Disgusting campaigns, indeed

By Gabe Trodd

Credit to the British public, then. The latest polls suggest that this “bullygate” business is having no effect on how people plan to vote. The last few days have seen politics and its coverage at its murkiest, and it goes to show that Britain does not respond well to the politics of fear, personal attacks or personality-driven sideshows.

Today, Iain Dale has written a post on Claire Ward and Watford General hospital, which incidentally was the hospital I was born in. Iain attacks Claire for “disgusting campaigns…designed to frighten and scare…Hopefully she will get her comeuppance in a few weeks and will lose her seat.”

But Watford is, in fact, host to one of the Tories’ most shameful recent scandals, and reading Iain’s post reminded me of the perils of the attack as a political tactic. Indeed, as someone from Watford, I was so shocked by hearing about the events that recently took place around the local Conservative branch that I, at the time, decided that the world of politics, as a whole, was something I had very little time for. It just seemed like a sordid world of personal vendettas, ego and sleaze.

Before that, I was feeling inspired by the magnitude and poetry of everything that happened around Barack Obama, reading about some of Tony Benn’s philosophy and really beginning to appreciate some of the improvements that Labour has brought about, that I began to even feel encouraged and motivated enough to really take an interest in politics again.

What happened was this. Ian Oakley, the Tory candidate for Watford, was exposed as running a hate campaign against local political rivals. He stood down as the Tory PPC, a marginal seat, admitting five charges of criminal damage and two of harassment. Disgusting campaigns, indeed.

The Tories have now recently replaced Oakley with a new candidate.

The BBC’s account of what happened reported how:

“[Oakley] slashed tyres and wrecked shutters at the Liberal Democrat headquarters in the town.

He made silent phone calls to Ms Brinton between August 2006 and March this year, and sent her gay and lesbian magazines, the court was told.

Letters addressed to “Sal Bitchton” were also sent to her workplace.

Oakley’s campaign against Mr Willson was mounted from February to May this year and included painting graffiti on his home, calling him a “perv”.

He also sent letters to him and his backers wrongly accusing Mr Willson of being a “child abuser”.

Donna Rayner, prosecuting, said Oakley had been driven by a “desire to change the political landscape in Watford”.”

Certainly, in light of all this, it seems a bit much to accuse Claire Ward, the Labour MP for Watford, of “disgusting campaigning”. But more importantly, what happened in Watford with the Tories vividly illustrates the dangers of when edgy campaigning, the politics of fear and personality-driven politics go too far.