Why the "Tory toff" attack will struggle come election time

Mike, Brighton

Everyone did stupid things whilst young and a student. Cameron went drinking, Brown edited the "Red Paper on Scotland" and was basically a communist.

All the Conservatives need to do is publish a poster with a rogues gallery of cabinet ministers summarising under each one their dodgy expenses and second home allowances even through they live, for example in 10 or 11 Downing Street. Election campaign over

Ken

Toffs? Its just Liebour distraction politics.

The storm gathering outside the House over expenses and troughing is going to wipe all 646 out unless they take very swift and contrite remedial action.

Westminister Parliamentary democracy finally Fawkesed by Scottish schoolboy marxists?

What a price for England to pay.

THX1138

I Know, I know

http://tinyurl.com/cm4qds

But I couldn't resist!

BrianSJ

ZNL must know they are extremely vulnerable to personal attack from the opposition. So, is this move to provoke it so they can claim nasty tories? Or is it because they believe David Cameron will fight clean? Or is it just crass ignorance? Would it just drive even more voters to BNP rather than ZNL?

David

Perhaps the Tories can hit back with a giant picture of Ed Balls dressed up as Nazi.

John Page

The expenses fiddles will be an answer to these.

C Powell

And this from a party whose members are trousering a quarter of a million from us, building up their nice little property portfolios at our expenes. I don't think so.

It's MPs as a whole who don't know how the rest of us live: who don't know the rising cost of food because they get a £4k pa food "allowance" and subsidised restaurants, who don't know what it's like to pay more and more tax because their salary - sorry "allowances" are tax free, because their stamp duty and council tax are paid for by us.

Cameron - whatever his other faults - has through the experience of his eldest son, Ivan, had more real life experience than anyone should have to bear.

Bruce, UK

What price "Labour Larcenists"?

JONNY

The acrid stench from the MP expenses scam will make the Toffs smell quite sweet.

David Burns

A poster featuring all those Labour Ministers who have rent free accommodation but have claimed second home allowance would be interesting Gordon £100,000!

mac

Pete,

There is plenty of scope for the Tories to retaliate employing any number of photos of the smirking, sullen, shambolic Brown you kindly post to illustrate Coffeehouse blogs; perhaps you could put up a selection and invite the Coffehouse denizens to contribute captions?
(Oh, and please include one of the warrior- patriot in his lounge suit at the front in Afghanistan with his admiring troops . . . )

The Bellman

What in the name of high school football is a "dinner suit"?

Paul Round

I really hope that Labour DO carry out such a campaign.It would demonstrate perfectly their puerile inability to understand the grave issues confronting all of us.As pointed out above, it was such a success at Crewe & Nantwich

Alex

Great! I really hope they do .... Labour will definitely lose the GE if they use this tactic again.

Sally Chatterjee

I wonder what Harriet Harman would make of it? Saying a "toff" makes a questionable leader also undermines Alastair Darling, who attended Scotland's oldest public school.

David Ossitt

As Ken writes; it is just distraction politics.

Talking of distractions.

Did anyone see the lovely Jacque on the box this morning?

She quite took my breath away; I think this is word for word part of what she said in answer to questions about her expenses,
"I paid it back; that money as soon as it was brought to my attention" but what about the rest asked the BBC toady?

"I can't comment about that because of an on going enquiry but it was in order for me to keep a second home so as to enable me to do my job".

Then she smiled and the BBC interviewer (toady) let her get away with it.

In order to counteract any nasty posters that labour might use. Could we not have a few that mock them as well; I would suggest.

One of the lovely Jacque holding a bath plug with the caption "Am I not worth 89p"

One of Gordon "Saved the World"

One of Blair "I made a Mint"

One of Gordon and Alistair "We broke the Mint"

I am sure that there are a thousand ways of putting them down.

simon baker

Considering Labour is the party of Harriet Harman, niece of the Countess of Longford, and Hilary Benn, grandson of Viscount Stansgate, I would hardly call the party toff free either!!!!

Alan Phillips

To add to David Ossitt's put downs, "We created the POLO economy, the one with a hole in it" and "We created the Twix Economy, two finger for you" and " The government that fails to make a call, all you get is directionless enquiries"

Hawkeye

How about a triumphal photo of Gordon with the words underneath "I wrecked the economy, but I got a gold-plated pension" which given the Fred Goodwin fuss would resonate rather well.

Oscar

But in fact it's Labour who are completely out of touch, not the Conservatives. For many people the mere sight of a bunch of privileged, over-fed world leaders swanning around the capital when everyone else is contending with the recession is more of a provocation than a vote winner. The G20 combined with the expenses scandal has underlined just how remote from the daily lives of ordinary people Labour has become.

Verity

The Bellman - Hoot! Well spotted!

That Labour poster might have worked had it not been so inept and ignorant. Look at the size of the hate the fellow on the left is wearing! And what is his tie all about?

It was a nasty campaign, but it could have worked, given how much was being written about the Bullingdon Club around about the same time. (Also if they hadn't made that Labour woman look like Little Nell.)

As the Tories are equally guilty of abusing their expenses and allowances, I don't know that drawing attention to fat Jacqui and her bathplug and toothbrush holder would have any traction.

