05/03/2009: "Labour - The Brown that cried wolf"

Hazel Blears, minister for communities, has finally got something right!

"... the public did not believe many government policy announcements!"
she continued, saying, the government had shown a "lamentable" failure to communicate.

10/10 for observation ms blears, what took you so long? a majority of the public have known this for years.

the first problem labour have now, is they are drowning in their own spin.
There isnt a day goes by without some "major policy" announcement by Brown.
On the economy, Brown announces anything that isnt bad news, darling is left to explain why things are going wrong.
How many "major" problems have been announced by a minister, with brown knowhere in sight, and then, like a mr ben cartoon, as if by magic... gordon brown appears!
Those around him then proclaim "he's busy getting on with the job and sorting [insert crisis here] out!"

Weeks and sometimes months later, we discover that these major problems, are as a result (in part) of labour's own policies!
When Brown became prime minister, he had a popularity bounce, once it became obvious that his popularity was falling back, we suddenly had a series of crisis' where the spin machine went into overdrive, telling the public brown was "getting on with the job"
Take the foot and mouth outbreak for example:
The problem was all over the papers, it stemmed from a vaccination/research lab that was jointly used by a private company and the government. (failing policy 1 - saving money by combining facilities?)
Spin releases insinuated that the private company had not followed correct protocols and safeguards, these appeared all over the press, leading the people to believe that a failing private company might be to blame for the outbreak.

Weeks later, details emerged that warnings were given by those that inspect these sites, upto a year earlier, about damaged premises that needed repairing and problems were being caused by under investment (failing policy number 2 - funding being kept with "talking shops" instead of where it was supposed to be going?)
A few papers picked this up as a story, but by now the news had really moved on to other topics.
The inquiry reported some months later, about government workers at the lab, pouring the virus down the sink (against recommended protocols), and faulty plumbing work (due to lack of funding) had leaked the contaminated waste into the ground.
A cynical person might have grounds to suggest that this was a "staged managed" crisis, to give the impression to the public that brown was a man of action?

Any suggested court action against the private company was dropped as te inquiryfound that they had carried out their work correctly and without error, it was the government controlled sideof the operation that was at fault.
Few papers reported this.
Has the plumbing been fixed?
Why was funding so poor that basic maintainence not kept up with?
Why were basic precautionary methods not used in disposing of contaminated waste?
Who was sacked for this mistake? (which cost the neighbouring farmers their animals and cost the taxpayer to compensate the farmers)
But most importantly, why wasnt the public told the full facts and the outcome of any enquiry/action?

This is just one example in a long line of examples.
ive lost count of the mount of times weve been told about imminent terrorist attacks - where people have been arrested in a blaze of media news and spin, then released a few days later without any charges being brought, or charged with minor unrelated offences.

The second problem Labour have - disappearing ministers:
when something is improving or doing well, they are everywhere, when something goes majorly wrong, they are knowhere to be seen and are not available to answer questions.
on the rare occasion they do appear, from a news studio somewhere else, their response starts with "well what i think the important question is....." they then state a totally different question which allows them to reel of a list of favourable statistics, that are themselves highly questionable.

The third problem Labour have - They are scared of the public!
Be honest, when was the last time you saw Gordon Brown walk down a street and was available to be questioned by the public?

I dont mean where they visit a government funded project like a hospital, school, new college, etc.
I mean when he walks down a street and calls in at a paper shop, etc, to buy something and chat off the cuff with real people, who do not have to be on their best behaviour or lose funding or their job?

I thought with recent Labour party conferences, at least the public would be able to get close, but the only pictures of gordon brown walking down a street smiling, were from a sealed off street about half a mile away from the public. Even when Obama visited the UK he was kept well away from the public.
I am looking forward to a general election campaign, to see exactly what the "unmanaged" public will do/say to labour ministers if they dare to campaign for votes without bouncers being employed.

as with any advertising campaign - the acid test in our house is always: if it/they are that good, why then do they need to advertise?
whilst chancellor we had brown calling himself and his office spinning the line, that he "is the iron chancellor"
now prime minister proclaims he himself has "a moral compass"
what total and utter tosh!

Hazel Blears and her colleagues, deride Boris Johnson (mayor of London) for being a bumbling fool, yet he was voted into his office by more than a million people, he is always accessible to the public, he answered questions unscripted, he put his points of view across and defended them, call him what you like, but he has scruples, ie, he believes in his point of view and attempts to defend that against doubters with conviction and factual argument.
Labour's only defence these days, when they get something wrong, is that "the tories wont do any better" because they have no scruples, they are so far removed from actual facts, they use fake statistics and claims, to spin the argument.
the public might not be the brightest, but for some time now, they are beginning to see through the hogwash labour come out with.

This labour government are the closing down business on the high street, like woolworths did, they proclaim bargains galore, but when you look closely at the detail/prices, you find that they are more costly than other parties/companies around them.