When you first looked at this leaflet, which party did you think it was for? It's no surprise that this is Labour's Euro election leaflet for the North West of England - the region which is most likely to return a BNP MEP. Wonder who this leaflet is aimed at, then?
76 comments:
I know I know... it's Labour. Just got mine today. Hilarious. Do you know if this is standard national format, or is it being dispatched where Labour fear BNP most?
I assumed it was a Tory one actually. I'm no fan of Labour, but I grudgingly have to say good on them for reappropriating the British flag, which is NOT the sole property of the lunatic fringe parties on the far left. Just a pity Labour was silly enough to print their logo in a white font on a white background so nobody could see it! (Or is that a racial metaphor for "hidden white underclass"... subliminal racist propaganda? Hmm!)
They wrap themselves in a flag in the hope, you wont notice that they are naked underneath!
Just noticed you answered my question in the main body text... and here was me reacting to headlines
I got this leaflet this morning, and, like Tom above, assumed it was the Conservative one.
First sign this year that there is some fight left in Labour.
In passing the word verification reads "unesi". Describes the way a lot of left wingers will feel when they see this.
We got the same leaflet in Birmingham. Interestingly in a house of 8, the Conservatives gave us 8 leaflets, personally addressed while Labour missed 7 of us out. Clearly only wanted the one vote then.
Until I read further I thought it was a Tory leaflet.
Think local elections are more at risk from BNP. I'd be slightly surprised if the BNP got a seat - think they're numbers are a bit soft. I can genuinely see the comedy but how many people vote for a laugh?
Bill Cash is a clever fella. Nice to see him treat Jon Snow with contempt. He may have the maths & the documents - I expect he does run an extremely tight ship yet, even though he may be a QC - this is politics not law; look behind you - there's the law. We're into new territory.
I think there's a bit of inertia just starting to take hold. I wish people would stop talking about rules & shit - parliament is a fine institution, like a golf course - no golfer ever cheats because the green always knows, the green always knows.
I reckon Cash is good odds to stay - wouldn't punt much but...
OT - Clegg's buddy accidently set did him a wonderful blog and left it unmoderated - whooops! Bit of tennis on a Friday eh?
I got one of those yesterday and thought it was a BNP leaflet!!!
Come on, Iain. Labour's been using a Union motif for ages - when Gordon Brown took over there was a 'Strength to change Britain' campaign which was all about the red, white and blue. And why the hell shouldn't those colours be used anyway? I'm sick of the Union flag - and the cross of St George - being used by skinheads and fascists, when they'd be better off with a swastika.
Same design here in the West Midlands.
New Labour have NO SHAME. They don't care about the Union Jack - this is pure dog whistling.
Why not just post a Nazi flag.
Bleeding audacity, can't wait for election night, I'm holding a party in honour of my local labour representatives calling it lets watch Brown get his arse kicked night.
Bleeding audacity, can't wait for election night, I'm holding a party in honour of my local labour representatives calling it lets watch Brown get his arse kicked night.
But why no picture of the Supreme Leader's manic grin? It'll never catch on without that.
Abject and sickening - totally consistent in other words.
Shame the union flag has been hijacked by a bunch of criminals and nutters.
Iain, the give away was where it says "Vote Labour" at the bottom.
Annoys me how Labour are trying to insult our intelligence by using th Union Flag. They don't care about what it represents. It's opportunism of the worst kind, a tactic to make people vote for them. Pretty sickening really. Arseholes.
The Polish spitfire appreciation society at a rough guess?
SE9 got that too
The same leaflet was delivered in a Labour held ward in East London as well and it was their first piece of literature in the campaign and it is addressed the first male name in the household, or the first elector on the roll. (I am a sad nerd who checks these things.)
My conclusion is that Labour can only afford to send one piece of campaign literature out to households in Labour held wards, because they haven't delivered any in Tory held wards.
From the comments here and what I have seen locally, the Conservatives are delivering more widely and delivering more items. We will complete our fifth item this weekend with two more to go.
bit rich coming from the most anti-British party in history. Desperate Labour, desperate.
Nothing wrong with the Union Flag, it is the flag of our own bloody country, for gods sake. And I'd be quite happy for Labour to win votes from the BNP anyway (even if it's rather unlikely at the moment)
I can't really see the objection Iain. It was much better produced than the BNP leaflets.
