Labour Must Reap What They Have Sown

On the way to Sky three friends phoned me to talk about the Labour cancer leaflet. All three had partners who have suffered from cancer. One of them sadly died a few years ago. Two of my friends seemed close to tears as their anger about this leaflet transformed itself into raaw emotion. "How could they do this?" said one. Another said it was an exaggerated version of the War of Jennifer's Ear, which you may remember from the 1992 campaign.

Also on the way I got a phone call from the Sky producer asking if there was anything I had seen in the papers I particularly wanted to talk about, so I mentioned to Sunday Times story on the cancer leaflets. However, when I got there I was told that since Labour had denied targeting people in any way (do they think we are fools?) they didn't want to talk about that in my slot. We'll see about that, I thought to to myself. In the end I managed to bring it into my final answer but more briefly than I would have liked.

There's little doubt that this leaflet has backfired in a major way, and deservedly so. I'd be horrified if my own party indulged in this sort of scaremongering among a vulnerable group of people. And judging from this comment from Anthony on the previous thread, Labour supporters are none too happy about either.

My wife (or I) have not (yet?) received such a postcard. We are (or maybe were) lifelong Labour supporters and voters, diverted recently from politics and all things by her two year tackling of an advanced cancer with, in our case,absolutely excellent NHS medical care. Our instincts are all anti-Tory and pro-labour values but ...

We surprised ourselves with the strength of our reaction to the story when we saw it first in the Sunday Times this morning. If our reaction is in any sense typical, Labour should want to explain and rebut or recant or something - or just apologise -very forcefully, very quickly.

And Cancer Research UK, who share the comms agency according to the story, will need to move fast to reassure donors like I and my family that they have not sold any data-base to Labour (or any political party).

He followed it up by saying...

What upset me and my (cancer-suffering) wife so much was the idea that Labour people would have consciously chosen to do this with such insensitivity and such use of scare tactics. What is worrying is that it is people in the middle of working for labour with commitment and zeal, who display such lack of insight and understanding. Since I started angrily commenting above and here, my previous labour voting wife has declared this to be the last nudge in pushing her to vote Lib Dem (never done before....) - this in a constituency that was lost by labour to Lib Dem in the last election in the seat but one ....

Let them reap what they have sown.

I wonder what Labour MP John Heppell thinks of it. This brave man stood down from Parliament last week in order to care for his wife who his suffering from cancer. I suspect he wouldbe appalled.

More from Dizzy HERE.

UPDATE: Andrew Lansley has issued a statement...

"It is shameful that the Labour Party, knowing that we are the only party that is going to increase investment in the NHS, have decided to deliberately scare patients and misrepresent what we have said. I’m actually rather shocked that they are trying to target breast cancer patients and alarm them by making up stories about what the Conservative Party would do. I think Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, should write to every woman Labour sent these cards to and apologise and withdraw these claims."