: Greater self love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his principles for the sake of electoral expediency.; June 04, 2008 7:49 pm
Environmental Bill said...: Great "Big" Jimmy Hood is my local MP and likes to interfere in the business of my southern cousins as much as respond to his local constituents interests. I believe if he was to be the subject of an independent audit, he would prove to be very bad value for public money. He has frequently refused to represent me on matters such as Blair's illegal war and the iniquitous Trident Programme. Willie Watson. Crossford, Scotland; June 04, 2008 9:41 pm
Anonymous said...: simon said...
"I used to live in an Oxfordshire constituency next door to HOT, and it sure as heck was NOT an 'ok yah' poshos area."

I actually lived in the Henley constituency and it really was full of 'OK Yahs' and Hooray Henrys. Few of the population could be described as 'working class' and very few would dream of voting anything but Conservative.

Incidentally, several years ago Henley was judged to be the 'Most Unfriendly Town in England'.; June 04, 2008 9:44 pm
Anonymous said...: Maybe the labopur party are going for clever distraction strategy get the tories bogged down in some battle with a candidate who cannot win and leave the lib dems clear to win.; June 05, 2008 8:54 am
Anonymous said...: dirtyeuropeansocialist

You are an imbecile.; June 05, 2008 12:07 pm
Anonymous said...: 12:07 no you are.; June 05, 2008 3:44 pm
Anonymous said...: 12:07 PM nope you are LOL.; June 05, 2008 4:41 pm