Labour on the attack as Cameron comes to Wales

Political philosopher Thomas Hobbes

THIS just in from Welsh Labour, who have used the opportunity of David Cameron’s visit to Wales to ask some very pointed questions indeed.

1. Will you come clean on how much Lord Ashcroft is spending on Tory campaigns in Wales?

2. Do you endorse the views of the Welsh Conservative economics supremo Dylan Jones Evans that state pensions should be frozen, child benefit scrapped, the Welsh block grant cut and free TV licenses for older people axed?

3. Why did the Tories yesterday block the funding for superfast broadband, which would eliminate not-spots in rural Wales?

4. Do you agree with Dawn Parry, your candidate in Newport East, that the problem with Labour is they give the opportunity for any Tom Dick or Harry to go to university?

5. Will you censure your candidate in Aberconwy, who has today misled local people by claiming that under the Tories every small business in Wales will be exempt from paying national insurance on their first ten members of staff?

6. Do you agree with Eric Pickles that Welsh representation in Westminster should be cut back early on if the Tories win the next election, or with Cheryl Gillan who denied this was the Tory plan?

7. Will you ask Alun Cairns to come clean with voters about what he would do in the eventuality that he won in the Vale of Glamorgan would he quit as AM, give up his Cardiff flat, refuse an Assembly pay-off and allow Chris Smart to take up his place in Cardiff Bay?

8. Is it realistic for you to protect the Welsh budget for 2010-2011, safeguard spending on health, international development, not increase National Insurance – and yet go further and faster than Labour with cuts in public spending?

9. Do you agree with David Davies MP that the National Assembly for Wales should be abolished?

10. Given the fact that Tory Assembly Members voted universally for more law-making powers for the Assembly Government, why did you instruct Tory MPs to block the Affordable Housing LCO?

What strikes me about this list isn’t just the range of issues covered but the personalisation in the questioning. Labour was once famed for its ability to match opponent candidate statements with party policy and it looks like this is their general thrust once more. I wonder how many of them will get answered?

And expect the same to come back at Labour too. Any Code of Conduct for a General Election being discussed today is about how elected members behave, not about how they behaved to get there.

But these early blows are as nothing compared to what will come. This campaign is going to be a reflection of Hobbes’ view of the life of man before civilisation: “nasty, brutish, and short.”