Tory hypocrisy - no comments

Stephen Pollard covers shadow Tory defence minister, Gerald Howarth's comments on reports that the RAF 'will take advice from Stonewall on how to make itself more attractive to homosexual and bisexual men and women, and is aiming to spend tens of thousands of pounds on advertising in the "pink" media':

[...] the shadow Tory defence minister with responsibility for the RAF, said that he thought that "taxpayers would be aghast" that public money was being used to support a pressure group. "This is an extraordinary exercise in political correctness," he said. "The idea that the homosexual community is not already aware of the opportunities in the Armed Forces is ridiculous, and to go out and specifically recruit on the grounds of a person's sexuality seems to defeat the whole purpose of anti-discrimination legislation."

True, the words themselves aren't necessarily bigoted, but the tactic is classic Tory dog-whistle politics: the coded signal has been sent out to 'nasty' voters that 'nice' politics a la Cameron is just for the networks and the newspapers that the 'nice' voters consult, and that the illiberal obsessions of the Tory right will not be left unmet.

Tom Freeman has more hypocrisy here:

Cameron also accuses Labour of "incompetence" and "untrustworthiness" and generating "disgust". He warns that in 2007, "Labour’s dark side" will come to the fore, in the shape of Gordon Brown.

He adds, speaking through a mouthful of unmelting butter: "we need to prepare ourselves for an onslaught of negative campaigning".

That Cameron has the gall to utter "we must show that unlike Labour we will be a party that is for working people, not rich and powerful vested interests", suggests this media monster believes he really can say just about anything and get away with it. Hopefully the electorate has had enough of media-driven politics, one-man revolutions, and Boy Kings, to inflict five years of that upon itself.