By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982
Labour has revealed the winning poster of the #PeoplePosters campaign, via the Guardian. The poster will appear on billboards in London and Manchester throughout the weekend.
It wouldn't have been my choice; I agree with Tim Montgomerie - although Gene Hunt is anachronistic, the image actually makes Cameron look cool, young and fairly modern.
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Who the hell in HQ thought this was a good idea, it is abysmal, if we want posters then lets send out a positive message that shows what we would protect against who the Tories would give valuable tax money to.
sometime I despair of the people employed at HQ, all from uni, none of them with an sense of the real world, after the election it is those who should be routed out to be replaced by normal committed passionate labour people
I still think we'll win the election - but can we please stop trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
Show the poverty,the social deprivation and the destroyed communities and industries .Leave the bullshit and personal attacks to the Tories and show it how it really was.There are plenty of real people still suffering because of the 18 years of Tory destruction.Put them on posters and see the real faces of Thatcherism.
Colin Jackson
All we need now is for Harriet to declare it sexist
When I read about this I gasped in abject amazement....then I laughed out loud....as did many many people. The fact that the Labour Party and Labour activists really cannot see just how far down their own throats they have stuck their feet with this just illustrates how completely out of touch the whole machine has become. Realise this, people LIKE Gene Hunt...not because he is an icon of the 80's but because he is an icon for NOW, a time when the general public are sick to death of all the interference in their lives, all the propaganda from County Council 'newspapers' to Government misusue of statistics, they are sick of the patronising 'we know what's best for you' mentality which really equates to 'we know what's best for us'and they are sick of all the attempts to make us believe black is white. They are sick of being told how to do their jobs, live their lives and bring up their kids by people who know nothing but can (badly) apply any 'research' that happens to fit their own point of view. Gene Hunt represents all those people who are absolutely fed up with all the bullshite you attempt to feed us and make us believe and make us conform to. And let's face it, if you had ANY political nous whatsoever, you really really wouldn't have believed your own vision of 'utopia' had taken such deep root that people would 'get' your message on this one....all it goes to show is, not that you have mis-judged the public mood on this one....but that you do not know the public at all......
shouldn't the Tories be failed BBC soap El Dorado, as there is more chance of finding the Lost Cities of Gold than there is of finding a credible and funded Tory policy.
The Civil War is getting nastier as one of Stephen's pals, Paul Rooney is being positioned to take over:
"However, Paul Rooney, a former procurator fiscal depute and chairman of Strathclyde Police Board, denied knowing Mr Purcell was questioned about cocaine use and blackmail risk.......Mr Rooney’s allies claim he already has the support of around half the city’s Labour councillors, who will pick a new leader at their AGM on May 10.
Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy and the party’s top Scottish donor, Willie Haughey, are understood to support his candidacy."
Yet all is not plain sailing for New Labour's latest place man:
"Of the man (Purcell) once tipped as a possible First Minister after delivering the Commonwealth Games for the city in 2014, another senior figure in Glasgow Labour was more robust in his criticism, saying: “He’s a wee s**t. He has been since the day I knew him."
"Mr Dornan said: “If Councillor Rooney was aware the police were visiting Mr Purcell on a ‘personal matter’ I’m surprised he never enquired as to what that ‘personal matter was. I’m also surprised he never raised the matter with anyone else, or if he did then we need to know who he told and what action they took to find out the reason for the police visit."
All Murphy's attempts to keep the Purcell problem under wraps are increasingly falling to bits with more editorials asking what have Glasgow City Labour Party to hide and just how bent are the councillors running the 'Arms Length Companies' owned by the councils especially as more and more information about the payment and expense said councillors received on top of their councillor's pay.
The quotes above are from the usually Labour friendly Glasgow Herald.
(PS - the Tory riposte was lightning quick, witty, and is appearing on the same digital sites).
There is an apt quotation, but can't attribute the source "God gave us our relatives - thank God, we cn chose our own friends"
Labour’s worst week of the campaign so far was capped by David and Ed Miliband’s unveiling of a poster in which the Conservative leader was depicted as … the coolest man on television. It feels like a turning point — a moment of such staggering, comic ineptitude it will surely lead to a re-organisation of Labour’s campaign team
Nuff said
"The Police were not hamstrung by focus groups and targets or political correctness...they could actually try and sort out crime .... "
Really?
So how was it that notifiable offences recorded by the police in England & Wales went up from 2.5 million in 1979 to 4.5 million in 1990 - and people found guilty of indictable offences fell from 412,000 in 1979 to 343,000 in 1990 - and further downwards to just 300,000 in 1996?
