Election campaign gets personal
The personal tone of the general election campaign stepped up a gear on Wednesday, as the Conservatives launched their most scathing attack on the Prime Minister so far.
Tony Blair discovered that lightning can strike twice, as his plane was hit during a thunderstorm – something that happened once before in the USA.
And he also discovered that Conservative strategies can repeat themselves, with the news agenda seized by a new campaign poster depicting the Prime Minister’s face and the slogan, “If he’s prepared to lie to take us to war, he’s prepared to lie to win an election”, echoing the 1997 “demon eyes” assault on Mr Blair.
The lightning strike was harmless, but it may not prove to be so with the Conservative poster, launched yesterday afternoon. Michael Howard defended the negative campaigning on a visit to Edinburgh today: “Virtually every independent commentator agrees that if Mr. Blair gets in again taxes will go up again. But can he bring himself to admit it? No. He’s got away with it twice before and he thinks he can pull his con trick off for a third time.”
At the same time, Mr Howard accused Mr Blair of delivering a “stab in the back” to Scotland, by abolishing its historic infantry regiments, at a time when some of them were serving in Iraq (full story).
Later, in Barnes, south west London, Mr Howard focused on law and order. He declared: “If you have had enough of the lax sentences and the failed, politically correct approach to crime, there is one answer: to vote Conservative” (full story).
The Prime Minister’s response was, once again, to brush off the personal attacks, accusing the Conservatives of desperation.
On a visit to Bolton, to highlight Labour’s education policy, Mr Blair declared: “First, they produce an economic plan so inept, so obvious in its risks to the country’s hard-won stability that they – once the party of the economy – now can’t talk about it.
“Then they try to make immigration the single election issue, in a profoundly unpleasant way. Finally, when that fails, they turn to personal attacks on me.”
Nevertheless, Labour is widely reported to be planning a final week advertising campaign depicting “A Nightmare on Howard Street”.
And reprising one of his most famous slogans, Mr Blair concluded: “I will keep setting out the policy choices that matter to the British people. Let them go negative, negative, negative. I will stay focused on education, education, education – yesterday, today, and tomorrow” (full story).
Ahead of the publication of Labour’s business manifesto on Thursday, Gordon Brown addressed an audience at the London Business School, in which he stressed the merits of the “British way” in the field of economic and social justice
The Liberal Democrats, steering clear of the war of personalities, focused on education. “Students deserve better than being taught by a teacher who is just one page ahead in the text book because there is a shortage of specialist teachers in our secondary schools”, leader Charles Kennedy declared (full story).
However, even he could not resist a shot at the Conservatives. “They have concluded internally, as indeed Michael Howard has all but acknowledged publicly, that they are going to lose this election”, he suggested.
By the evening, Mr Blair received another bolt from the blue in the form of the publication of a leaked copy of the Attorney General’s initial advice on the Iraq war, and delivered one of his own to supporters of the European single currency.
The leaked advice, which will undoubtedly shape the news agenda on Thursday, suggested that the “safest legal course” would be to secure a second Security Council resolution authorising war.
Meanwhile, he said the present economic conditions were unsuitable to recommend a referendum on the euro, telling Sky News “it doesn’t look very likely”.
