Dispatches - The Dirty Tricks Election

"politicians say one thing and do another" shock horror youth cult probe

No wonder the Tories and Lib Dems stood no chance as they honestly and openly campaigned on the issues without any spin or strategy whatsoever.

I'm not saying they didn't, and I think a similar documentary on them would have been just as interesting.

This wasn't as shocking as the programme-makers obviously thought it was. My mum would doubtless have been shocked. I wasn't particularly - I thought everyone knew the "endorsers" were party people or at least hired by them - though the fake letters to local papers was a bit weird. I'll never trust my letters page again!

yes, i thought all newspaper letters were made up by bored journalists desperately trying to stir up controversy for their own tiresome articles!

I stopped watching this after about five minutes beeacuse it all seemed like such a non-story.

NuLab got press officer to sit with journalists at press confderence! Oh no! The foundations of democracy have crumbled! Oh no!

Local newspapers are a site of campaigning. Who knew! Maybe if journalists actually did basic research - you know, check whether such a person actually existed, require a phone number with every letter etc - it wouldn't happen.

Also - I can't believe people actually trust the letters page. That's potentially the most dubious and wrong statistic in the world ever.

The ultimate thing here is that the documentary said 'New Labour have taken professionalised campaigning to a new level and are ahead of the curve' which is not news, last time I checked. part of me thinks that this is better than being slagged off for being the most amateur.

I agreed with the final thought - that how could Blair have listened when he never spoke to anyone who was real? That's not a Labour thing, it's a political thing.

Also, the reporter looked like the women who used to be a copper in the Bill, and lived in a really nice house. She has done very well for herself, for one so young. I hope to be as successful as her, making her name from crap exposes that are endemic of the media culture which creates the monster in the first place. Ho hum.

Plus, if not written by spin doctors or bored journos, then newspaer letters are exclusively the preserve of the pompus and the mad - who listens?

that's why i LOVE letters to the editor pages. i'm not counting on them for accuracy, though.

In my area, a group of far-right OAPs have set up an anti-European organisation called "UK Betrayed" specifically for the purpose of writing anti-European, anti-immigration, "things were much better in the 1940s, everyone gave their elders a bit more respect" letters to the local paper. Sometimes they do mention their organisation in their letters, but mostly they don't.

Our local BNP party organiser does the same thing, too; I would imagine that other local BNP members (if there are any) do the same thing, but obviously I don't know their names.

(I know the main organiser's name because he stood as their candidate in the general election)

(maybe aldo is PART OF THE SPIN MACHINE and has started this thread to CONFUSE US ALL FURTHER)

Curses! Discovered!

(No, I genuinely am appalled - NB I was out of the country for almost all of the period before the election - and had no idea British politics had sunk so low, or become so totally ridiculous and marginalised the issues so much)

Just after the election, I saw a discussion between three policy Central Office wonks from the three main parties, the conclusions they reached were:

Labour - did reasonably well but, in future, will have to ensure they don't move leftward and thus alienate Middle England and Middle Class voters

Liberal - did well but, in future, will have to correct their drift left to ensure they don't alienate Middle England and Middle Class voters

Conservatives - will have to do better but if they concentrate on core Conservative values then they will ensure they don't alienate Middle England and Middle Class voters

And that's British politics!

wow aren't we all jaded? c4 should stick to property shows because obviously everyone accepts that we're run by crooks and always will be.

(obv the letters thing is funny)

I don't know that I was shocked or horrified, but I was very definitely just depressed and saddenned by the whole thing. especially as I turned over to BBC2 after, and Nigel Spivey was going on about the historical uses of Art as propaganda, and how all the dirty tricks that Bush and Blair use are directly based on things that Darius of Persia and Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar invented SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS AGO!!! (sorry, you just have to imagine that in the hushed Spivey tones.)

The Spiveytones would be a good name for a Billy Childishish garage band