I went to see David Hare’s play ‘The Absence of War’ last night. I hadn’t seen it before and it is absolutely gripping at this stage in the election campaign. So if you can make it to the Rose Theatre in Kingston between now and 25th April, you are in for a treat.
The plot follows the (fictional) Labour leader and his core staff during the election campaign in 1992, and examines whether it is possible for politicians to maintain their integrity and project their real personalities, when all around are urging party discipline.
So it is timely that just such a skirmish has broken out amongst the Labour ranks in Birmingham. According to the Birmingam post, Sir Albert Bore, the Labour leader of Birmingham City Council, has attacked an election leaflet put out by Shadow Business Minister Liam Byrne. Actually Bore was caught by a sting, when a Conservative councillor read the contents of Byrne’s leaflet at a Council meeting but without citing the source.
Bore’s response was to attack the leaflet for:
…vilifying many people who have come into this country in order to work and have contributed to the health and well being of this country.
I think its abhorrent that any political party seeks to use language in the way … has described.
And I certainly am quite willing to send to the agent of whoever the candidate is my sincere regret that this has happened and a wish that the language is not repeated in any way whatsoever.
If I could find a way of trying to ensure that an apology was given then that is what I would be asking for.
If you really want to you can see a video of the exchange here.
Liam Byrne has since said that the leaflet simply repeated the policies on immigration that are to be found in the Labour manifesto.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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4 Comments
What did Byrne’s leaflet actually say? “Sorry, there’s no space left”?
We could all play this kind of game. If I read the following article to you, but substituted “Lib Dems” for “UKIP” and “Chris Huhne” for “Nigel Farage” throughout, I doubt you’d smell a rat :-
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/politics/elections/election_2010/eastleigh/news/8102360.Huhne_calls_for_immigration_clampdown_in_the_south/?ref=mac
Some highlights :-
“LIB Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne has called for tougher immigration controls in densely populated areas like the South East. Mr Huhne… said the immigration policies of both Labour and the Tories would allow too many people to settle in the most densely populated parts of the country where services were under the most pressure. He said some parts of the region had experienced a ‘large unplanned influx of foreign workers’, leading to ‘undue strain on our public services and on housing.. In some districts, pay rates have been adversely affected.. These unintended consequences have bred resentments…’.
“Mr Huhne described Labour’s introduction of a points-based system, aimed at ensuring only immigrants with much-needed skills were let into the country, as ‘a step in the right direction’.
Neither Labour’s system, nor the Tories’ proposal for a national limit on immigration, could prevent new arrivals from heading straight for ‘the most populous and attractive parts of the country’, the South East, which was now ‘the most densely populated part of Europe’, with less water per head than in Syria or the Sudan.
“Mr Huhne said: ‘[It] should be harder to get a work permit in areas [like the South East] where the population is becoming unsustainable.'”
I know the above is from 2010 but I’ve not heard not-dissimilar things being said much more recently.
The trouble is that all three “main” parties are playing the same game (the Lib Dems admittedly much less than the other two), which is to adopt a “tough but fair and reasonable” posture when talking about immigration while at the same time condemning opponents as morally questionable. The problem with that, as Labour have found out here, that whether one believes somebody is using reasonable language seems to depend largely on what colour rosette they happen to be wearing…
I know the above is from 2010 but I’ve not heard not-dissimilar things being said much more recently
Unintended double-negative – I mean I HAVE heard not-dissimilar things said recently.
Thanks for reminding me about The Absence of War. It’s in Cambridge from 28 April to 2 May, btw…