Why’s Labour being out-spun on “Erminegate”?
Should Dave have been allowed openings like this?
Michael Settle of the Glasgow-based Herald sets out the scene and the dangers for Brown of Erminegate in the story that’s currently the lead on Google News UK Search.
“.IT is the most toxic word in the political lexicon and is threatening to make a comeback – sleaze.
The alarm in No 10 over “Erminegate” – denied allegations that four Labour peers were ready to accept money in return for amending government legislation – shows Gordon Brown is well aware of the damage the scandal could cause and infect his already ailing administration.
The controversy over “cash for questions” and reports of money changing hands in brown paper envelopes tainted the Major government in its dying days and helped herald in a Labour government..”
So why, therefore, is it the opposition leader, David Cameron who is getting the biggest headlines on the story this morning – and no doubt will try to put Brown on the spot on the issue at PMQs?
What’s the reason that it is not the Prime Minister who is taking the lead on a matter that has the potential to be hugely damaging to his party?
What’s happened to the famous Labour spin operation that was so publicly boosted last October with the return to front-line politics of Peter Mandelson and Alistair Campbell? Are these old-stagers losing their touch – or is it that they only do “attack” but are found wanting when it comes to “defence”?
Surely the Cameron solution of changing the rules so errant peers can be expelled was blindingly obvious and how much better it would have been if Number 10 had been seen to be making the running?
The Guardian columnist George Monibot made this prediction yesterday: “..The sleaze scandals, as they did during the dying days of the last Conservative government, will now emerge thick and fast, as disillusioned officials risk their liberty by leaking documents that should have been freely available, and journalists, scenting blood, close in. Labour will be driven from office with the same howls of execration that saw off the Tories in 1997. But this time there will be no bonfires, no bunting, no dancing in the streets: just the tired shuffling sound of a million more voters turning away from politics”