There's Conservative rhetoric .... and reality.
So what's with the comparing notifiable offences and rates of conviction of indictable offences?
This from a supporter of the party who brought us asbos at ever increasing rates. The asbo of course being a civil order imposing often upon a criminal law offence (both notifiable and indictable).
Are you behind Gordon Brown's use of government statistics?
There's Labour rhetoric and use of statistics..... and reality
Is he? I assumed they were two separate sets of statistics.
We could of course compare Labour's record of crime statistics... oh no we can't as they changed the definitions a number of times to make like for like comparison impossible.
There's Labour rhetoric and use of statistics..... and reality.
No, I'm not implying - I am stating facts from the Annual Abstracts of Statistics.
llewelyn came out with that old chestnut that the Conservatives were the party of "law and order", or words to that effect, and this was compounded by DC stating in the last 24 hours that in the 1980s, police were left to get on with the job of feeling collars and not filling out forms instead.
Well, the record shows different : crime up, convictions down.
Kenneth (now Lord) Baker, in his memoirs "Turbulent Years" records (page 451) a former Home Office minister, David Mellor, telling him : "We've thrown money at them* and we have the highest level of crime in our history."
* the police
@ Ludwig...good points well Sir made re nostalgia,though I was sad to see you are not an admirer of Yazoo or people that look like Spring Onions. I do genuinely feel that political correctness and targeting has hampered the Police and prevents them doing their job as effectively as they might. I also feel this has got steadily worse over the last 13 years eg I dont recall back in the 80s people being pilloried for wearing a crucifix around their necks or being fined and tagged for selling a Goldfish surely we can all agree these sorts of events and many others like them are just utter madness? Is it any wonder that humble pobol like myself have to pop on here occasionally to have a little grumble on the site that supports the Party in Power?(thank you Alex for allowing it)
Peter, please accept that there are people out here that have opposite views to yours but are about as far from being Tories as you can imagine.
Happy Easter all.
"Well, the record shows different : crime up, convictions down." Hmm,really? Now I wonder why I dont believe those statistics?
Well, I don't know because the first one for crime and convictions in 1979 was taken from the Annual Abstract of Statistics for 1983 and the second one for crime and convictions was taken from the Annual Abstract for 1994 - well before Labour was in power. The series for reported crimes and convictions "splice", if you see what I mean.
Your disbelief of official statistics will have to stretch back to at least 1983, and take in all the years up to 1994 as well.
May I suggest that if you have serious thoughts that ONS are deliberately cobbling numbers, then you write to the Director? Please do show us the reply that you receive.
Nice one, Edwardo!!!
Anarchist?
Beware the Durruti Column.
What would you call regimes in countries like Denmark and traditional parties in France?
It is simply on a spectrum of political beliefs.Personally I don't believe in extremism from any quarter.
What we are hearing from the "Hannanites" of this world, in my opinion, really could do some damage to the fabric of society.
I wouldn't call that evil though- just ideological and obsessive.
Your preferred solution of high taxation, large state, high spend is just as extreme as anything any Tory like Hannan comes out with.
But I would agree with you that those views aren't evil, just as you put it yourself, ideological and obsessive as well as not very popular.
Unless you are in the private sector and you have to go begging to the taxpayer for help as Murdoch had too recently. How funny all the big corporate giants reduced to blubbing for money and how easily they resort to what you brand as "unpopular" and "obsessive". How unwilling they are to compete in difficult economic times that resulted from the very deregulation they advocated and demanded.
Like little spoiled children blubbing and running to the dentist after eating too many unhealthy sweets that they consumed in their greed and stupidity.
Jo.
Happy hols too...Jo.
Add to that Mr Loadsamoney and Tory Boy(The Fast Show,)and the New Statesman,(Alan B'stard...)All extreme satire based on a rather extreme period of politics!
Maybe we could have a group memory renaissance?
(I did like the music though.)
Hi David- really interested to hear about your experiences of politics! I've always had leftish views and supported Labour, but I also like the Greens and the Libs. Working in the NHS for 25 years plus also cemented my belief in the value of universal public services and social/community care.
I would personally like to see a social model adopted in this country on a par with Denmark and Sweden, and other European countries.
I would hate Britain to end up emulating a mini USA Republican state, and all that goes with the propaganda we hear via sites like Fox News.Although I've travelled in America and enjoyed it; I find the politics extreme(before Obama.)I think some of these "Republican" forces are establishing a foothold over the blogisphere in many guises.
So I will keep on fighting!
But I'd also like to see a transformed Labour party; NL is not really my cup of tea.But there still exists many good people and ideals within the movement.
