It was probably predictable
that the Tory campaign in Boris Johnson’s former constituency would seek to
distance itself as much as possible from the former MP, although it was rather
less predictable that they would also seek to distance themselves from the
current PM and the entire Conservative Party itself. But desperate times call
for desperate measures, and that is exactly what they have done, producing a leaflet
which manages to avoid all mention of both the former MP and the party of which
he (and presumably the new candidate?) is a member. I can’t really say that I
blame them for giving it a try – last roll of the dice and all that. And
honesty isn’t exactly what they are best known for anyway.
But the other thing that
struck me was that the leaflet refers to the candidate instead as the ‘Stop ULEZ
candidate’ and the election itself as the ‘Stop ULEZ by-election’, in an overt
attempt to turn
the by-election into a referendum on the expansion of the ULEZ scheme in
London. Now my memory isn’t what it used to be, and I could be wrong on this,
but I’m sure that I remember the Tories telling the SNP that they could not claim
that the next Scottish election was a referendum on a new vote on independence.
I could have sworn that there were words along the lines of ‘it’s not for one
party to determine what an election is about’. Perhaps that was a different
Conservative Party – there seem to be so many of them co-existing under the
same label these days that it's hard to keep track. Or maybe it’s just another
example of their standard modus operandi – honesty and consistency, like dignity,
are grossly overrated commodites. That Johnson-shaped shadow is not as easy to
shake off as they might wish - his approach to the truth has become deeply ingrained in his party.
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