We received this in the Mailbag tonight:
Are you going to highlight the lengths Eddie Hughes and the local Conservatives are going to, to deceive the electorate into thinking this is a Labour Party publication?
And then of course Councillor Richard Kingstone has an opinion on it:
Yes it is election season Kingstone well done, and your close pal, the not so local troll known as Paul Brindley is busily committing actual election offences and smearing Tory candidates with your blessing as well as promote your candidate Bill Bryan. You of course have smeared candidates before Kingstone, but you let your troll do the heavy lifting for you to retain that air of ‘respectability’ now.
Now, amazingly Kingstone has a very very short memory, or he thinks his sycophantic following do (actually they might) because guess what colour his leaflets were when they went out across his ward during his election? That’s right ladies gents and people on the peripheral and in between. They were blue. They looked exactly like a Tory leaflet would. Why is that we wonder? Was it because Kingstone who got elected on a Tory platform wanted to deceive his Tory voters into thinking he was still a Tory? Surely not! And bugger us sideways, he even used red. Oh no, we’ve come over all faint!
If blue is the colour of the Tories and Red is the colour of Labour, then what should Richard’s ‘Independent’ colour be since we have to stick to that? Brown maybe, for the shit he and the troll throws at others?
If anyone with half a brain thought about it for just a moment, it’s a pretty risky strategy sending a newspaper type publication with a red banner on it to a Tory household. They might be just as inclined to chuck it in the bin as read it. If you’re Labour then what’s the worst that’s going to happen if you read it, will your eyes suddenly start burning? Will your fragile delicate temperament be shattered forever more for having sullied your eyes with such horror? Or would you like any normal person chuck it in the recycling like the rest of the leaflets you get from all the parties at this time of year?
Lefties do tend to get rather offended about things though, so the fact this is being picked up on as apparent deception is hardly a surprise. If anything the Tories are trying to imitate the Sun Newspaper, because that’s about as intelligent a read as Labour voters get. Fact is political parties of all colours have been sending stuff like this in all guises for years. Has it had serious life changing consequences for anyone ever? We’ll let you tell us in the Mailbag of your trauma.
Last time we checked the world was still spinning Kingstone and our offended contributor (we do hope you recover from your ordeal). We presume when Kingstone puts himself up for election next, he will avoid red and blue on his leaflets. Because we couldn’t have him deceiving anyone now could we?
We suggest if you get a leaflet from a party you don’t like, carefully use tongs and a mask (surely you have some left) and maybe gloves to be extra careful, to put the offending leaflet in your recycling bag, which across Tamworth are getting that little bit fatter than normal in the next few weeks
