Is bare-knuckle politics the way forward for Labour?

James

Labour have missed the boat on negative attacks. They have squandered much of the goodwill they had and there really isn't a single front-bencher who enjoys the trust of the public to deliver a negative attack and make it sound plausible. (Alan Johnson maybe an exception).

LSS

A personal attack from a man whom the public widely dislikes against a man the public has widely warmed to has only one logical outcome... the wider public will see this as a desperate attempt to divert attention from his own personal failings and that of his tired and run down government. This is very much Gordon Brown scraping the barrel to claw back a few points in the polls. C&N has shown us the reaction negative campaigning from the Labour Party will achieve. Time for a change is arguably the biggest understatement since 1997.

Hereford

I hope they try this. It will backfire, monumentally. Neither brown, nor any of his little grey GCSE Politics study group have the whit, the presence or personality to carry it off.

Liz Brown

I rather suspect that the general public is now fully alert to Grodo's attempts to assasinate the opposition and will not be swayed this time around - curtains for Gorodo and Zanulab cannot come too soon

Richard Nabavi

Any such attack is likely to backfire, and merely go to emphasise that the Conservatives are the government-in-waiting. Labour would do much better to get their own house in order, and concentrate on formulating attractive policies and implementing them properly.

But there seems to be little chance of that. The in-fighting and panic looks set to continue.

James C

'Not tested enough'. Where have they been these last two years - not in the House of Commons on a Wednesday morning that's for sure - the only on which this Prime Minister seems capable of landing a few blows is the Dispatch Box. As has been said elsewhere - we've stopped listening, the 'Tory Toff' narrative won't work (see Crewe) and the 'policy vacuum' criticism won't work either (see 1997). When people stop listening that is it.

Robert Gordon

"There's also the school of thought that Cameron hasn't yet been tested enough".

Is this school a Kindergarten? Cameron faced near political meltdown this time last year. Lagging Brown in the polls and facing the very real prospect of a snap election, all and sundry were prophesying the demise of the Tories. I seem to remember that the Spectator itself had a cartoon of Cameron on its front cover with a noose around his neck.

Cameron led the Tories through one of their most crucial and successful party conferences ever, and we all know what followed. So please, no more lessons from such a mis-guided school of thought.

Nicholas

The role of the government is to govern and to defend its governing policies against the opposition whose role it is to hold the government to account. This seems to have been lost to New Labour's subversion of British parliamentary democracy.

The government seem intent on electioneering for the Parliamentary Labour Party, the 'revolution' and/or Brown as a cult figure, witness the many questions over their blurring of government and party politics, the Smith Institute scandal, the huge amounts spent on spin and image.

Spending any effort attacking the Tories shows huge disrespect to the parliamentary system, the electorate and the many issues facing the country. They simply do not get it and their form of tribal, class-war, chip on the shoulder party politics has no place in a government. I think that many of them must still see themselves as 'outsiders' up against the 'establishment' (represented by the Tory party) and still pursuing their ridiculous 1960's 'revolution'. Time for them to grow up, although that is like expecting a lion not to kill buffalo.

In any case, since their defence of their own policies has largely been exposed as lies, any attack on the opposition will just be seen as more lies. New Labour are fundamentally dishonest and have been fundamentally found out.

However, the questions of how to get rid of this blot on the British parliamentary system, and the damage it is likely to preside over as it clings to power, remain. I feel quite depressed by the thought of another year or more with these idiots.

Mark

Let's hope that the main attack dogs are the people's favourites: Balls and Cooper!

bill

Cameron is a toff but they don't have to focus on that. There other angles to attack the bike riding chocolate orange inspector. e.g How is he going to share the proceeds of growth when they isn't any growth? How will he reform public services and slash the bloated public sector? When will he start building nuclear power stations so the lights don't go out? Or will victory by the Cameroons be no better for us than Heath was compared to Wilson?

Wilfred

Spot on, Nicholas.

Madasafish

"When will he start building nuclear power stations so the lights don't go out? "

You should be asking that of Gordon Brown.
19 year to build a new plant.
Most of our early nukclear stations will be closed by 2020.

Time to start ordering: now...

Number ordered = nil.
If Labour put a windfall tax on, number of orders placed = nil.

CS

Er...spot the Toynbee-esque volte face by the same people who were telling us that the setting up of the Carter team at No 10 was ominous for the Tories as the best and the brightest were being hired by Brown. Volte face without any show of contrition, I notice.

***a popular person does not make a great target for personal attacks.***

No point telling that to the supposed geniuses of political strategy at the heart of Labour. Look at the London mayoral campaign. In Boris they were given an opponent about whom 90% of the population was agreed on two things: (a) he comes across as a really nice guy and (b) he comes across as a hopeless incompetent.

So, instead of running a campaign painting Boris as not up to the job, they paint him as being an evil fascist.

The time when New Labour knew how to target their message to chime with voters' ideas ended years ago.

mitch

When was gordon ever tested ? every time something bad happened(from eccleston to now)he ran and hid in blairs skirts.The mans a coward and a fool.

anthony a

What's the betting even if they try to attack Cameron and the Tories, they balls it up? They certainly aren't the most competent bunch I've ever met.

Oscar

Cameron has been constantly tested but he always behaves like a man taking everything in his stride. Brown has had the most fawning press imaginable and hardly been held to account. But he manages to behave and look as if he's under constant duress.

john miller

OK. here is an analogy.

You are in your favourite wine bar, pub or restaurant.

Next to to you is a dishevelled Scotsman who has just borrowed your last tenner which he then gave to some drunk to buy another drink. He doesn't say thank you, but, whilst picking his nose, he mumbles "Look at that Old Etonian poof in the corner laughing with all his chums - what a wanker he is"

You give the one eyed Scotsman the once over, looking at he dishevelled attire, the lugubrious look, the fingernails bitten to the quick. Behind him sits Ed Balls, strangely silent but looking as sinister as ever. "Go and borrow another tenner, give it to me, and I'll have my mates kick the shit out of that toffee nosed bastard", says the strange man.

Well, some people would wouldn't they? But they would be what, ohh, 17% of the population?