A very American-style petition dropped into my inbox overnight – ‘No Fourth‘. An obvious response to John Prescott and Alistair Campbell’s new Go Fourth website, the site screams:
Violent crime is increasing and our Police forces are burdened by paperwork. Our Armed Forces are overstretched and underfunded and the brave men and women who fight to defend our freedom are put in danger by poor equipment and inadequate vehicles.
The quoted links are the author’s own; he uses perfectly reputable media to make his point. But it’s all so unnecessary.
The site explicitly claims to be privately sponsored and not affiliated to any political party. But its agenda is obvious and the petition comments make clear most of the people contacted and signed up are Tory members. That’s fine, but with every major pollster showing a lead of more than 10 points, why go so negative?
Independent Labour efforts online are already faltering. Labour List is still struggling for oxygen, Go Fourth is just too embryonic to tell. The Conservative base is very good at online, another reason why No Fourth just seems silly.
Negative politics works, it’s the only reason politician’s of all sides engage in it. But there’s probably 15 months till the election. No need to be throwing the eggs just yet.