Judging from the voting on my little poll...the Labour Party is due for a severe kicking...if, of course, everyone votes as they say they will.
We got UKIP, Green & BNP leaflets at the same time as our postal votes. After we had voted, we got a Conservative leaflet but for a different part of the country. Still not got a Labour leaflet!
I seem to recall that using the Union Jack was a New Labour / Blair thing.
They said that the tories had had it for far too long... Well look what the buggers have done with it.
They dragged it through the blood and sand of the middle east and made it an offence to fly it unless on their terms.
Hangings too good for them.
I got that yesterday in London (SE3) so looks like it is national (across England anyway).
Look, I detest Labour but I have to say what a bunch of hypocrites you are. I got a Union Flag Labour leaflet yesterday and I live in Derbyshire. Now, the day before I got a Conservative one and what's David Cameron standing in front of? The Union Flag, albeit a blurry one. Let's have less of the trivialities and more on the policies.
And while I'm here typing, what pigs me off is the Tory leaflet takes Brown to task for not having a referendum on the EU Constitution and infers that the Tories will have one if elected. Now that's not quite the truth, is it? And another thing, I thought DC was going to be tough with corrupt MPs, but apparently not. I want them sacked and not allowed to stand down with golden handshakes. You've really annoyed me now, and so, with apologies to Daniel and Douglas, it's UKIP for me this time round.
There they go, treating people like they're stupid.
They've never used the England flag before so they're probably unintentionally sending a subliminal BNP message.
Labour can do nothing right at the moment. They should have used the flag years ago when they were IN power, and not trying to hold on to it.
Looks like they are using the 'British jobs for British workers' tactic again. Pathetic.
good for labour - why should a fascist party have ownership of our flag, Let all the mainstream parties reclaim it
Iain I cannot see any objection to the use of our national flag. Surely you can appreciate the symbolism of the Union Jack as a unifying force.
However I think its comments like yours which allow the far-right to claim a monopoly on the Union Jack and patriotism which is unhealthy for the mainstream political process. Hasn't the Conservative party used nationalism in the past to transcend class boundaries and promote patriotism? Furthermore what is wrong with other political parties to use the Union Jack?
Surely you of all people should know that one.
I'm with Iain on this one. At first sight I tought that it was one from the BNP. Perhaps the word "Labour" being coloured white on a white background was meant to be half-hidden. On the other hand, of course, it could well have been our old friend incompetence.
I've spoken to a couple I know recently who live in the North West and both plan to vote BNP. I tried to encourage both to at least vote UKIP instead but they replied "you have been to the North West recently have you". This couple are really, really angry with the way their town has changed over the last year and fell isolated, ignored and despised. This advert will only make people like this even more angry.
got the same leaflet in clapham as well - don't think you can say it's just a leaflet to defeat the BNP.
At least you have got a labour leaflet , over here we have had ;
UKIP (Churchill's defected AGAIN?)
Conservative ( the Duchess was too busy reading it )
BNP (spit on them)
Libertas ( who?)
Liberal Democrats (too yellow-i'm colour blind so can't tell!)
Green (as above - how can i tell?)
The only one i know from the list is that nice tory chap Dan H......
So Iain, I take it you think the Union Jack is the rightful image of the BNP? How odd.
This letter, I presume, is from the same Labour Party whose leader did not insist that The Queen go to France for the 65th anniversary of D-Day. New Labour, same old hypocrisy...
Labour are morons, or at least the ones who came up with that leaflet are.
99% of leaflets never get read - its just an impression thing. And that leaflet gives the impression Vote BNP.
The 1% who read it will conclude they are running scared on the BNP and generally lying through their teeth.
Despite the comments about it being just "our flag", it is obvious that it is intended to look like a BNP leaflet.
It is exactly the same basic idea that the LibDems have done for years, printing their own leaflets in the colour of the party they wish to appear to be in order to be read. It has been well documented over the years; and I put this in the same category.
It is at least competent enough as far as its use of standard rhetorical techniques is concerned - with lots of alliterative 'f' words and a three-part list in which the third item is longer than the first two!
Good on them, reclaiming the British flag. It's about time someone other than the BNP did.
When Labour people mention being "fair", watch your back and your pocket.
Got one over here in Yorkshire - South Yorkshire to be precise although before the politicians buggered it up it was The West Riding.
