The latest awkward campaign issue finds the Tories having to explain how Conservative leaflets in Ilford were signed off and delivered to residents with template headings marking their wonderful achievements because of an apparent mail-merge fail.<\/p>\n
This has unsurprisingly caused much bemusement and consternation on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\nQuality.
Ilford Tories put out this leaflet. It takes political incompetence to a whole new level. Maybe they ran out of racist things to say?
Design ok? Yup. Printing ok? Yup. Delivery ok? Yup. Anyone actually proof read it before printing or delivering? Whoops NOPE 😂😂 Doh. pic.twitter.com\/yoCK8y6uFI<\/a><\/p>\n\u2014 Stephen Brown (@StephenWFLabour) May 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
The latest leaflet error follows prospective Tory councillor Kamran Razzaq\u2019s suspension from the party for handing out campaign pamphlets that said the local Labour Party was responsible for delivering hepatitis to the Dudley area.<\/p>\n
It was brought to light by Conservative parliamentary aide Christian Calgie, who tweeted a picture of the leaflet in question and appeared to attack Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) for their lack of oversight, saying: \u201cThe reason I shared it is that often in politics, embarrassment is one surefire way to get a party to act. Far too often with CCHQ, devolved things are too centralized and \u2013 as in this case \u2013 things that need to be quality checked are left totally to nutters in local associations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
READ MORE:\u00a0Racism, homophobia & assault: 8 Tory council election candidates suspended over allegations<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
Has Calgie hit the nail on the head? Unlike UK Labour\u2019s HQ, which insists on clearing any material their local party groups or Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) want to deliver on the doorstep or out on campaign street stalls; the Tories have devolved responsibility for their campaign literature to a select group of local members within each council ward.<\/p>\n
Is this not a recipe for disaster? Putting process to one side, what does this say about the quality of Conservative candidates? Because it\u2019s not just error-laden leaflets that the CCHQ have had to worry about. Evolvepolitics <\/a>reports today that 18 Tory councillors and candidates have been suspended for racism and abuse over the last month.<\/p>\n
\nRead more<\/p>\n
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\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\nLuckily for the Conservatives, only one or two cases have received MSM print coverage and there has been a distinct lack of interest from the broadcast media to cover what appears on the surface to be a crisis for the Tory membership. It\u2019s been left to local print media to expose the avalanche of misdemeanors that seem to have infected the Tories. Would the Labour Party have received such low-level coverage if the tables had been turned?<\/p>\n
The right-wing news outlet Guido Fawkes reported at the start of April that they had heard claims that the Tories were struggling so hard for candidates, they were asking random members of the public if they\u2019d like to be a candidate in the upcoming elections. \u201cA team of six election agents were knocking on doors in Liverpool yesterday asking two questions. Firstly, \u201cAre you a Conservative?\u201d and then, if yes, \u201cWould you like to be a council candidate in May?\u201d<\/em> the blog read.<\/p>\n
The ConservativeHome website also reported in early April that Welsh Conservatives sent a rather desperate sounding, eleventh-hour email stating: \u201cWe are aiming to field a full slate of candidates across the region but still have vacancies in Knowlsey [sic] and Manchester (where we have 96 vacancies).\u201d<\/em> It proceeded to ask: \u201cCan you help us? Do you know anybody who lives, works or owns property in Manchester or Knowsley that will be willing to put their name on the ballot paper?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\nA Conservative councillor candidate in Dudley has written in his leaflet that \u2018Labour had brought Hepatitis to his ward.\u2019 Disgraceful.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Hasan Patel🌹 (@CorbynistaTeen) May 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
So, the answer may lie in the Tories struggling to attract enough good candidates to the party. Latest estimates from the House of Commons library suggest that Conservative membership is around 124,000 as of March 2018. To put that into some kind of perspective, Sky News have reported Labour\u2019s membership number to be around 600,000.<\/p>\n
Having a mass membership, as Labour do, has not protected them from their own problems concerning the behavior of candidates. As well as having to handle the party’s perceived anti-Semitism ‘crisis,’ several Labour council candidates have been suspended for alleged anti-Semitic posts.<\/p>\n
\n\nMSM has been banging on endlessly about perceived anti-Semitism within @UKLabour<\/a>, but haven’t said a word about the Tory candidate who was suspended after she compared Muslims to the genocidal Nazi regime https:\/\/t.co\/aWf39lNx5e<\/a> all forms of bigotry are abhorrent. #ToriesOut<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Daniel Pitt (@infamyreborn92) May 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Irfan Javed from Stevenage was suspended today for sharing an allegedly anti-Semitic cartoon in 2014, and commenting on \u201cJew propaganda.\u201d<\/em> This followed the suspension of Sameh Habeeb, who supposedly published anti-Semitic conspiracy theories; and Roy Smart, who is accused of sharing posts on social media telling followers to \u201cquestion the Holocaust.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\nIrfan Javed is Labour\u2019s council candidate in Woodfield in Stevenage on Thursday. <\/p>\n
He has ranted about \u201cJew propaganda\u201d & commented: \u201cI am just suspicious. This is what Jewish dominated western media usually does.\u201d He’s also compared Zionism to Nazism.https:\/\/t.co\/D5MzaIW728<\/a><\/p>\n
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