Look at LL/Alex for a start!
Would like to say more, but run out of time. Happy Easter too!
Jo.
I'm trying to recover from that one, Jo. Have a good Easter - the three of you.
I don't believe I'm alone if memory serves me right- remember all the satire sparked off by the politics?
Hope to write a bit more after Easter.
Happy holidays though- Jo.
Long time no hear, Jeff, unless I've missed recent comments of yours. Anyway, good to see your comment.
Lord Acton, the great 19C Liberal thinker and writer, was in favour of as much socialism as is compatible with real freedom and a sense of economic responsibility. He believed that the diffusion of wealth was one of the ways in which the State could give real, though indirect help to the individual.
Certainly, he regarded totalitarian socialism as terrible, but also thought that "some form of Socialism was clearly Christian ('promotes the comfort of the poor, favours equitable distribution')."
I have to admit to some difficulty in wondering who is correct - Lord Acton, whose name will live on for a very long time, or blogger RJD ....
No, RJD isn't Guy M - Mr M wrote his comments using paragraphs, whereas RJD seems ignorant of paragraphs and their purpose ....
But here's one for RJD, who is constantly berating Labour for the lack of skills in manufacturing :
in 1981, amongst males, there was one apprentice for every 23 employees in the engineering industries ; by 1989, this had slipped to one apprentice for every 91 employees ....
Unlike the clearly not ignorant, but still deeply misguided MC.
I rather wish MC turned his intellect to the things he accepts unthinkingly as received wisdom as well as the the things he doesn't.
Roger, with the greatest respect, yiour comments get more absurd, more hyperbolic and more desperate every day. And, if you'll allow me to say so, insulting and silly.
"Evil"??? Are you suggesting that the Labour Party, even today is "evil"?. Or the Greens are a broadly socialist party. Are we evil?. In what way?
I really think you should do as ken Clarke once advised somebody to do - go in to a dark room and have a lie down.
Yes, of course, because the perceived centre has shifted. You probably subscribed to what was once the post-War consensus which has been dismantled. As Peter B. asked: where do we go from here? I'm sure you have some thoughts.
Lets face it when yiou listen to Patricia Hewitt, she sounds like a Tory Grande Dame and has similar business interests to one!
Where do we go? Accept that New Labour was a blip, commit ourselves to proper electoral reform, and stop trying to fashion a parliamentary majority where beliefs have to be watered down to an extent that they are hardly recognisable
In a word. Yes.
Looks like they're not many folks around tonight.
Are you looking forward to the playoff games vs Forest.(my most hated team since they came to Portman Rd and spent most of the game with their fans chanting 'you're going down with the Leicester' right on both accounts the buggers.)
In case this be taken in the wrong way, one of my aquaintences, is a Forest supporter who reckons he liokes the Canaries next. How gracious is that?)
I have fond memories of Ipswich Town FC, especially their competitive games with Liverpool (and that strange transfer of David Johnson). The Dutch duo served them well, but I particularly admired Kevin Beatty.
I'm inclined to think that Leicester should spend another season in the Championship to consolidate. They will no doubt confirm their credentials as a yo-yo team, anyway.
All the best.
Kevin Beattie is now a pundit, but previously unsuccessful landlord at the Henley Cross Keys. (Decent pub in my youth.)
I'm pretty certain the Blues will be spending another term in the Championship. As the currennt owner is a management consultant, I can't see him sacking the boy from Cork at this stage.
Re Stoke. I knew a few boys from the area. Honda UK's engineering manager and one of the electrical managers at Bentley are from the place, as well as a colleague at Nissan.
I get the impression that whilst Brum's council was looking to the future the guys in the Potteries were assuming nothing would ever change.
It's a tough one.
Where do we go? Accept that New Labour was a blip, commit ourselves to proper electoral reform, and stop trying to fashion a parliamentary majority where beliefs have to be watered down to an extent that they are hardly recognisable
Jo.
And definitely agree, want to avoid a "pointless ding dong" at all costs!
We are all entitled to our memories and experiences, aka the above poster, which must have been chosen for good reason; as a shared memory and grim association.
Sadly I have quite fond memories of the eighties(and the early nineties in York, but that's another matter), apart from a spell in the Rhondda at Poly. Some strike thingy.
The overwhelming image I have of the latter half of the eighties is overweening selfishness and self indulgence.
Maybe not considered bad by todays standards, but definitely considered bad by most standards in British history.
Hi Jo, LOL. I do sometimes wonder whether you secretly work for central office. You seem so on message all the time... not many like you left! ;-)
No wonder 59% of people think the country is in a worse state now than when Labour came to power.
