Because criticism should be fair and factual

That fearsome right-wing triumvirate – Robert Halfon for ConservativeHome, The Spectator’s Stephen Pollard and The Times’s Daniel Finkelstein – all repeat what they consider to be a terribly clever point about Gordon Brown’s tainting of David Cameron as a ‘shallow salesman’.

Here’s Mr Halfon:

Far from being used as a political insult in which Mr Brown can attack the Prime Minister [sic], salesmen should instead be celebrated for their hard work, entrepreneurial spirit and for providing services that many people could not do without. Mr Cameron should wear the salesmen badge with pride.

And here’s Mr Pollard:

I think it says a lot about the outlook of our wonderful PM that he should regard the word 'salesman' as an insult. … [he] appears to have an instinctive loathing of capitalism, and to regard it merely as something to be tolerated for the benefits it can bring.

(Mr Finkelstein confines himself to commending their "brilliant" insights).

But hang on a just a second. Gordon Brown didn’t condemn all salesmen. He condemned shallow salesmen, which is actually quite a big difference. Here’s a tip for Messrs Halfon, Pollard and Finkelstein: adjectives are usually quite handy clues to discerning what someone means.

I’m no apologist for the Prime Minister, as I suspect this article makes clear. But distortion for argument’s sake is just a little – how can I put it – shallow. And it’s as tedious from right-wing commentators as it is when left-wing agitators condemn money as the root of all evil (forgetting that it’s the love thereof which is responsible).

ConHome sticks boot in Conway

Tory MP Derek Conway has faced a barrage of criticism for employing his undergraduate son as his parliamentary assistant at a cost to the taxpayer of £981 a month. What surprised me most, though, was where this incident was prominently displayed - as the lead headline on the Conservative Home website.

Admittedly ConHome is fiercely independent of the official party, and is the self-styled voice of the grassroots - but why make this your main story, I wondered? Why not leave that kind of thing to your political opponents?

Then, I remembered that Derek Conway was the first MP to write to the Whips office to trigger a vote of no confidence in the then Tory leader, the hapless Iain Duncan Smith. The editor of ConHome is (the very nice) Tim Montgomerie, who was IDS’s ultra-loyal political secretary in his final two months - hence the site’s sometime nickname, ContinuityIDS.

I guess some enemies are easier to forgive than others…

Meanwhile, over at ConservativeHome

Tim Montomerie has kindly e-mailed to let me know that ConservativeHome has highlighted yesterday’s posting in which I speculated about the speech Ming Campbell might care to make in the event of a Hung Parliament after the next election.

I’ve not had chance to read all the comments yet - been in meetings all day - but I was especially tickled by these two:

Smug, sanctimonius and typically Lib-Dem.
Posted by: George Hinton | February 06, 2007 at 15:17

and

No deals with the Lib Dems in any circumstances. Our position should be that in the event of a hung Parliament with a Conservative minority, we will signal to Her Majesty our willingness to form a minority Government. If she is not minded to invite us to do so, our advice would be to call another election.
We should informally tell Labour that we would support the same proposal from them in a reversed postion.
*** IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THE LIB DEMS ARE LOCKED OUT AT ALL COSTS ***
Posted by: Solon | February 06, 2007 at 20:08

In fairness, by the standards of ConHome, those are actually quite charmingly cogent messages.

PS: on this subject, can I highly recommend Tabman's article over at the Liberal Review blog. Oh, and internet telly station 18 Doughty Street have produced this tongue-in-cheek video here.