Last night Gordon Brown was caught out lying in the TV debates when he said that he had never authorised a leaflet scaremongering over bus passes for the elderly.
Incredibly, this very claim is made on his own constituency flyer.
Challenged by David Cameron on Labour's scaremongering tactics in relation to cuts in concessionary travel for pensioners, Brown said that he had not authorised any leaflets saying that.
His own leaflet in Fife states he will fight against "cuts to concessionary travel" as you can see from the illustration
. Now I accept that Cameron would have no authority over cuts or otherwise in Scotland and that Brown may have been talking specifically about leaflets in England warning that the Tories would cut these benefits for English people, but it was a pretty stupid thing to say. Incidentally Cameron gave a reassurance that he would not cut these benefits, so some good has come out of it for English pensioners.
In Scotland the SNP has actually expanded the concessionary travel scheme to include disabled veterans from April 2011 and has guaranteed concessionary travel for the elderly.
As Angus Robertson said: "If he can't be trusted on his own leaflets then what can he be trusted on?
I’m interested in two things. Firstly, the Prime Minister was caught lying last night on tv. (He MUST have authorised the leaflets in his own constituency). This is a big story. He lied. So why can’t I find a story about it in either the Herald or the Scotsman?
Secondly, when you look at the things that he’s fighting the election on, why does he mention things over which Westminster parliament will have no control? Is there not an MSP for these things? As well as the pensioners’ concessionary travel, which he denies having on his flyer, he talks crime and supporting the police. Does he not know that that is nothing to do with him or his parliament? Is he THAT out of touch with what’s going on?
Pics: Gordon Brown with an advisor, twice... and Gordon's flyer.
Incredibly, this very claim is made on his own constituency flyer.
Challenged by David Cameron on Labour's scaremongering tactics in relation to cuts in concessionary travel for pensioners, Brown said that he had not authorised any leaflets saying that.
His own leaflet in Fife states he will fight against "cuts to concessionary travel" as you can see from the illustration
. Now I accept that Cameron would have no authority over cuts or otherwise in Scotland and that Brown may have been talking specifically about leaflets in England warning that the Tories would cut these benefits for English people, but it was a pretty stupid thing to say. Incidentally Cameron gave a reassurance that he would not cut these benefits, so some good has come out of it for English pensioners.In Scotland the SNP has actually expanded the concessionary travel scheme to include disabled veterans from April 2011 and has guaranteed concessionary travel for the elderly.
As Angus Robertson said: "If he can't be trusted on his own leaflets then what can he be trusted on?
I’m interested in two things. Firstly, the Prime Minister was caught lying last night on tv. (He MUST have authorised the leaflets in his own constituency). This is a big story. He lied. So why can’t I find a story about it in either the Herald or the Scotsman?
Secondly, when you look at the things that he’s fighting the election on, why does he mention things over which Westminster parliament will have no control? Is there not an MSP for these things? As well as the pensioners’ concessionary travel, which he denies having on his flyer, he talks crime and supporting the police. Does he not know that that is nothing to do with him or his parliament? Is he THAT out of touch with what’s going on?
Pics: Gordon Brown with an advisor, twice... and Gordon's flyer.
A Lord Nelson moment I think. "Flyer, I see no flyer".
ReplyDeleteHappy St Georges day Gordon!
England expects that Gordon Brown will do his duty and not see that flyer- for England and St George!
ReplyDelete(try the other eye?)
Either that Munguin or he is so busy saving the world that he's not even read what he promised in Kirkcaldy. After all they always vote Labour so it's a waste of time bothing with them. He has to crush Nick Clegg now in the two horse race.
ReplyDeleteHe may not have even known that there was a flyer in Kircaldy never mind what it said, so busy is he trying to work out who Nick is, and where on earth he came from......
A very happy St George's day to all the readers of Munguin's Republic who live in England, or are English.
ReplyDeleteSaint George is also the patron saint of Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia. So happy St George’s day to all the people of those nations as well.
ReplyDeleteDid you notice that when discussing foreign policy he made no mention of his attitude to North Britain. How nice of Mrs T. to wear a coat to match Gordon's tie! She looks all set to hand-bag him in the first photo.
ReplyDeleteIt really is astonishing, the depths to which this Liebour Party shall stoop.
ReplyDeleteIt is in the Conservative Party manifesto [which I have on my desk right now], the manifesto says, and I shall quote word for word:
"That is why we have made a pledge to pensioners to re-link the basic state pension to earnings and to protect:
1. the winter fuel allowance,
2. free bus passes
3. free tv licences,
4. disability living allowancec and attendance allowance, and,
5. the pensions credit"
There, Liebour is fibbing again.
And as for Salmond, I am pleased he was there to reinforce the fact that both north and south of the wall Liebour are misleading the elderly. It really is disgraceful.
I wonder where Peter has run off to now? No more 'toff and scoff' Peter? Eh?
Brownlie: Mrs Thatcher always was a considerate woman.
ReplyDeleteBrown never mentions North Britain. He's forgotten that it's separate. It's just all North England to him....
Yes Dean, it's a very cheap shot to suggest that either of our parties intends to withdraw what is a vital service to vulnerable, when they neither does.
ReplyDeleteThe removal of the link between earnings and pension, treating pensioners in the same way that the unemployed are treated was a shoddy thing for Thatcher to do, especially when she made so much of a fuss about the way that the Callaghan government had treated them.
