Friday 20 April 2012

Vile and viler

When Peter Hain came out with his attack on ‘vile’ Tory candidates, my immediate reaction was to think that this was a man heading for a fall.  It was obvious that, sooner or later, someone would draw attention to similar problems with one or more Labour candidate.  It didn’t take long.
Anyone who has ever been involved in the process of selecting and vetting candidates will know that it is extremely difficult – perhaps impossible - for any party to be certain that one or other of its candidates will not turn out to be an embarrassment in some shape or form.  That is particularly true for local elections, where candidates number into the hundreds.
Given that, any politician choosing to attack another party in the way that Hain chose to do is simply leaving itself open to a charge of hypocrisy when one of its own candidates gets found out.  What surprises me is this:  Hain is no novice; he’s been involved in politics in Wales for decades.  He’s seen this happen time and time again in the past – what on earth possessed him to do something so foolish?
In truth, of course, it’s unfair to pick on Hain alone here.  (Almost can’t believe that I typed that.)  He’s merely the perpetrator of this week’s obvious faux pas.  But the ability of politicians to believe that it’s safe to attack other parties in this way because their own party is whiter than white isn’t restricted to Labour.
It’s as though they are afflicted with some sort of selective amnesia when the sound of a good headline gets stuck in their brains.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.golwg360.com/newyddion/cymru/70915-honiadau-difrifol-am-bennaeth-y-wasg-llafur

bamboo investments said...

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth as the old saying goes. Its not at all unexpected that the same thing would come right back at them. A rookie mistake, and a cardinal political sin by an otherwise professional enough political chap.

Boncath said...

John
Time to move on I suspect
Wikipedia's biography of Peter Gerald Hain outlines his lifes passage clearly he has now reached the point where he has ignored the ice warnings
Perhaps I can briefly mention Tommy Vile MBE a well respected Welsh international who no doubt would not want to have been so aligned with Conservative MP's
Perhaps Peter G Hain could be persuaded to apologies to any surviving relatives