Why those who admire Labour’s come-back are wrong (and stupid)
On the internet and elsewhere, the usual suspects are out in force, admiring Labour’s come-back to the Nationalist Party’s Labour Won’t Work poster.
That come-back consists of a series of people moaning about the queues in which they are now, thanks to the government.
For example: a queue for a bus (yes, really – serious, eh), a queue for an operation, and a queue for a job at Smart City (there isn’t one, and employers at Smart City will be queuing for employees, not the other way round).
You see, what the Labour Party’s admirers, and the Labour Party itself, I suspect, just don’t get is this: the come-back is all wrong.
This is a political party we are talking about.
It is, should there be enough people with poor decision-making skills – and I strongly suspect there are – the future government.
So the only proper and effective come-back, the only come-back that people who are sceptical about Labour will take seriously, is a direct response to the accusation that Labour will create mass unemployment.
And that response has to come in the form of the delineation of policy.
No, we will not create mass unemployment because X.
No, we will not create mass unemployment because Y.
No, we will not create mass unemployment because Z.
Instead, what we have got is a yah-yah-yah-why-don-t-you-look-in-the-mirror series of posters that fall far, far short of the mark.
Not only has Labour failed to address the accusation that it will create mass unemployment, leading us to suspect that it has no response to this, but it has failed to address, too, the implied message in the Nationalist Party’s poster that it is the natural creator of employment.
The Labour Party can’t target the Nationalist Party on its work-and-job creation track record, because the facts speak the reverse message of what Labour would like.
And it can’t respond by telling us why and how it will not create mass unemployment, because it hasn’t any policies yet and it quite clearly hasn’t a clue either.
So it has spent a great deal of money on posters which thumb its nose at the PN but also – and this is a grave miscalculation of Labour’s – at the thinking part of the electorate, the very part whose votes Labour wants.
The people who think that it’s clever to respond to an accusation that you will create mass unemployment by saying ‘you’re a fine one to talk when people are waiting for a bus’ are the sort who will vote Labour anyway.
The sort of people who are worried about Labour winning the election because of its disastrous track record on the economy and its dearth of policies are now going to be even more worried.
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The reaction of the Malta Labour Party simply proves that Labour Won’t Work.
They are all over the place to attack a few weaknesses, but the electorate wants to know (or shall I say a guarantee?) how Labour will create jobs. Maybe Joseph will tell us in his hangout today.
Won’t happen.
They are just too lazy to get anything done.
Their speciality is commenting. No solutions, though.
What I can’t get is how quickly the posters appeared. Since when is Labour so efficient? I really think there posters were already planned and ready, and strangely enough the PN had the same idea to use the same queue.
So the PL billboard with Gonzi covering his ears meant nothing?
What I’m referring to is, as soon as the PN put up a billboard, the PL reacted so fast that it seemed that what they had before didn’t matter!
So, Is Gonzi listening now?
Are we going to face again a PL with this attitude?
Are the people around the movement of progressive people party’s leader so focused on PN?
Are 25 years in opposition not enough to make PL think out of the box?
[Daphne – The Labour Party has not been in Opposition for 25 years, but only for 14.]
“The Labour Party can’t target the Nationalist Party on its work-and-job creation track record, because the facts speak the reverse message of what Labour would like.
And it can’t respond by telling us why and how it will not create mass unemployment, because it hasn’t any policies yet and it quite clearly hasn’t a clue either.”
I bet they thought they were being really clever and are too stupid to see the obvious problem with their “comebacks”. You’re giving them far too much credit.
Here’s a poster with a couple of Labour policies I’m sure we’d see more if they win: http://i.imgur.com/Svzgd.jpg
Well…one of them anyway :)
A queue at a bus stop means that the public transport reform has worked. The declared intention of the reform was to encourage people to switch from cars to buses.
Had the reform failed, then everybody would be running around in their own car and not waiting at a bus stop.
They are just joining the Maltese gemgem..as usual.
Daphne, there are many who have turned this into a meme, even those with PN families.
It’s never so difficult to increase employment.
Just follow the P.N.’s example and play with figures until of course you are caught by the ever vigilant E.U.
All one has to do is repeat and repeat the same lie over and over again.
A case in point is what the P.N. is doing – boasting about the 20000 new jobs when in actual fact it is a mere 7000.
It is a trick that was played by the Nazi propaganda machine.
Goebbels once said that the greater the lie the greater its credibility.
The greater lie here is that labour is ready to lead the country.
Still waiting for the Google Hangout Ma’ Joseph. God know how many tests they’ve run already. How can we give them the right to govern when they are not capable of streaming a live conference?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120804/local/mintoff-released-from-hospital.431473
Why? Why, god of the universe, why?
Take your pick.
The fires in hell are not yet hot enough, so old Scratch has temporarily forgoed that particular pleasure.
Scrooge is hanging on as long as he can to spite those who are drooling at the thought of laying their hands on his pot of gold.
