To cut or not to cut
If you are voters in Clwyd West then you need to know what is true and what is not. The sort of leaflet Mr Brown denied last night that he had authorised has been distributed on your patch. I'm guessing then that the accusations of "lies" and "smears" on the one hand and the claims that the Tories are drawing attention "to the dark underbelly of their slick PR machine" on the other, will not be new to you.
The Labour leaflet in Clwyd West claims, for instance, that the Conservatives would cut free bus passes.
The Conservatives say the opposite - that they are committed to free pensioner bus travel and won't scrap it.
Labour say the Conservatives would cut free prescriptions.
The Conservatives say that under their plans, most would continue to get free prescriptions but that "those who can afford to will be required to pay a small charge".
They also point out that both policies are devolved anyway and therefore, not affected by the outcome of this election.
By the way the SNP in Scotland have pointed to similar claims about "cuts to concessionary travel" made in Mr Brown's own leaflet in Fife.
Welsh Labour have come out fighting. Wayne David, their Campaign Co-ordinator, accused the Tories of being "clearly rattled" and that "Labour can stand up every single one of the points raised in these leaflets".
For instance: the justification for claiming that the Conservatives would cut free bus passes is that the Conservative Assembly Group Transport spokesman David Melding has said that he would like to see the scheme restricted to off peak times only.
For "cut" read "cut back"?
For Tory complaints read a party that is "clearly rattled to be reacting like this to one of our leaflets" according to Welsh Labour.
One of our leaflets?
As my colleague David Cornock points out in his blog, the claims are in the Welsh Labour manifesto, which has been authorised by Carwyn Jones and Peter Hain, even if Mr Brown can say ... not by him.
I'm Betsan Powys, BBC Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~46~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Labour has said it will directly cut benefits rather than scrap Trident and ID cards.
The poor, the young jobless and the disadvantaged must suffer so that Middle England can be appeased.
A vote for Labour is a vote for poverty of body, spirit and mind.
Complain about this comment
I would check your postal votes very carefully as well. I can assure you that in terms of dirty tricks there is nothing that Labour (in particular) would not stoop to. I suppose it comes from their sense of entitlement.
John
Complain about this comment
Betsan your followers are growing in number in Scotland.
Can we do a straight swap.
We Scots get Betsan and the Welsh get Jackie Bird + Brian Taylor + Glenn Campbell + Gordon Brewer.
Is it a deal?
Complain about this comment
Yes, it was pointed out by Alex Salmond in a televised response to the debate, a response the BBC is trying hard to ignore. It is mentioned nowhere in its coverage.
Heaven knows we wouldn't want balanced coverage! Not by an organisation supported by our license fees. Heaven forfend.
And good luck getting another license fee from me.
Complain about this comment
GrannieAnne, i've notcied the mods have removed your link to the donation page on BwB on the Viking blog.
they are cleaning it up at the moment, we may see BWB reopen!
Complain about this comment
The Truth Exposed
Complain about this comment
The majority view of Scots re Trident and Afghanistan - but not one voiced in the "leaders' debate"
It is time all sides were heard on these issues.
They removed that yesterday, minuend. I questioned how that link broke any rule, I have to say.
It was not to a PDF and I saw no way it was inappropriate. Is it now against the rules to tell people to support a political party, whatever that party may be?
I would have no objection to such a link to such a Labour page and from what I hear they need money. Their email said no way in which that link broke any rule. I was just trying to make it easy for anyone who was inclined to do contribute. I rather think anyone who wants to contribute to the SNP still will, of course.
Complain about this comment
Betsan
"By the way the SNP in Scotland have pointed to similar claims about "cuts to concessionary travel" made in Mr Brown's own leaflet in Fife."
It was fascinating to see the Labour rapid rebuttal unit (aka bunker bots) swing into action last night. Their supporters were certainly fast in pushing the same story on many blogs about the SNP and concessionary travel in Fife.
Unfortunately for them, they had their facts wrong and the rebuttal was rapidly rebutted!
Complain about this comment
Everyone from BwB - I feel that we should be learning the words to Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau to honour Betsan and her committment to Online Democracy.
It is interesting that much of the NuLab "scares" are targeted at devolved policies. Prescriptions. Transport. Care for the Elderly.
Don't get me wrong. The Grey Vote (and not our very own Grey Man) could well be decisive in this election.
Would it be cynical of me to suggest that the NuLab scattergun approach in not actually pointing out that these are all devolved are designed to scare our revered older citizens, who may perhaps still see The United Kingdom that many of them fought and died for and still assuming that this applies to everwhere ?
Vote NuLab. Vote for Cuts, Vote for Trident, Vote for "economies of the actualites". And keep a close watch on your postal votes.
Vote Tory. Vote for Cuts, Vote for Trident, Vote for "economies of the actualites".
Vote Clegg = Vote for any one of the above.
Now, who does that leave ?
Complain about this comment
#6. I meant to specifically link to this post. Sorry.
http://subrosa-blonde.blogspot.com/2010/04/browns-bull-exposed.html
Complain about this comment
Betsan
What does GB Brown refer to your wee country as?
We "Up North" - live in North Britain. I presume that you guys live in West Britain? Or perhaps that's Northern Ireland - so perhaps you are the "Mid-West"?
The BBC have not only prevented us any access to Brian's political blog - but they've now hidden Douglas's economic blog!
In terms of cuts, the estimate for Scotland is between £22Billion and £35Billion to be lost over the next dozen years.
This will clearly decimate our already fragile public services.
Perhaps New Labour will stop the Bankers' obscene bonuses instead of cutting the block grant?
Slainte Mhor
Complain about this comment
Similarly to the SNP-Plaid Cymru coalition in the context of the UK general election, the closure of BwB has put together those of us with particular political views for each of our nations.
Was this done inadvertently or by design?
Either way, an exchange of ideas and information can only be good, particularly in debating similar issues that both Wales and Scoltand have with the current UK constitutional set up.
Complain about this comment
Just had a chance to listen again to Gordon Brown's introductory remarks in last night's debate, to check what I thought I heard.
At just over 1 minute in, he states, " if it's about judgement, it's delivering a better future for E___ (slight pause), this country".
So London Labour's mask truly slips, and shows the contempt in which Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are held.
Complain about this comment
@9
Surely not. It was only coincidence as well that those mailings regards "cuts" to patient care found their way to cancer victims. Would be PMs playing the gentle, caring roles in the debate whilst trying to garner votes by scaring the bejeezus out of the most vulnerable? But the MSM seem more interested in style over substance. Have the BBC trust deemed it "not appropriate" to report on such behaviour instead focussing on the fit of David Cameron's suits. Never have I been so disillusioned with political reporting. Kenneth Roy gets it pretty much spot on in the SR.
Complain about this comment
14. BlooToon
For our Welsh friends who may not have come across Kenneth Roy and the Scottish Review. Roy is in a respected investigative journalist who gave up working for the dead tree press and runs an online journal. He's just as happy to attack SNP errors as anyone else's!
"What is 'appropriate' about the exclusion of the Scottish and Welsh nationalists?" - his latest article can be found here
http://www.scottishreview.net/KRoy241.html
Complain about this comment
at least we haven't been graced by the presence of Brigadier John and our other nulab tory mouthpieces who regularly "contribute" to BwB
Complain about this comment
Re 11
spagan,
I don't think he's heard of our country yet...!
Complain about this comment
@15 Oldnat
Thanks for that. I always end up posting from the iPod (4 kids, 1 laptop, 1 pc means I rarely get access). It makes any HTML tricky.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS