Real airbrushing now

Mike, Brighton

This is a government website paid for by taxpayers money.
Please help me to understand how such a website can be created for narrow party political purposes? It is basically a party political marketing tool advertising Labour's "Real Help now" political campaign. I though that was illegal?
The website might as well have the link "Click here to learn more about the Labour party" and "Vote Labour" written on it.

Wilhelm

it really shows up Gordon Broons pettiness and small mndiness, doesnt it ? Yeah, The saviour of the world has real class and stature. ( In his world )

Wilhelm

Another demostration that Broons character is pathologically flawed.

TrevorsDen

Good to see (according to Brown's glorious website) that Grimsby is 'thriving'.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4850073&fSectionId=565&fSetId=662
"Asked why there is so little work available, Brewitt replies: "It's the foreigners. The Poles and other immigrants who come here will work for less.""
"Some of the most drawn-out demonstrations have been at the Total-owned Lindsey oil refinery near Grimsby,"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/humber/7907169.stm
"Local newspaper journalists in East Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire are braced for job cuts as the recession takes its toll on advertising revenues."

http://www.humberbusiness.com/news/local/grimsby/january-2009/-area-hit-hardest-by-economic-crisis-.aspx
"They believe the combination of the port rates hike and controversial backdating of them, the global recession and a proliferation of Icelandic ownership is forcing a disproportionate downturn on the Grimsby-area compared with other parts of the UK."
"devastating losses of Bakkavor (530 jobs) and Huntsman Tioxide (200) from Grimsby, together with the reductions at Immingham shipping giant DFDS (70) and yesterday's announcement of 93 roles going at Scunthorpe steelworks Corus, are likely to result in almost 1,000 losses in the coming weeks."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/biggest-rise-in-uk-jobless-total-for-17-years-962715.html
"Yesterday alone 1,300 job losses were announced: 800 at Freescale Semiconductor, a US-owned computer chip firm based in East Kilbride, and 500 in Grimsby through the closure of a Mariner Foods factory."

Isn't it shameful that taxpayers money is being used for party political propaganda?

Wilhelm

Gordon Broons Pettiness Part 956

if Sweden was handing out Nobel Prizes for small mindiness I think Broon would be on an airplane to Stockholm right now to collect his award.

councilhousetory

I sent a written complaint in yesterday about this site. It's blatant propaganda.

David Preiser

No, no, this is just an example of British politicians imitating the US President. Both during the election and once in office, the Obama people engaged in censorship on their official website and sent many things down the memory hole. The media played along, since most of them were dedicated to electing him.

Mr. Brown's people have seen that it works, and are taking a page from an old playbook.

Sally Chatterjee

What a bizarre website, what point does it serve? Who actually reads this?

It shows the arsenal of propaganda tools available to the government and how they are abused to suit ministerial whims.

If Labour laughed at the Tory bungle over Titian on Wikipedia, this is far more sinister.

Tiberius

Never mind the digital age, Pete, I hear Brown is trying to re-write the electoral cycle as he did the economic one, saying that the next GE isn't until 2012, since the present Parliament didn't start until 27 June 2007. There was some interregnum involving a bloke named Blair shortly before but, hey, who remembers him anyway.

David Preiser

On second thought, refreshing the page shows different news bits from different regions loading into that spot on each new page view. It appears there was no airbrushing at all. I hope Peter Hoskin has a second look.

So instead of imitating the Obama tactic of sending things down the memory hole, Mr. Brown is using the Obama tactic of pretending that all of his spending is going to help the economy, rather than just spinning wheels. And using a government website to do it.

ken from glos

Nice joke Tiberius, at least I hope it is a joke !

Pete Hoskin

David Preiser: still airbrushed, I'm afraid. Refreshing the page selects a random region, but whenever you get Scotland (or click on Scotland on the map), the only link available is to the Scotland Office website and a news story from 4 February. Certainly looked different yesterday, as another snippet from the SNP press release sets out:

"Yesterday visitors to the website who wished to see what action the UK Government was taking for Scotland were redirected to the Scottish Government website, and a BBC story about the Council Tax freeze by Edinburgh City Council’s SNP-led administration."

George Laird

Dear All

I had a look at the Labour Party propaganda site and I was not impressed.

This seems to me to be an advert for the Labour Party; if the she site was truly impartial then it wouldn’t have removed the work done by the SNP Scottish Government.

I see this as an advert for the General Election, summer 2009.

This site is no help to anyone; it is a hash of what was available before.

Gordon Brown must really think that the people are so stupid to fall for propaganda.

This is to be seen to be doing something when actually doing nothing.

Finally; I see he accepts no responsibility for his failure.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

TGF UKIP

Perhaps someone will ask him tomorrow what plans he has to start airbrushing Harperson.