Hangout just started. Joseph is still in his pyjamas.
Daphne, your arguments are very weak. You insist on defending a stupid billboard poster from the PN which is a real blast from the past. Does this billboard represent the limit of the PN political gurus’ creativity? Weak, weak, weak.
One cannot speculate on possible future queues at the unemployment office when these are already actual not only at the unemployment office but also at the General Hospital surgery waiting list, etc.
Some humility would suit the PN better. Your defense of the infamous billboard seems to be that the PL will always get it wrong whereas the PN is infallible, which is not very convincing especially in view of its recent catalogue of blunders (people suffer as a result).
The billboard message only shows that some people in the PN top echelons are divorced from the grassroots of society. What do you expect when they try not to mix with ordinary people because they actually believe that they are superior to everyone else?
That billboard is the preulde for defeat.
The beauty of democracy is that a country gets the government it deserves.
If you’re going to vote for the next five years based on one party’s performance over the last five, then I’m afraid you deserve Labour.
In fact (because this obviously needs to be spelt out to you) you should vote depending which party you think will do better over the next five years (i.e. speculation). You’re allowed to use the past five as a guide of PN performance, but that tells you nothing about Labour.
In short, I will vote PN in the next election because I believe Labour do not have ability to run a country. As a result the economy will suffer. Unemployment will rise and national debt will rise.
The reasons I am certain of the above and that PN is the better choice is that:
1) any period of Labour government has been a disaster;
2) with Labour’s current list of candidates (the only real “blast from the past” if you insist on tired clichés), I have no reason to believe anything will be different;
3) Labour hasn’t discussed a single policy, and so as far as I’m concerned they have no policies – yet you can’t improvise when running a country;
4) Labour is, of course, led by an ex Super One reporter, who I remember very well doing that job just over eight years ago, until he became an MEP.
What about unemployment under Muscat?
Remember his admiration of Zapatero, Iceland’s banking sector (he even told us he was instrumental in building this up) and Cyprus – he’s backed the wrong horse on every occasion because he couldn’t see their problems coming.
Why would he do better as Malta’s PM? He could try to convince me otherwise, but he’d have to show me some policy first.
You’re spouting crap. The number of operations, despite the financial crisis of these past 3-4 years, has been consistently increasing.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120209/local/Operations-at-Mater-Dei-exceeded-43-700-last-year.405934
Should you be bothered to do even some cursory research, you’d see that the quality and range of operations in improving too.
Problem is that the socialist mentality (“the state provides”) is very contagious – kulhadd irid jerda, u fl-ahhar l-istat jfalli…
Well said, the rushed reaction implies panic causing them to forget who their target is. With Labour, it’s always one step from talking to me to talking at me.
They’re also quite illegible, drove past a yellow one with an old woman, no idea what it said.
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20120804-pl-in-swift-response-to-pn-billboard-release
” Npattijilek “. mentality……somethings never change….
Please do not play the game according to the agenda set by the opposition.
This is NOT a Moviment with or without a name.
This is the Partit Socjalista / Malta Labour Party that we know, with a different frontman BUT still the same.
Kindly refer to it in this way. Do not fall in their trap and let them fool the people that this is something new. Let us not help them in their rebranding, because the contents are the same. Always refer to the Partit Socjalista/MLP.
I refer to Franco Debono’s considering taking the PN to court according to Malta Today.
Why do we treat him so nicely?
Just tell the guy that whatever he says, and legal arguments brought forward, this is a team, and we do not want him to play on our team.
He can find out if his friends on the other team will want him to play with them.
We have all understood these concepts since we were five years old. Maybe he was crying to do his priedka at the time? Or was he playing with his cock?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120805/opinion/The-Fair-Society-est-1971-or-1987-.431515
I watched Google Hangout Ma’ Joseph till nearly 12.00.
I don’t know whether it was my computer, but the sound was awful.
The picture kept moving about and they must have kept all the mics on all the time.
All in all, from what I’ve seen it was a bit of a messy affair sound and picture wise.
I’m sure I heard a couple of those asking questions saying they worked in IT and another in financial services.
Would these have had a job if Joe Muscat had had his way and Malta stayed out of Europeon Union?
Needless to say, no one asked him how come he got himself a job working for something he preached so much against.
If this is the best Labour can do, God help us when they’re in government next year.
Nice to see that the Labour billboards have got you rattled. By the way waiting for a bus for around an hour in 40 degree heat may not seem like much to you but to an old person it could be fatal. But then who cares as they are close to death anyway! As for this ‘Smart City’ crap why the hell do they call it Smart City? What exactly is smart about it? I mean from Malta’s point of view obviously as I’m sure the foreign investors who bought land for nothing and are now selling it off for a massive profit think it’s really smart!
Don’t take it too hard, Joseph Attard. It requires a modicum of intelligence to understand. You just keep waving the Torca necktie, there’s a good bloke.
