How should the Tories respond to those Labour guarantees?

DavidDP

Good idea to have the attack part of your attack poster barely readable, while the positive message you want to undermine takes prominence.

Epic. Fail.

AndyinBrum

1)£178bn deficit
2)lies, deceit and spin
3)13 years of economic incompetance
4) Iraq
5) The destruction of civil liberties
6) They make these pledges but can't pay for them and won't implement them if they did get in
7) Lisbon Treaty Referendum deceit
8) Helicopter Budget
9) MoD cutbacks during two wars
10) Ed Balls

rearrange as appropriate

although just repeating 10) should do it

London Calling

I don’t know…ask Fraser :) either way its going to be a very amusing poster campaign…how do you respond to being presented as two faced after your own poster campaign has taken inspiring Banksy’s to a new level of graffiti art…

It cost £500.000 for David Cameron’s “We cannot go on like this” yet it was the one of him daubed as Elvis Presley that made the headlines…with suspicious minds…:0

TrevorsDen

Where is the evidence that the 'attack' part is true?

The Tories have said they will not cut the health budget, so the reality is that the labour claim is not true.

Indeed the main answer to the labour guarantees is to ask where the money will come from, which services will be cut to pay for their promises.

The Fink in The Times covers the same ground, pointing out how Brown lies about tory policy and then attacks it.

Labour can throw out innumerable spending pledges, knowing they will not have to pay for them. Or indeed if elected they would break the promise. Easy peasy really.

Dennis Churchill

AndyinBrum
The Conservatives have to be careful about the Lisbon Treaty/Constitution guarantee. The “Cast Iron Dave” tag has stuck.

Chris lancashire

Ignore them. The general public is way past believing them however often repeated.

Tim W

Surely the NHS staff hate these guarantees?
If so then something along the lines of a nurse moaning about all the bureaucratic meddling with an "I just want to help people the best I can - I wish the government would leave me to get on with it" kind of quote.
This would fit in nicely with the scrapping of targets, which, to be fair to Labour are in the Tory manifesto and are fair game if you think targets are needed.
The battle here is between whether targets work or not.

One important point on the language - the Conservatives need to turn Labour "guarantees" into Labour "targets" as targets are more negative. And if there is a Tory rebuttal, let Andrew Lansley do it as Cameron should not get into the negative campaigning or hog all the limelight. And Lansley supposedly has good relations with NHS staff.

Nick Pickles

I'd like to see a simple campaign along the lines of:
"Number of healthcare targets decided by Gordon Brown = 372.....Number decided by doctors = 0"

It could be effective in shifting the debate from whether you back individual targets to who should be making decisions in the health service.

Sacre Bleu

There are enough photographs of GB from grumpy old git to a masterpiece of the tv makeup girls to create a procession of poster carrying Mr Men, or the 7 dwarves with slogans similar to those identified by AndyinBrum. A handful of mongrels following behind, caricatures of Harperson, Balls et al with a pied piper Mandelson leading the parade.

mitcheltj

Chris Lancashire - I could not agree more. Who in their right mind would accept a guarantee from any politician?

Novel

Can we ask what we get refunded if they break the guarantee ...

strapworld

IGNORE THEM FOR GOODNESS SAKE. They might go away then!

So are we in for another election where the leaders will gather whilst a new poster is unveiled on the side of a van/lorry/moped?
It is so so yesterday!

If Cameron is for the new open modern age he should just place the eposters on all the blogs he can get them on! Using Utube and Facebook etc. Be as ruthless as possible with Brown showing him to be the total incompetent he is! The Brown Nomates man!

Dorothy Wilson

"Suspected cancer patients will receive their diagnosis within one week."

This is one of the "guarantees" but it is totally vacuous. I would refer you to my post - and others - under Peter Hoskin's article: "A day to damage Brown".

I spoke to the friend I mentioned there after I had made the post. It turns out she was referred to the specialist in late September. A scan then diagosed a lump, which she was told might be cancerous. The exploratory operation to investigate that further took place last week.

So somebody should remind Brown and Burnham that referral to the specialist within a couple of weeks is somewhat different from diagnosis.

