If you look at any party, you will see deeply unpleasant campaigning.

I have seen horrendous material produced by the LibDems (who seem to be the nastiest of all the parties when it comes to smeary campaign tactics)

Labour is also not immune from such tendencies

Everyone is at it

There are bigots in all parties – some a lot worse than others. Look at the Labour benches and you will find more homophobes than in other parties – they just hide it better.

What did Brown do when it came to the votes on gay rights? That’s right – he didn’t bother to turn up.

I thought the arguments against us might be from a more elevated platform.

I might be more shocked at this if it wasn’t for the fact that similar attitudes can sometimes be found amongst Labour’s supporters. Unfortunately this is just a piece of cheap partisan sniping.

Should probably also mention Macmillan’s quote about Thatcher’s cabinet having more Estonians (i.e. Jews) than Etonians. I’m not sure which Party Jews tend to vote for but I doubt they view the Tories as anti-semitic.

Andrew Boff is yet another sock puppet of some Tory twonk methinks?

On a more seriosu note, I hope the Tories have changed becuase the good chance is they’ll be in charge of the UK soon and I really hope they turn out to be nowhere near as bad as the current party in charge.

It’s a funny book, as you’d expect from the authors. I’m not sure the anecdotes tell us much about Cuddly Dave’s New Toryism, but they are very good anecdotes. I especially liked the Ugandan politicians seconded to the Boris campaign, whose function was to pop up in strategic places and be photographed shaking hands with Boris. The unwary observer would thereby think Boris was winning the approval of black Londoners.

Unfortunately this is just a piece of cheap partisan sniping.

OMG we’re partisan! You’d never have guessed!

What’s wrong with cheap partisan sniping?

“Andrew Boff is yet another sock puppet of some Tory twonk methinks?”
No .. not a sock puppet, as to whether I’m a twonk is not for me to say.

The allegations in a post entitled “True Tory colours revealed in new book” remind me of the rather desperate and counter-productive ‘demon-eyes’ campaign that the Tories ran in ’97 trying to persuade everyone that Blair was secretly a Communist. Such tactics were silly then and they’re silly now.

Such tactics were silly then and they’re silly now.

Why’re your lot continuing to lie that NuLabour are socialists, then?

johnb – Are we? References please.

Glad you put your face to your name Andrew, it still doesn’t make your opening comment any better but at least we know who you are.

“OMG we’re partisan! You’d never have guessed!”

Nothing wrong with being partisan except in situations such as this where you try to give the impression that the Tories are unique in having some unsavoury elements.

” I especially liked the Ugandan politicians seconded to the Boris campaign, whose function was to pop up in strategic places and be photographed shaking hands with Boris. ”

Even out in the sticks of Solihull, Ugandan opposition politicians helped with our campaign that year. I helped look after three of them. They did normal things like leafletting during the day and in the evening I showed them the sights of Birmingham and we shared our life experiences. This year before the euros we had young Belorussian politicos in the West Midlands undertaking similar activities. A strange thing to criticise.

I love the moral reasoning that goes on in these threads

“It’s not important that some of our party are nasty and racist because some of the other parties are nasty and racist too! Two wrongs make a right!!!”

then again it’s getting rather fecking boring…

The attitudes of those voluntary workers needs to be challenged and in my experience such views, when they come to light, are.
By all means knock great chunks of Tory policy to peices with reasoned argument – I just have an issue with the title of the piece which tries to caricature the Tory Party on the basis of anecdote rather than analysis.

But the content for the post is taken from the book and reflects some qualities upon the Tory party.

Pathetic! Is this really the best you can do?

No Sally, it is just one of many.

Take care now!