It is remarkable that they have succeeded in making Cameron look more enticing. All this was made worse by Milibana's tepid speech launching the poster.
Are Labour capitulating before the election is even called? Looks like it.
It was only grudgingly that Cameron had my vote until I saw just how cool he is here.
Roll on May 6th.
Have you caught Lord Mandelsons interview today? remember he is Labours campaign strategist so its well worth taking notice.
Incredibly he seems to be suggesting publicly what all of us know - Brown wouldn't serve a full 5 year term. I think he wants to paint that as an electoral plus point but as we know Brown will have to forced out kicking and screaming and why would the country want to vote for a government that will spend much of its term fighting among itself?
Just look at 2005 - Blair said he would serve a full term and then the battle commenced as soon as the election was won.
Mandelson seems to be off his game. He looks suddenly older and tired. I think he has this call wrong. I wonder how it will play during the campaign as Brown will no doubt be the main target as he is the parties biggest liability.
Most of my contemporaries (who went to school in the 80s) remember great music, brilliant TV (Blackadder), great movies, Band Aid, no university fees, years off travelling abroad, plenty of graduate jobs, improving standard of food in restaurants and shops, an end to the memory of 70s greyness and power strikes, a sense of optimism, a growing liberalism in social attitudes.......
It was a marvellous decade.
The 24 year old who produced this poster probably doesn't know any better but the guys in Labour HQ who approved it really should have realised this is going to backfire on Labour massively.
Yep. There's nothing like cheering the unfortunate who's just netted in his own goal.
Gene Hunt is also a well like character. Oh and I love the Audi.
Seems the advert will backfire. Just as well Labour hasn't any money to print it really - will at least be confined to the internets and a digital billboard for about 10 minutes.
Oh dear. Another drop in the polls beckons
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xbFrx50EjMc/S7OlyxjT6uI/AAAAAAAAD5w/mz5ek1yaiaw/s1600/poster16.jpg
Even the spelling is an indictment of Labour. HOPSITALS!!!
lol. Genius!!!
Be careful with your own spelling though - sniggering at the back is a bit low, and might backfire on you
*(and no - before you suggest it - I did not design that or any other poster)
OK, in the name of transparency, my name is Ian and I live in Portland, Oregon. I moved here in 1995 and took US Citizenship in 2008. I use the "Dual Citizen" handle on multiple blogs including ConHome, Iain Dale, Tom Harris, Labourlist, Coffee House and the Oregonian (my first blog comments were in support of Barack Obama during the 2008 election).
Now, regarding the spelling. Yes we all make spelling mistakes from time to time. But come on, for the governing party of the UK, whose motto was "education, education, education" to put a poster on its website* with the word hospital spelled wrong is beyond satire!
(* I notice they've now taken that page down)
PS - Thanks to Alex for having the ability for me to edit my comment and correct a spelling mistake! :)
I'm sorry, but it takes a very special kind of idiot not to proof read a design for a poster.
But then what are we to expect? Labour set the standard when it forgot the comma in "A future fair for all"
My point though, is that if you are to take on the task of designing a poster, you should proof read before submitting. Similarly, it was rather idiotic of Labour decision makers to leave out that important comma. I noticed that at a large proportion of posts concerning Labour's new catchphrase discussed the missing comma rather than the intended message.
Guilty as charged.
But in mitigation, the first BBC radio news report I heard announced it the way I said it should be.
1. Over time, people seem to forget the bad and remember the good memories
2. An awful lot of people had a very good time in the 80s.
I suppose the best you can hope of is that this poster shores up the core vote. But if that is the case, wouldn't it be an indictment on this government? People where were poor in the 80s still being poor now?
Other people had a great time. Me for instance.
"Other people had a great time. Me for instance.
Paul Pinfield "
Well, Paul that's fine then isn't it?
As long as you were allright it doesn't matter about anyone else.
I think the above poster will win the Tories more rather than less votes. Is this really the best they can come up with? If it is then the election for Cameron is in the bag.
Labour has promised cuts deeper than Thatcher so I take it you wont be voting Labour.
2) An old attack - back to the 80's ? Really? Lets recall the winter of discontent.
3) Of course the Tories don't have any experience. Labour has been in power for 13 years. Perhaps some haven't noticed. The experienced Gordon Brown has led the economy up the spout.
Seriously this is the best you could do? I realise having no money and using people that use twitter leaves you a little short of talent but this is dire.
Who selected this piece of drivel?
http://bit.ly/bHJihl
Ahh, the Austin Maxi!