It hit the doormat and I instantly thought it was one from Griffin's neanderthals. Then I saw the word "Labour" - you'll remember them, I suppose.
Done the best job on ruining Britain and splintered the United Kingdom to buggery !
Either way, it's in with the used cat litter - and then the cat showed so much taste, she peed on the doormat !
Just read the other comments. Gentlemen - or indeed, Ladies, the leaflet does not show the Union Jack, it shows the Union Flag.
The Union Jack is flown on naval vessels - if you pontificate on these matters, do it right !
Pedantic, me ?
I thought it was a universally recognised fact that most BNP supporters were disgruntled Labour voters (a fact which explains the BNP's wholesale embrace of pseudo-populist left-wing policies ranging from the mildly socialistic to the hardcore Marxist).
In point of fact, did not Ken Livingstone himself say a few weeks ago that the BNP was basically the Labour Party by another name and that they shared a core constituency? (One Google later shows me that you yourself covered this on May 5th, Iain.)
And Paul Halsall weighs in with yet another Labour-can-do-no-wrong set of excuses.
Paul, why are you here? Wouldn't you be happier if you just went back to the Bronx where you can play the intellectual amongst American Catholic pseudo-academics who won't call you on your garbage? I know we'd all be happier without you.
I would have sworn it was the BNP at first glance, too. Has all the hallmarks - huge British flag, faux-reasonable statements of intent...
Bit sad to see Labour resorting to that. They should be better.
In the South West it looks like Labour are sending different leaflets to different parts of the region - I got one sent to the Cheltenham, Forest of Dean, Tewkesbury and The Cotswolds constituencies. Shame they managed to spell Tewkesbury wrong...
gongdonkey:
If you're going to be a smart-arse, at least get your facts straight. There is no legal or constitutional difference between the Union Flag and the Union Jack. It is perfectly in order to use either name:
"The Flag Institute, the vexillological organisation for the United Kingdom, stated that the term Union Flag is a "relatively recent idea". Jack was a word previously used to denote any flag. It also noted that "From early in its life the Admiralty itself frequently referred to the flag as the Union Jack, whatever its use, and in 1902 an Admiralty Circular announced that Their Lordships had decided that either name could be used officially."
"if you pontificate on these matters, do it right !"
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At least it isn't upside down. The last photos I saw of the BNP campaigning on tv their Union Jack was being waved around upside down. Incidentally so were all the flags being waved by the Gurkhas behind Gordon Brown at his photo-op at number 10!
I know, I know, who notices these things? Well I do...I love my country and think it is time people knew how to display their flag with dignity and pride.
This late discovery of patriotism cannot save the Labour party. An election please!
My aunt got one in the West Midlands constituency. She also got two leaflets featuring Spitfires - one Labour, one BNP.
BNP, NuLabour. Two equally nasty bunches of dictatorial authoritarians and jelly-bellied flag flappers.
@ John M Ward said...
"Despite the comments about it being just "our flag", it is obvious that it is intended to look like a BNP leaflet."
Obviously aimed at the bovine masses whose reading skills hover around recognising the colour scheme of their favourite lager tin.
@ Paul Halsall
So the Medium is the Message?
Somehow I think not.
Is this just being used in the NW Iain? Looks like a National Leaflet to me, and politically sound, so what's your problem?
The NW Tory one - Vote For Moats! - appears to have a picture of Cameron with the turncoat MEP Sajjad Karim, plus the local government candidate here in Manchester whose team cooperated with the good old boys from Hizb_ut-Tahrir, sticking their leaflets - featuring a Brown-Bush picture and a story of how the Qur"an would be banned - thorugh doors on the same drop as bland Tory material.
That also features a delicious banner headlined "Bury Conservatives" - which is a worthy thought, even if it actually refers to some barnpots at a particular Greater Manchester location and not to an aspiration.
Sir Robert Atkins is in that picture ... bloody useless old bezzer he is too.
The backside of the Labour one talks about standing up for "hard-working British people" (which grates a bit to this foot soldier) and states:
Labour is working to win the fight for Britain's future.Asserting in contrast:
The Tories would make Britain weaker not stronger for the future.And if you text LABOUR to 60022 (standard rates) you can put a question to the people's party.
On John Moss's point about number of leaflets. We got THREE identical VOTE FOR MOATS leaflets in the same post to all three voters in the household, Labour is the only party to have 'phone canvassed the household, and we are in an area that is Lab-Lib marginal I suppose, though with some Tory history.
