Attack Is The Only Form Of Attack

Quietly, but inevitably, Young Dave’s chaps are ditching the positive posters and replacing them with attack adverts. The two hoardings by Addscan Hire Centre on Edleston Road in Crewe that were hosting “I’ve never voted Tory before, but ...” until last week have now joined the Pa Broon “smile” set, along with another hoarding further down the hill.

So what? Well, apart from the thought that the ads aren’t moving very many voters one way or the other – the Tory lead doesn’t look to be growing right now – you have to wonder if they’re just spending the money because they can. Young Dave’s chaps are doing a lot of carping and whingeing about whether Brown has been using resources to prepare for the TV debates that shouldn’t be available for political purposes, and then they’ve been whingeing that the debates might be “sterile”.

Given they launched their manifesto yesterday, one might think the Tories would have plenty of positive things to spend their time putting over. The carping either means they haven’t got positive things to say, or, worse, that there is a lack of discipline creeping in. If the latter is even partly true, then Cameron needs to get a grip sharpish.