Any Colour but Brown

They're begging for a spoof:

Gordon Camera on: bumbling, incompetent ditherer

Gordon camera off: Nokia-throwing, physically abusive bully.

Greenslime

As I have said before, here is a man who has murdered his parents and is now throwing himself on the mercy of the court with the mitigating circumstances that he is an orphan!

Rhys

Keep it simple: Ask voters if they want to carry on paying for people to have tattoos removed and having bigger tits put in?

Chuck Unsworth

So what happens with these 'guarantees'? Where can I get to read the small print? Is Burnham going to be around to honour these guarantees? What redress do I have in the event of product or service failure? How do I claim in such a circumstance, and from whom? Is this just another load of garbage from NuLab? If so, is it guaranteed garbage?

Billy Blofeld

All the Tories need to do is make the Gordon Brown eats bogeys video go viral and they have won the election. This is why:

A. The majority of swing voters are female.

B. 80% of women will gag when they see the video and find eat difficult to vote for "that bogey eater".

Saatchi charge millions for this type of advice ;-) ... but my strategy would actually work.

JohnOfEnfield

I'm with Pickles (Nick).

Break the NHS up & give it back to the medical staff to run it.

Give me my insurance certificate which says I can choose who treats me and VOILA the NHS would be transformed into something I want.

The NHS must not be used more as an agent of social change rather than as a medical service.

JR Hartley

I would have a picture of Brown with a Pinnochio nose the width of the poster and underneath - publish all his lies and broken promises.

Nicholas

Where are the national socialists getting their money from for these campaign ads? I thought they were skint. Or is it taxpayers money and diverted civil service resources?

steve

That only gives him 14 days from today - he will have to rush.

tonyp17

The press should ensure that the public are made aware that these are pre-election propoganda 'scams'. They should not be treated as 'news'.
I have already left a message on the SkyNews website after the ridiculous coverage given the cancer announcement spin on Sunday. It was the first item in a so called news broadcast on MagicFM in London for several hours.

This will ensure the cynical nature of NuLabour is made clear.

In addition I hope the adverts are not being paid for with public money. I thought the Labour party was nearly bankrupt.

stepney

Gordon Camera on: bumbling, incompetent, lying ditherer

Gordon Camera on: bumbling, incompetent, dithering bully and liar.

Naomi Muse

Tories should ignore them until the election is called and then hit them with demands for details of the contracts that Labour has committed the country to.

The Tories can quickly then assess the cost of cancellation of contracts and come up with proper figures.

Meanwhile the television channels and all government ministers should be bombarded with FOI requests for accurate information on the amount being currently spent on tv advertising by the government and its agencies. The whole of tv seems to be punctuated with adverts for direct gov, chlamidia, think before you drive, tv licensing, etc etc. They must be blowing so much money on it.

Is the government in a 'special relationship' with channels broadcast on Sky? It looks like it.

A Griffin

My man works in the NHS. He says that these targets for cancer can result in worse cancer care. This is because they depend on a GP diagnosis which is often wrong. For example patient A has cancer but GP doesn't realise, Patient B doesn't have cancer but GP thinks they do. Guess which patient is seen fastest and which one has to wait until all the 'urgent' ones have been seen? Yes, patient A with real cancer gets seen after patient B. This is why targets are only political and nothing to do with good practise. The GP's know they don't know(how can they?),the specialists know the GP's don't know, but they all have to do it Labour's way. Labour have dumbed down the professionalism of medicine over many years now in many ways (less science in the undergraduate course, run-through postgraduate training of only five years etc.)The next generation of doc's are going to be second rate thanks to labour. Hope this helps.

AndyinBrum

Churchill - not really Tories weren't in power when the treatie was ratified, we have more important things (no seriously) to deal with, such as the deficit, troughing & schools before they deal with Europe. However much that pains you.

Dennis Churchill

AndyinBrum
It does not pain me as I don’t expect any of the main parties to be anything but pro-EU Federalism. I just think your: 7) Lisbon Treaty Referendum deceit --would remind the electorate that despite everything promised they never got a referendum on whether to cede more sovereignity.It could also show how meaningless any manifesto commitment really is.

Naomi Muse

Dennis Churchill. Exactly!

