Politics of fear

On Sunday, I bumped into George Galloway on the Stratford Road. Yesterday evening, the door bell rang and who should be there but the local Labour MP. He is clearly startled by the reception Galloway receives, as well as by the near miss of 2005, when his huge majority was nearly overturned by the Respect candidate.

What I find bizarre is that the canvassers did not introduce themselves as Labour, but gave the impression that they were campaigning against a local sore point, the building of the new, PFI mental health facility just down the road. The local area has around 2000 mental health service users, around 200 of whom require some residential treatment during the year. The new hospital will have a 20 bed facility.

While the MP was talking with someone else, the labour party foot soldier accompanying the MP claimed it would be a secure mental health facility. I was insistent it would not, as I had read about the project in the local mental trust’s annual report. On this point the foot soldier was contradicted by the MP, who admitted it would not be a secure unit. It dawned on me that the Labour campaigners were using scare tactics to win votes and that many people, out of fear, would believe them.

With that cleared, the MP shook my hand and walked away. I told the local campaigner I would not vote Labour, because of the war and because the local MP was not pro-active, hardly spoke in Parliament and certainly did not represent the views of his constituents. To this the local campaigner replied, sotto voce, ‘We’ll get rid of him next time’.