THE ‘ENGENDER FEAR’ GENERATION RETURN

For immediate use: Friday 29th October 2010



Attn: NEWSDESKS


POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS



NEW LEADER, SAME OLD BROKEN RECORD



NOTHING OPTIMISTIC ABOUT LABOUR’S CUTS PLAN


‘DEEPER & TOUGHER’ THAN MARGARET THATCHER’S GOVT


Commenting on trails of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Scottish Labour conference in Oban SNP Election Campaign Director Angus Robertson MP said all talk of ‘optimism’ was exposed as hot air after he indicated that they will run a campaign on scaremongering and negativity like they did in 2007.



Mr Robertson said it reflected the leaked memo by Douglas Alexander from the 1999 election where they said they had to “engender fear” in the Scottish population. A campaign Mr Miliband admitted he was involved in.



Commenting Mr Robertson said:


“This was just a return to their 2007 campaign which Henry McLeish described as ‘London based’, ‘very negative’ and ‘extreme’. So much for the promise of optimism?


“Every time Labour are faced with the SNP all they can do is be pessimistic and talk down Scotland. It is interesting that it should be Ed Miliband doing this since he worked on the 1999 election campaign where Labour were caught out saying they wanted to ‘engender fear’ in the Scottish population.


“It’s a case of new leader – same old broken pessimistic record. It just shows that no one can trust a word Labour says.


“Labour will attempt to engender fear. The SNP will continue to set out a positive vision of progress for our nation. Whilst Labour offers the threat of a basket of taxes and council tax rises the SNP has a record of freezing council tax and protecting household incomes.


“We believe in making things better for the people of Scotland and offering a better way out of Westminster imposed cuts. Whilst Labour joins the Tories and LibDems in denying us access to our own resources the SNP is saying Scotland can be better with the tools to do the job.


“Ed Miliband says he is sticking to Alasdair Darling’s plan to make cuts “tougher and deeper” than Margaret Thatcher, and a memo from Labour admits that their plans were little different from the ones imposed by the Tory/LibDem government. The SNP wants to grow Scotland’s economy, not cut it.


“Labour, Iain Gray and Ed Miliband should be explaining why they prefer those Tory cuts and London control of Scottish taxes and spending instead of Scotland having the responsibility to help create jobs and grow the economy. They are prepared to abandon Scotland to years of London Tory control because Labour’s political ambitions lie at Westminster – not in Scotland.”


ENDS


1. A link to an article where Henry McLeish described Labour’s 2007 campaign as ‘London based’, ‘very negative’ and ‘extreme’.


'The Scottish public deserve more than this negative, London-dominated campaign'

http://www.heraldscotland.com/the-scottish-public-deserve-more-than-this-negative-london-dominated-campaign-1.827186


2. A link to an article on Douglas Alexander’s memo is here:


A Labour MP is at the centre of a gaffe row after urging his party to scare Scots away from the SNP.


Douglas Alexander, of Paisley South, made the comment in a leaked document.


He said in the internal party strategy memo: "We have got to engender fear of the SNP... many Labour voters have no fear of independence. They feel they can safely express their Scottish identity by voting for `Scotland's party' without real risk."


http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60209243.html


3. The Times article on the latest leaked Labour memo on cuts can be accessed here:




http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article2781669.ece


"Labour has admitted that its economic policy lacks substance and detail, according to a strategy paper seen by The Times.


"The memo also shows that Ed Miliband was warned that the coalition’s cuts to public spending may not be much deeper than those proposed by Alistair Darling."


4. Earlier this month Ed Miliband’s new Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson, backed Alistair Darling’s deficit reduction timetable:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/08/alan-johnson-backs-darling-timetable


5. That was a plan Alistair Darling set out as "deeper and tougher" than Margaret Thatcher's cuts in the 1980s:


BBC News, Thursday, 25th March 2010


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8587877.stm


Asked by the BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson to accept the Treasury's own figures suggest deeper, tougher cuts than those implemented by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, Mr Darling replied:




"They will be deeper and tougher - where we make the precise comparison I think is secondary to fact is an acknowledgement that these reductions will be tough".