All manifesto pledges - now called guarantees by the PM - are just hot air.

The Tories would indeed be best to say 'You know what Labour's guarantees are worth? Nada!

BrianSJ

Speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister, Miss Cecelia Ivimy said that "manifesto pledges are not subject to legitimate expectation." Brighton County Court in a case brought against him by a member of the UK Independence Party 7/2/08.

Nick

If the two week cancer referral had been a Tory policy announcement then you could guarantee that there would be a Labour spokesman on the BBC within a few hours saying that this would cost £5 billion and asking how many front line nurses in paediatric wards would have to be cut to pay for it.

JP

What no Brown in a Labour poster?
Can't read it, see the colour first and then didn't look at the B&W.
Ignore.
Didn't realise they had a commitment to 2 weeks

Yow Min Lye

A government that is £772 billion in debt can guarantee nothing.

Alan Douglas

Perfect rebuttal, leading to the official Tory poster campaign with many more such Brown v Brown dividing lines :

http://toryrascal.com/2010/02/09/gordongordoff/

Alan Douglas

lawrence greek

Ignore them. Pay them no attention at all. If you respond to Labour's lies, you validate those lies.

I suggest instead stating five broad positive principles, the direction in which Britain will travel under the Tories:

1. Individual Freedom - wiping away state bureaucracy, removing the meddling, interfering and contriolling bodies, ID cards, the ISA, slashing Health & Safety.

2. Economic Competence - we will not indebt your children, we will deliver more for less, we will not waste your money.

3. Enterprise - we will encourage and nurture small business, innovation and we will reward hard work and enterprise.

4. Fairer Simpler Tax - we will remove the poorest from tax altogether and make work pay.

5. Education - we will return the notion of excellence, achievement and rigour to education

I paraphrase, but something along those lines.

Richard

Simply ask them for details.

Is the 2 week limit the time between seeing your GP about a worrying lump and having the lump removed? Or is it the time between GP referral and getting a letter saying you're on the waiting list.

Is the 'specialist' who will see you a consultant who will form a treatment plan or a teenage, trainee, oncology nurse who will confirm that you've got a lump?

How the hell will they implement the chemotherapy at home wheeze? My wife had chemo in a clinic where half a dozen nurses tended to 20+ patients who watched TV while being drip fed cytotoxic drugs. It was frequently cancelled due to lack of chemo qualified nurses. The pharmacists who prepared the drugs had to wear 'space suits' with an independent air supply because chemotherapy drugs are so poisonous. Will your kids be getting one each? What if you go in to shock, as happens not infrequently? Will your personal nurse be bringing a personal resus team with her? Is your kitchen table sturdy enough for some impromptu surgery if you burst a major blood vessel?

Home chemotherapy is about as ridiculous as home kidney transplants. The Tories should seize this opportunity and use it to ridicule Labour.

steve

I just clicked on the link to the Labour website about the NHS that is mentioned in this article.

I selected the north west of England and it told me that in 1997 there were 47,136 people waiting over 6 months for inpatient treatment.

Now, in 2010, there is just ONE.

Any idea who the ONE person is ?

TGF UKIP

Sooner or later the Cameron Tories are going to get down and dirty if they seriously want to win. Negative campaigning using remorseless repetition works as US politics shows and as Blair/Brown have shown.

Perhaps, though, it's finally dawned on Dave that he's not up to it, hence the vapid, timorous "campaign."

NickW

Go back to the 1997 Labour manifesto and look at how many promises have been broken, ignored and trampled into the ground.

End to boom and bust?
British jobs for British workers?
Putting education first?
A stable well run economy?

A Labour promise is a broken promise.

Marcher Baron

We're broke, so we can't afford it, and we don't have the staff to provide it. Empty words. Quote the bit where Labour's manifesto promises were found not to be legally binding at the end of each of their "guarantees".

Has Labour actually delivered on anything (education, education, education, tough on crime, etc)? The one thing Labour did push through, the Hunting Act, is such a dogs' breakfast, even after 700 hours' "debate", that it doesn't work. Go for Labour's record - after all, they've had 13 years to deliver and look what we've got.