I tell you it’s no joke waiting for an hour at 1p.m in the blazing sun for the bus to turn up when it is supposed to be running the route at half hourly intervals as happened to me yesterday at Naxxar.
Of course I complained but I addressed my complaint to the company running the service namely Arriva, for what it’s worth, since the weakness is theirs and no one else’s.
Tghid Joseph ha jaghmel bhal Mussolini and get the buses to run on time?
The LP posters are just a diversion, without addressing/contradicting the NP’s ‘Labour won’t work’ poster.
‘Ma taghmlu xejn mal-Labour Party’. Eddie Fenech used to give that statement a very realistic meaning.
There appears to be an ingrained malaise in the PN. However iconic the pictue, it is not relevant.
By this I mean that in the common lay person, the picture did not evoke the emotion of a queue for a bus, say.
PN are selling tomorrow (rightly as a party) while the PL are selling today.
I am sceptical about the tactics of the PN since, when one is reasonably comfortable, looking at the morrow may be an effort too far.
Also, the counter-posters could not have been erected without inside information. PN seem uninterested in winning the election. They seem to have lost the will to win.
Tal-Labour insew jaghmlu poster iehor ta’ stennija.
Li ilhom 14-il sena jistennew biex jitilghu fil-gvern.
I think they just didn’t get it. Apparently they think it is about the queuing per-se rather than what the people are queuing for.
Labour will cause havoc when elected, but people simply do not want to know.
How sad, they have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not listen. No brains.
On the contrary. The LP’s reaction to the PN’s billboard was the slickest counter-attack by the party I have ever seen. First of all, the PN’s message, contrary to the Conservative billboard of 33 (yes, thirty-three!) years ago is that the Conservatives in the UK were accusing Labour of what they were doing. Criticising a policy which was producing bad results. The local version simply speculates about something hypothetical in the future. And therefore it is up to the accuser to substantiate its claims. “Labour won’t work” says the poster. Yes?, says the observer, but why? There is nothing on the poster which substantiates the claim. The accused has nothing to refute. What the accused can do, and has done, is to turn the tables on the accuser. Sort of “You mention queues? OK, let me show you some queues.” If the government reacts by saying that the LP’s statements in the billboards are petty things, well then this would show that its arrogance has now reached stratospheric levels.
Great schoolyard argument, Albert. Unfortunately, in real life, and when dicing with people’s futures, one expects clear cut rebuttals.
Under Joseph Muscat, we will win the 1st gold medal at the Olympics. All we need to do is ‘aim high’.
Joseph’s Hengout……ma x’biza – the superficiality is frightening….
http://www.youtube.com/user/JosephMUSCATdotcom
Fi zmienhom ma kienux jafu x’hinu kju tal-Labour, ghax kienu jaqbzu lill kullhadd. Jekk kont Nazzjonalist trid tistenna, u jekk Labour taghzel, per ezempju fejn trid tahdem u fejn trid tmur.
Jekk kont Laburist tiehu TV tal-kulur, jekk le, jew tistenna jew thallas Lm 50 lil dawk il korrotti mghazula mir regim Laburista.
Ara vera ma jisthux dawn in-nies.
This strategy worked for Labour in ’96 and presumably that’s why they’re using it again.
Dr Muscat, tippretendi li jekk indum siegha nistenna lil Arriva, ghandi nivvota lil moviment tieghek?
Ghaliex? Ghax terga tiehu t-trasport pubbliku f’idejn il-gvern? Tini raguni jekk joghgbok?
U jien nghidlek, ilni nistenna madwar 4 snin biex nara kif ser tnaqqas id-dawl u l-ilma. Issa nahseb li tista tizvelalna kif ser taghmel dan.
Ohra. Kif ser timla INTI il-jobs ta’ Smart City? Jew forsi trid tghidilna li minhabba li din kienet weghda tal-PN, ma jinteressakx li tkompli fuq din il-linja? M’ inhix nghidlek 5000 job, imma xi haga qrib il-500 tista tghidilna kif ser taghmel.
Dwar l-income tax. Tassew li Gonzi wieghed li ser inqqas l-income tax. Izda ftakar kif kienet l-ekonomija dinjija 4 snin ilu.
Jew ghalik tigi titmellah mil-hsara li tista ssir lil Malta, basta tnaqqas l-income tax?
Int tista skuzi titnejjek minn kollox ghax il-pensjoni ta’ Parlamentari Ewropej u wkoll deputat fil-parlament ma jmisilek hadd.
Imma l-haddiem, dak li, kif jghidu jaqlahha u jikolha, dak zgur li jippreferi li l-income tax tibqa kif inhi basta jkollu l-futur assigurat.
U min jista jassiguralu l-futur? Zgur li mhux ilmoviment tal-gimmicks.
To be honest, I think any billboard showing a queue is quite out of place in Malta. The Maltese cannot form or stand in a queue. The Brits, on the other hand, would queue even to jump in the sea.