Have the media gone collectively insane?
Take this, from the BBC:
A keynote speech by Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell has been overshadowed by speculation over his strategy in the event of a future hung Parliament.
In his speech to the party’s spring conference he set out “five tests” for a Gordon Brown-led government.A party official suggested it was the first indication Sir Menzies would be interested in forming a coalition if the Lib Dems held the balance of power.
Ed Davey, Sir Menzies’ chief of staff, said the briefing was “unauthorised”.
“The tests Ming set for Brown were about his likely government in a few months’ time and not about some post-election situation,” he said.
The very idea that a spring conference speech two years out from a General Election would be used to lay out a negotiation position for a future coalition government defies belief. If Menzies Campbell even has a strategy for forming a coalition government, he wouldn’t announce it out of the blue in a spring conference speech. Menzies Campbell and his team knows that talk of coalitions is electoral suicide. “Vote Lib Dem, get Labour” is every bit as damaging as “Vote Lib Dem, get Conservative” to our chances across the country.
He wasn’t talking about coalitions, he wouldn’t talk about coalitions – it’s a story whipped up by a misguided and quite possibly misquoted “senior press officer“, and a mischevious press who have missed having a good Lib Dem kicking conference story.
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3 Comments
I agree, this was throwing down a gauntlet to Brown and I did not see this an an overture at all. Earlier in his speech he clearly stated that Brown was involved in the very decisions Ming was challenging in his 5 tests.
This is simply media spin.
“Vote Lib Dem, get Labour” is … damaging
Too true. The thought of being associated with you lot would put a lot of voters off.
After Ming Campbell’s speech today ask people on the doorstep this question during the elections in May:
Who do you think would be better to lead this country?
The insubstantial, shallow PR man from Eton who was an economic adviser to the Tory Government on Black Wednesday and followed Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Iain Dincan Smith and Michael Howard in voting for war in Iraq?
Or the former Olympic Athlete and QC who was one of those who lead the opposition to the war in Iraq – who even as he was undergoing treatment for cancer came to the House of Commons to vote with every other Lib Dem MP against the war?
erm? case solved.
I think the Lib Dems have got a gem,