When we launched our campaign and advert last weekend against Labour’s idiotic plan for a dog tax, one or two sage commentators told us that we had better things to do. So Labour are introducing a new tax, they said. No surprise there; and there are more important things for the Conservatives to talk about than dogs.
Well, of course there are – and we’re doing so. Look at David Cameron’s devastating attack this week on Gordon Brown’s links with Unite. But, actually, by forcing the Government to back down on the dog tax, we’ve just saved 5 million people quite a lot of money. We’ve helped to give Labour a pretty bad press. And maybe the whole episode isn’t quite as trivial as the pundits suggest. Because the dog tax confirmed four things about this dying Government.
First, the ‘get tough on dogs’ package was a typical New Labour attempt to grab an eye-catching headline. Labour were being tough again, this time on dogs. And like marching yobs to the cashpoint, the plan unravelled within days. Labour had thirteen years to come up with a solution to the growing problem of dangerous dogs; they announced their plan just weeks before the election, and it lasted for six days. Some commentators wanted us to praise the Government for listening and changing its mind. Oh, come on. This is a tired and incompetent Government which claims to have substance, but always resorts to spin.
Second, we’re constantly told that the Labour Party is running a well disciplined election machine. This debacle revealed that, behind the scenes, things may not be quite so harmonious. Alan Johnson, the friendly former postman who didn’t want to get bitten again, was the front man for the dog announcement. Hilary Benn, who had actually dreamt up the policy, was nowhere to be seen. Once the plan started to unravel, the blame game started. Defra says it was a silly Home Office idea. The Home Office blames Defra. We blame the Government.
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