Sending three of the same leaflet on the same day to three voters in one household holes the Vote Blue Go Green message under the waterline. The Greens have hand delivered us their same leaflet twice too!! Doh!
Well they stole the rose so you expect them to steal the flag too surely.
Ive only had the bnp and ukip,both over a week ago,in the north west too.Still after Camerons interview,will vote UKIP.You cant trust him,just another two faced mp.
Jabba the cat,,
how pompous you are.Must be a real burden to be so superior.
"And a fair say for everyone"
Except the English because we hate you and your country, now just pay your taxes, shut your mouth and vote for us you fools.
Also came to DE55 - Dennis Skinner country.
We are a BNP not-very-hot-but-the-best-they-can-do spot.
Labour don't know the meaning of the word 'fair'.
The question is ---does anyone else?
In answer to Chris Paul.
All parties have the right to send one piece of literature to every elector on the register. The determining factor in how many get sent is usually how much the party can afford, but ours were supposed to go to the first electors named on the roll at each address.
I wonder, do you live in a block with more than one address on the electoral roll? Or in a multiple occupation home where more than one "household" might be registered?
On the green point, we've been hand delivering letters this weekend and we do it without envelopes because, after all, what happens to envelopes? They get torn open and thorwn in the bin and because of the funny window thing are hard to recycle.
That said, elections are murderous things for trees. Sevearl forests were slaughtered last summer with the series of elections from London and local in May through several by-election in the summer.
Shame, but if we didn't do it, the elctorate would complain they never hear from us - but then when they do, they tell us to get lost -
Ho hum, the life of a volunteer activist eh?
It is a national leaflet, but the interesting stuff is on the other side. Or rather, it isn't - it doesn't talk about Europe at all. It just bangs on about Tory spending cuts and cuts to police and local transport.
Incidentally, here in the East Midlands the no.2 Labour candidate is Roy Kennedy. I used to work with him in Labour's East Midlands regional office and we once shared a van ride over to Skegness for a policy conference.
Roy's opinion of Lincolnshire as we drove across the county?
"There's fack all here! It's just fackin' cabbages!"
Down here in the West Country I just got a leaflet from Katie Hopkins, independent candidate - one of the contestants in the Apprentice last year. Very odd.
What is Labour offering? LibDems are supportive of the EU, Tories are critical, UKIP wants out... but what is Labour's stance? Once again, The Great Leader has done a superb job of encapsulating what his party offers? Where is he, by the way?
John Moss: We live in a normal single-household semi-detached house and though all three voters have different surnames we are family (plus a lodger). Fair enough, it could look like three households I suppose.
As someone else said Cameron's Vote For Moats leaflet also has the Union Flag on the cover and prominent on the back page also.
We've had leaflets from almost all the 13 candidate slates. Not from the Christians, alas. Not from the Independent. Not sure about The Jury Team. Not from the English Democrats AFAIK.
But from BNP, Green, Lab, Lib, Tory, UKIP, No2EU, Libertas.eu (?).
Labour have been doing targeted letters (from the PPC) in envelopes today. And there's been the national a5 Iain features and a regionally specific one.
Going back to the first point I think two of the voters got that one, and the third the a5.
And knocking out the vote. The only canvassing we've had so far.
Problem with this leaflet is that it says nothing about Labour's policies for Europe. instead we get the Great Leaders rant about how the Tories are going to make cuts. Labour never make cuts they have efficiency savings. An efficiency saving by any other name would still smell.
Typical Labour, not much about what they'd do, just attacking everyone else. Is anyone stupid enough to believe it? I shall vote but probably for one of the independent candidates in London...
Wht would you assume that prominent usage of the Union Flag equates to the BNP? What a disgraceful inference. The Union Flag belongs to everyone in this country. It is not the property of racist skinheads and thugs.
Come on, do. There's quite enough Labour stuff about NOT flying the Union flag, the symbol of racist oppression, etc.
PLENTY of labourites like the disgraceful Margaret Hodge prefer the red flag - don't they still sing about it at their conferences?
Sed audi alterem partem: the Union flag ISN'T the flag of any country, is it? The United Kingdom is no more a place than is Great Britain.
Both are mere political theories.
All the same, it's hilarious to see Labour using it as a fig-leaf...
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