Verity

PS - Re your update, Pete: "And by focussing on class, we would effectively be conceding that we don’t have anything to say about Tory policies."

Anyone have any idea what these policies are?

Richard

'Wrong social class.'

'Not one of us'

'Member of the wrong club'.

New Labour seem to be turning into Edwardian Tories.

Patricia

A nice, big blow-up picture of John Prescott playing croquet should be the Tories' riposte and anyway, most of the Labourites' children will be toffs by the time they've finished their private education.

Tory Bear

It doesn't work! As was proved just last week...

Bring it on!

JONNY

Bullingdon Club...
now weren't those the louts that debagged Ed Balls in his 3rd year at Oxford -
or was it someone else?

Carrie, London

If Labour start with the Tory Toff thing why doesn't Cameron let it be known that the Tories will highlight the West Lothian question much more prominently. Yes Cameron and co are vulnerable on the Toff issue but look at the government at the moment Scottish Prime Minister, Scottish Chancellor, Scottish speaker, Scottish bailed out banks. If Labour want divisive politcs bring it on. Cameron needs to understand they won't go down without a fight and they're gonna play dirty. Some people won't vote for toffs but a lot more English taxpayers get very angry indeed with issues such as the Barnett formula and policies imposed on England with Scottish votes ie Tuition fees, free elderly care in Scotland, free prescriptions in Scotland. This will be even more acute in a recession with less money to go around and the SNP in government in Holyrood.

TEL, SPAIN

At least Toffs are less likely to fiddle their expenses and milk the taxpayer, they've got their own money!

Denis Cooper

Maybe it should be illegal to stir up class hatred.

After all, aren't we all absolutely opposed to any form of hatred?

Might not such a campaign lead to an upsurge in class hatred crimes?

Oh, surprise, we seem to have left this one off our list of forbidden hatreds.

David Lindsay

The Tories only won Crewe & Nantwich for the same reason that the SNP won Glasgow East: Catholic revulsion at what was then still the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Nothing else.

Consider what would happen if a group of boys on a council estate, the same age as Oxford undergraduates, formed themselves into an organisation - complete with a name, a uniform, officers and a membership list - specifically for the purpose of becoming drunk and disorderly before committing criminal damage and even assault.

They would rightly be sent to prison.

Whereas the Bullingdon Boys go on to become, simultaneously, an aspirant Prime Minister, an aspirant Chancellor of the Exchequer, and an actual Mayor of London.

Living in rural England, as I have done most of my life and which is a very different matter from merely owning great swathes of it while living in Knightsbridge or Notting Hill, I suspect that the publicans of Oxfordshire are not without connections in the local constabulary and magistracy.

One of those publicans should simply tell the Bullingdon Club to stick the money that they offered him at the end of one of their "events", because he would be seeing them in court. How would it look for Cameron and Osborne if the Bully Boys were to be locked up for just long enough to have themselves sent down?

Tisiphone

Everyone did stupid things whilst young and a student.

I have it on good authority that John Whitaker (now Jack) Straw, during a rooftop demo at Leeds University urinated on passers-by. Pity there were no mobile phone cameras in those days.

mac

Ah, yes, idyllic rural England, Mr Lindsay, with its reprehensible forelock-tugging to bibulous toffs.

No such dubious goings-on in the constituency you live in, of course: oh, except for the screechy, inept former chief whip who succeeded her father in the family's parliamentary fiefdom. Which party is that Ms Armstrong represent, again?

Charlie

Electorate didn’t have a problem with one Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, of Fettes and St. John’s College Oxford.

George Laird

Dear David Lindsay

When John Mason won the Glasgow East seat for the Scottish National Party, it was because he was the best candidate.

The bill you referred to may have played a small part but that was not the feeling I saw.

As a Councillor in Glasgow; John Mason was one of the highest returned Councillors in Scotland at the ballot box.

The Labour Candidate during the election repeatedly attempted mislead the voters.

When caught out telling lies; she refused to apologise.

In politics there is little for the voters to believe in, John Mason in my opinion is the ideal choice to represent the people in the East End of Glasgow.

He stays among the people he represents.

He immediately opened an office to the public when the former MP had not.

In the next General Election, John Mason deserves to be returned to Westminister.

He is somone that I trust to do a good job for the people.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

carol42

Won't make any difference what they do; I no longer listen to what they say or read what they write, I just want them to go away forever. This is the most venal, incompetent, sutocratic and thoroughly unpleasant government in my, fairly long, lifetime. There are no words to describe my utter loathing for them. So called sleaze last time involved a few individuals and sex scandals. This lot are rotten from the head down and are so contemptuous of the public they don't even try to hide it. I don't know if we can take another year of them. They have destroyed our country and I just hope it is not too late to to stop the rot.

David Ossitt

Denis Cooper
"Maybe it should be illegal to stir up class hatred".
"After all, aren't we all absolutely opposed to any form of hatred?"

In the name of all that is holy stop it.

Hate is a thought an emotion a feeling an opinion.

The fact that there are now laws that are attemting to stop free speach; where offense can and is being taken because of the use of a simple word, or words said in jest is bad enough.

But I have the right of a free born Englishman to like or to loath, to love or to hate to agree or to disagree with any point of view, just as I see fit.