Labour goes negative – again
From the Labour Party's official website, launched with much fanfare - www.gonzi.pn
This is part of my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday, yesterday.
The Labour Party has set up a website dedicated to Super One videos and ‘comments’ about what it would have us understand are the government’s multifarious crimes.
See it to believe it, at www.gonzi.pn.
This is over and above what is pretty much the same service, with similar levels of semi-literacy, provided by its other website, maltastar.com.
Then there are the various official websites for Super One, Joseph Muscat, the Labour Party as an organisation, Forum Zghazagh Laburisti, and those run by its candidates and members of parliament.
Beyond all these websites, there are Facebook profiles and Facebook pages and Facebook groups, all telling us what Labour and its die-hards and try-hards (and Hardons, Charlons, Byons and Rayons) think of the prime minister, the government, the Nationalist Party and key government officials.
We are less than a year from a general election and still the Labour Party has no website telling us why we should vote for it, what it plans to do and how it will do it.
The message Labour has consistently given out until now is ‘Vote Labour because the Nationalists have got on your nerves’ or ‘Vote Labour because Gonzi ha z-zieda’ or even ‘Vote Labour because Daphne’s a witch’ (sad, eh?). You have to laugh. Or better still, cry.
In the same week that the Labour Party launched with great fanfare its website of Form IIC-literate criticism of the government and its ministers (“The Mater Dei it has no pillows!”), the Nationalist Party launched its own www.mychoice.pn, which couldn’t be more different.
About the Labour Party, there’s not a word. Instead, it reminds you of the reasons why you vote Nationalist, lists some new ones, and asks you what you think.
While the Labour website is 100% negative (and in a humourless fashion totally devoid of wit and substance) about the enemy, and says nothing positive about Labour itself, the Nationalist website is 100% positive in feel and outlook, seeks feedback on where things have been negative, and doesn’t mention the enemy at all.
I had only to look at the two websites in quick succession to remark out loud how they encapsulate the very essence of the political parties they promote. The Labour Party’s site is amateurish, ill-conceived, badly thought out, barely literate and really slapdash.
They didn’t even check the Super One videos before uploading them, so that one of them opens with the legend ‘You don’t want to f*** with me do not f*** with me’, splashed across the screen (see picture up above), quite obviously placed there by one of their hare-brained video editors or cameramen. I know just the one – he has more or less the same legend on his Facebook profile.
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My thoughts exactly.
And what is with that opening? Swearing on your website? Hardly the work of a professional. But besides that, why chose a video with such a threatening tone? Are Nationalist supporters supposed to cower in fear and vote labour just in case they are accused of F***ing with them?
80s a thing of the past? I think not.
Well said – the problem is that those people are already showing their true colours in Opposition.
”You have to laugh. Or better still, cry”. the latter is more likely with the MLP in government.
“Labour goes negative – again.”
Why, have they ever been positive?
On a slightly different note, have you noticed that in the “froga” billboards both versions considerably feature Yellow Pages.
Does it mean these billboards are sponsored by Yellow Pages? I am completely confused of what to make out of this. How could a multinational company of that calibre get involved into politics in that manner.
[Daphne – Jeffrey’s girlfriend, Carmen Camilleri Ciantar, who is now a Labour activist, is marketing manager at Yellow Pages.]
How not to market a product:
‘The pages may be yellow, but the book is a little red’