Tories worried about UKIP

A cynic might well accuse Iain Dale of being somewhat sensationalist with his pathetic attempt to tar UKIP with the BNP brush. Sure, in response to accusations that he was smearing UKIP, Iain might well have said "I am doing no such thing", but that hardly seems credible when you consider his earlier post.

Further Links Between BNP & UKIP to be Revealed

...at some point today...

That post remains up, despite Iain admitting that the fact that the BNP have posted UKIP's list of candidates—and an incomplete list at that—is hardly evidence of collusion between the parties. In that case, why does his original post remain? Indeed, why was it posted at all? Did it take Iain a couple of hours to psych himself up enough to be able to brave the BNP site?

Still, one cannot blame Iain: once one has seen the campaign advice document from CCHQ [PDF] (via Chad), one can see that he is merely obeying His Master's Voice. The vast majority of this single page PDF is devoted to how to campaign against UKIP: obviously, the Tories are worried.

UKIP local election candidates
UKIP today launches its local elections campaign. Eric Pickles, Shadow Minister for Local Government, has responded, ‘A vote for UKIP is more likely than not to end up helping Labour or the Liberal Democrats sneak in the municipal backdoor. If residents want lower council tax bills, cleaner streets and the protection of the local environment, only Conservatives can deliver.’

Thank you for that, Eric. Tell me, what was your response to NuLabour's cry of "vote LibDem, get the Tories in by the backdoor"?

Oh, wait: you just copied it, didn't you? Having stolen NuLabour's policies, now the Conservatives are stealing their campaign tactics. Nice.

The rest is pretty much boilerplate stuff.

UKIP currently has just 10-15 councillors (even they don’t know how many they have).

If you are facing UKIP candidates in the local elections, we have three key recommendations:

• Campaign hard on local issues: Local elections are won and lost on local issues. Focus on the key issues that matter to people in your locality, and out-deliver and out-canvas your opponents, just as you would if facing only Labour or Liberal Democrat opponents.


• Only Conservatives can win here: Just as Liberal Democrats squeeze the Conservative vote in Lab-Lib areas and squeeze the Labour vote in Con-Lib areas, highlight how only Conservatives can beat the other mainstream party in the area.


• Target UKIP-inclined voters: During your canvassing operation, identify and mark on Bluechip electors who are inclined to vote UKIP. Then target these voters with a custom direct mail aimed at that group, focusing on the local issues that will fit the audience best.

However, I was deeply amused by the last item on the list.

Post Offices
New high-resolution graphics for the Save our Post Offices campaign are available on the CCHQ Resource Centre...

This is relevent, of course, because only UKIP have pointed out that the closure of Post Offices is ultimately down to the EU, who not only caused the funding shortfall in the first place, but will also not allow our government to subsidise them. The Tories, of course, cannot actually bring themselves to tell the truth on this matter; it just another reason for my one of my new local election slogans...

Vote Tory: get liars!

And, as I said to the speaker, Andrew Roberts—yes, he whom Cameron saved from a jellyfish and to whom I put the Polly Conundrum as it pertains to Cameron*—at Jonathan Isaby's Tuesday Heslington Group meeting, for the last decade this country has been led by a liar and, frankly, I am not going to vote to be led by another one.


* Roberts thought it unlikely that Cameron was ignorant of the fact that the Social Chapter no longer exists (now being part of the Treaty of Amsterdam), but he was... er... called away before I could wheedle out of him the admission that Cameron was, therefore, a perfidious liar.