JUST time to sneak a couple of observations in before Purdah kicks in at some point in the next few days. (Monday is the unilateral declaration from County Hall).
One can’t help but notice the similarities between parts of the Labour manifesto 2013 and the one four years earlier. Take, for example, the strikingly similar red “brochure” itself, which has moved from a stapled 13-page edition in 2009 to a ring-bound 12-page edition in 2013.
More interestingly, while there were five pledges in 2009 there are six now, but look closer and you’ll see that “A Safer Northamptonshire” is as it was four years ago.
No change. In other words, still calls for “Cracking down on dodgy traders and loan sharks” while a “Cleaner and Greener Northamptonshire” mirrors the pleas in 2009 for a “carbon neutral council within six years”, albeit it has now cut to four years. Or the 2009 clarion call, repeated again, to ensure “highways are more than just village roads” and “encouraging walking and cycling”. In 2009, the latter pledge was thus: “Labour will ensure that at least an extra £1m will be spent to make walking and cycling safer”.
In 2013, this pledge is, er: “Labour will ensure that at least an extra £1m will be spent to make walking and cycling safer”. Similar verbatim repetitions elsewhere for the policies regarding vulnerable people, libraries, etc. When 2017 comes round, we’d humbly suggest Labour comes up with a manifesto that doesn’t feature (again) the same pictures of motorways/kids on bikes/gymnasts, etc, etc as was used four and eight years earlier.
LABOUR might well justify itself by saying they’re more about substance than presentation (a volte face on Mr Tony Blair, in other words), but the Tories’ attempts to elect another inner circle of grandees (and a few young pups to boot), will be partially in the hands of its glossy manifesto, stretching to a full 24-pages including another ringing endorsement for that office which we all help to pay to run in Brussels.
Most interesting, however, is the manifesto appears to be sponsored by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, based in Brixworth. (It is NOT). But the German automotive giant’s name sprawls across the front of the Tories’ manifesto so much that, for an instant, Aufona was led to believe Norman Hacker had acquired a genuinely big hitter to bank-roll his campaign. Actually, the whispers go, it was a bit of a design gaffe and your average punter’s eye is drawn not to the word Conservative, but to the word Mercedes. Lessons to be learned, then...
AUFONA can exclusively reveal that Binners has, in fact, paid up a £148.35 bill for dinner at the Commons’ Strangers Dining Room. It had emerged as the biggest dinner unpaid after 90 days following an FoI in The Guardian. Turns out, Binners paid for the (charity) feed out of his own pocket and all debts are now settled.