The fact that Labour didn’t restore the link and make up the difference when this amazing unholy 10 year boom occurred and bankers were having bonuses of millions of pounds, house prices were sky rocketing and Gordon Brown stole all the pension funds, is positively beyond belief.
How anyone could live on what this mean niggardly state pays them is beyond belief. It must simply be an existence, not a life.
But no, in his all fired desperation to impress the City that there was no socialism here, no welfare here, he let them lag behind, dying of the cold and malnutrition.
Rat!
Let’s make sure that it’s the first thing done, that at least a step towards treating senior citizens like people begins. The rest of the continent puts us to shame.
Pressure was mounting today on David Cameron over claims his aides had encouraged the rightwing media to publish smear stories against the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.
ReplyDeleteClegg's election coordinator, Danny Alexander, said it appeared that the Tory high command had orchestrated a campaign of negative stories in the run-up to last night's debate in an attempt to neutralise his surge in the polls.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/23/nick-clegg-media-attacks
Ha you Load of two faced hypocrites...
The most telling moment in that debate was when spivvy slimy Tory leader Cameron kept saying.one thousand one hundred.............like what normal person says that all normal honest people say eleven hundred. Obviously after a Spiv brainstorming session they came up with that idea to attempt to make a minuscule figure appear a bit more authoritative.
I can hear them now just say one thousand one hundred and try to make the sound as if it it a really massive number...........
a ploy most used car salesmen are well accustomed to tricking the unsuspecting public with..
Mr whatever.... your out of your depth.
ReplyDeleteDeano(the catomite)
ReplyDeletewell one things for sure! I'll never plump the depths you go to.
1 Corinthians 6:9 (New King James Version)
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,[a] nor sodomites,
as the overwhelming number of Conservatives would agree with
Niko,
ReplyDeleteAt least this ensures your bus pass is safe but the Labour party will get your money some other way!
Deano
ReplyDeleteJUST FOR YOU
http://www.groceriesdowntown.com/catalog/images/Cauliflower.jpg
Brownlie
ReplyDeletefirst they gotta get past the wife......dont fancy their chances
Niko, what are you doing apparently agreeing with most Conservatives?
ReplyDeleteI guess you got religion just like your beloved ex-leader. Remember how in an interview with Michael Parkinson Blair referred to the role of his Christian faith in his decision to go to war in Iraq. He said that he had prayed about the issue, and saying that God would judge him for his decision:
"I think if you have faith about these things, you realize that judgment is made by other people … and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well."
But don't worry. The SNP will look after you when you are old and decrepit which is more than your beloved party will do.
PS: That's a beautiful cauliflower you have there.
ReplyDeleteNiko,
ReplyDeleteBeen there - done that!!!
He he, Brownlie. Be careful. He has cauliflowers!!
ReplyDeleteNiko,
ReplyDeleteJust occurred to me - that God's a picky sod.
The slurring of Nick from both their houses is cheap and nasty. It says so much more about them than it does about the Liberals.
ReplyDeleteOh dear Niko. I sometimes say one thousand fice hundred rather than fifteen hundred.
Mr Mr. Mxyzptlk
ReplyDelete'Catomite'
This means- "a Catomite is word with latin origin that means the younger partner in a pederastic relationship between two males"
So, you are calling me a victim of paedophilia? And effeminate too [given they are the meanings of the word].
Tell me, what on earth is your point?
Dean,
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering that for years!
Tris
ReplyDeleteJust in case you missed this one.
Just when you thought that Labour could not sink any lower, try this for size.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7625563/Labour-withdraws-sick-David-Cameron-poster.html
Is there no gutter Labour will not descend into during this campaign. They may have withdrawn it, but it should never have been placed in the first place. I have no great regard for the Tories, but I do have some respect. David Cameron had a disabled son for goodness sake.
I have asked Yousuf on his blog about this poster.
Bet it makes you proud to be a member of the Labour party Yousuf. Would you care to justify it Yousuf?
Yuk... That's low Dubbieside
ReplyDeleteNiko. It's not funny calling people names like that. That's offensive and could hurt. Please don't do it here.
ReplyDeleteI agree Dubbieside. Given the empathy that Gordon Brown must feel for David Cameron in his loss, it's hard to believe tht he was complicit in this.
ReplyDeleteBut there are some hard nosed, hard faced b******s in the spin department.
I understand that SNP run Fife Council has cut a 50p concessionary rail scheme for the elderly and that this is what Labour and its cohorts are claiming they were referring to in the flyer.
ReplyDeleteA rather disingenuous tactic I would have thought in what they have claimed is a "two horse race" where the SNP are irrelevant. Why waste the free flyer you get courtesy of the electoral commission on an irrelevance? The fact is they didn’t that was a convenient attack on both the SNP and the Tories all rolled into one. The electoral commission should have a brief to check all election literature for veracity and relevance before it is put out. But then that would disallow the broadcast of most of the so called Prime Ministerial debates in Scotland and Wales.
The SNP have never said there won’t be cuts. It is just the scale of them for Scotland that the party wants to ameliorate. It is rather unfair that old people in Fife can get the train for 50p with the rest of the Kingdom’s council tax payers picking up the bill while also being able to get any bus for nothing with the Scottish Government picking up the tab. That to my mind is a legitimate cut (I’m going to call it what it is and not a saving or an efficiency) , I would say you can have one or the other but not both.