'Ahh, the Austin Maxi!'
A much under rated car. First hatchback. That at least has caught on.
Also, superb handing for it's time due to a wheel at each corner (at least in the 1750 engine variant).
Obviously let down in other ways. Out of tolerance components, minmal quality control and a work force that had ceased to care.
All of these can be laid at the door of poor management and political interference.
BTW this ones run out of oil, there's no dirty black patch underneath it.
Yes that would have been the TGWU workforce that went on strike every 2 weeks and brought British Leyland to its knees.
The TGWU guys, including old Red Robbo, were still in place when Michael Edwardes took over. (Though Robbo was a marked man by then, and Edwardes the type of person to make that point.)
Amazing how the strikes stopped under a decent manager with some leadership qualities. The political interfence of course didn't stop until after BAe bought the firm.
So much for the Tory hands off approach. Only applied in non-marginal seats, and I imagine it will be no different in future, all rhetoric and no substance.
To spare a pointless ding dong about this subject, I do have the advantage of actually having worked at the place and it would be useful if you kept your points based on facts and not received myth.
I'm in my late 30's and I don't remember the Eighties apart from things like the ZX Spectrum and the C64 - both really great things! And the Audi in the ad - Cool!
Why is Cameron taking us back to the Eighies? How is he going to do that? A confused message - as has been said before - if an ad needs explaining it won't work.
The world has moved on since the Tories were in charge. If Labour genuinely believe that people think that the Tories are the same party as 15 years ago they are deluded.
You would get a better reaction if you used the ad's from yesterdays Guardian. They at least were very funny.
So it may be Thatcher Mark II, but run by people possibly out of their depth.
That is really bad news for the economy and the country.
I wonder if those living on the edge of poverty will "go to the wall" more than they did in the 80's?
I think we've been living with that legacy since the 80's- that is where the rot set in.
I always think: "ignore society at one's peril."
We are all in this together.
I suppose Obama's inexperience means you also think he's an unsuitable president? That Theo Walcotts inexperience makes him useless in the Champions League? That Gabe Trodds inexperience of real work means he would be useless in anything resembling a proper job?
Ok, you might have me on that last one, but I'm sure you get the point.
I think it may appeal to 40 and 50 somethings who were in their heyday then!
The 80's were very distinctive during Thatcher's Britain.
We saw a sudden proliferarion of Yuppie culture alongside a massive increase in homelessness and poverty, seen on city streets. Selling off of council houses, etc.Short term profit for long term pain.
Easton- I was living and working in London at that time; I thought the images particularly strong there.
I was for some of that time working in a psychiatric emergency clinic in Camberwell, South London; and the stark contrast of vulnerable people struggling to survive, alongside flashy sports cars on every street corner and huddles of rich young city "yuppie
types" reminded me of New York......where extreme poverty used to be seen alongside extreme wealth. It somehow seemed bizarre and obscene.
Those vulnerable and homeless people appeared invisible, as if casualties of an aggressive capitalist new order.Government didn't seem to care about poverty; in fact, Thatcher said society didn't exist- so what hope was there?
The people making big bucks might not agree with this poster; but it may resonate with the average person.
I do agree though, there is a slight oddity about the image chosen- it almost looks positive, and may add to DC's image!
But I think the message is spot on- it's just appealing to peoples' memories of 18 miserable years of Tory government, which inspired extreme satire like Spitting Image and Alan B'stard.
The awful thing is, the next government could be so much worse amidst a major recession- sparked off by a banking crisis; and yet it was the banking and the financial sector that were used as drivers to the economy in the 80's; look where that has landed us now?
If only we had a British Obama to rise above all this.
Jo.
Most of the poverty occured in the NOrthern England, East London, Scotland and Wales and the point you mention is valid in that it was never truly addressed. More investment went into many Cities and created some welcome improvements but the overall economies were simply left by side as the governmnet bevame increasingly enamoured of the money it could make for itself as individuals and less on representing the public.
If I was to target someone it would be GO, not DC. Go for the weakest link.
However still arguably quite negative to go for either instead of pushing the fact we're recovering from a recession, not stuck in a depression, which is surely what GO's policies would have achieved.
Hunt is the most popular anti-hero in just about the most popular television series in years.
His persona rises above is faults and overcomes them.
He is the opposite of posh.
This is disinfectant for Cameron.
Go guys go....
Also just the general tone of this is dire when we have so many good and positive things we can shout about. Leave the Tories to the negative rubbish.
The Tories and the ad agency must be laughing their heads off.This nonsense undermines the hard work people are doing in the real world to help our candidates.