Labour launch negative campaign against 'Dave the chameleon'

As part of David Cameron's 'vote green, go blue' strategy CCHQ has invited green voters to create their 'personal political broadcasts' on how they would improve their local environments.  Labour have chosen a mix of humour and negativity for their own local election broadcasts.

At a website entitled davethechameleon.com you can watch Labour's attempt to portray the Tory leader as a flip-flopper.  You can download the video on to your iPod.  The video includes subtle and not-so-subtle reminders of David Cameron's Etonian schooldays, his time in PR and his connections with the Major years and the ERM fiasco.  The Tory leader is painted as an opportunist - simultaneously presenting himself as a core Conservative, the heir to Blair and a liberal Conservative.  The Tory leader, it is alleged, has even changed his name from David to Dave in order to get some street cred. The Cameron critics on ConservativeHome will undoubtedly nod their heads through the video until its final message that Cameron is, at the end of the day, a true and unreconstructed Tory!

After initial strategic uncertainty, we have known for a while that Labour have settled on the 'Cameron is trivial and opportunistic' line of attack.  Guido thinks the Labour party have made a mistake:

"Dave wants to emphasise that the Tories have changed, Labour are pushing the message for him... Advertisers always like to keep the message simple - the New Tory message is "we have changed". The details are irrelevant to most voters. Daz does not advertise Persil's new formula, why is New Labour advertising New Tory policy changes?"

Other voters won't like Labour's negative campaigning either.   The voiceover at the end of the video suggests that there are going to be more instalments of 'Dave the Chameleon'.  Can't Gordon and Tony agree on any positive messages for the electorate?

Comments

[Andy Peterkin]

Whatever you think of him, and I'm a Cameron-sceptic, what do Labour think they're playing at ramming home the "Change" message for us?

Someone at Old Queen Street screwed up big time.

[Chris Palmer]

I thought it was quite a good advert. I will be looking forward to further installments.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

Well this line of attack is hardly a surprise is it?

Those who supported David Cameron's leadership bid did so in the knowledge that it came with health warnings about the charges that could be levelled against him.

The fact that Labour have had to resort to this sort of campaigning so early in the Cameron leadership speaks volumes about their own shortage of ideas and their desperation to deflect attention from their own troubles.

Pathetic.

[Will James]

I didn't vote for Cameron in the leadership, and I've been sceptical of many of the 'changes' he's beeb bringing about in the party. However, this Labour tactic makes my blood boil. For all his faults, I don't see Cameron as being horribly inconsistent, just a little one-sided. I'd wish he'd concentrate a little more on what people call 'traditional' conservative issues alongside the 'new' issues like the environment etc. This Labour campaign is cheap and disgusting, and I urge the Conservatives not to follow it, like we did at the 2005 Election.

[James Hellyer]

I disagree with those who say this strategy reinforces the change agenda. It actually plays into people's feelings about Cameron. Several polls have now shown that people think he's more spin than substance. By reinforcing that line of thought, this could be quite damaging.

The obvius comparison people will make is with the infamous "demon eyes" poster. The difference there, of course, is that the poster didn't reflect what people actually thought about Labour, and thus would be doomed to failure.

[Sean Fear]

New Labour are loathsome, but they are masters of negative campaigning. Perhaps they have concluded that the "change" message is not actually one that appeals to the majority of voters.

[Chris D]

Labour advertising David Cameron's campaign to rebrand the tory party while retaining its core values - priceless!

[Martin Curtis]

I would be interested in where the suggestion that Cameron is all "spin" comes from. As both a Cameron supporter and a spin hater I have been looking for evidence and I really can't find any. He talked prior to the last election of the need for "Ronseal" politics and it seems to me that Cameron is doing exactly what he said he would in his leadership campaign.

[Ted]

Sean
I don't think they've assumed that I think its just trying to re-inforce message that he's vapid, flip flopping etc - thats been the line of attack since January. I think it shows the change agenda frightens them so they are trying to say there's no change only talk.

Think however that its an attack that can be subverted; the chameleon is actually quite attractive and by keeping a distinct direction and re-inforcing messages the substance can be defeated while the loveable characteristics stick. Vote Blue, Go Green fits in well. A chameleon on a windbreaker on a northern glacier with Vote Blue, Go Green would be good...

Then off course to tie in with pinknews story - 'red& yellow & pink & green, orange and yellow and blue, I can see a Rainbow coalition, I can see one too'

[a-tracy]

I agree with Ted, I'd put up a picture of a couple of horses with blinkers on, towing an empty cart - because Labour can't change, won't change and don't want to try to change and they're empty of ideas - they're only capable of spending other people's money not creating it.

Be positive about it, I'd get Ty to make some Beanie Chameleons called Cameron with little cycle helmets on the children would love them.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"Be positive about it, I'd get Ty to make some Beanie Chameleons called Cameron with little cycle helmets on the children would love them."

Yes UKIP showed how negative attacks can be turned round when they handed round fruit cake at a recent press conference.

The best way to deal with childish name-calling is through humour rather than responding in kind.

[Ian Lewis]

How ironic that New Labour is criticising the MP for Witney as a chameleon. Presumably they didn't mind the real chameleon, Shaun Woodward, MP for Witney before Cameron, defecting to them before dumping him in St Helens?

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

One more thing, isn't it a bit rich for 'New' Labour to start branding others as chameleon-like? A case of the pot calling the (carefully not overfilled) kettle black methinks.

[Chad]

Yes, but NL have no shame DVA and will do anything it takes to stay in power.

Get used to it, I'm sure there will be a lot more to come from sites like this to viral movies (perhaps using looky likeys etc), perhaps shockwave games etc. The rules are much more relaxed online.

If I were firing back I'd be circulating my "Who Wants to be in the House of Lords" game, a looky-likey Brown preening etc reinforcing the news with humour that gets people circulating them, helping to force home the message.

Bush's team understood the power of online humour to derail their campaign in 2000 when they forced the closure of gwbush.com (run by the genius behind whitehouse.org).

[Serf]

A Chameleon might be just what we need to get rid of the locusts that currently occupy the government benches.

[Sam Coates]

It works out to be a narrow attack. The main point you are making when branding somebody a chameleon is that they have no convictions or principles of their own. They couldn't help bandying this quote around: 'I am Conservative to the core of my being, as those who know me best will testify'. - this neutralises that main point.

The other point you are making with that line of attack is that Cameron is very "politiciany"; interested more in PR than policy and will say anything to anyone. This is something more associated with Blair and New Labour than anything else - which helps to neutralise that point with the swing voter, although it does leave a gap for Gordon to come in as the "straight-down-the-line candidate" at the next election.

The effective part of this ad isn't new - the use of the Conservative Party itself as a stigmatising agent. Our brand, and our governmental legacy, has been profoundly tarnished by the Labour party being percieved as confident enough in its convictions to simply mutter "that Thatcher" or "don't talk to me about the Tory party". Casual followers of current affairs just follow from this lead.

I am strongly against negative campaigning and hope we will not resort to it. Not only is it in the habit of backfiring in the long-term, but it is not the kind of politics I want to be involved with in the first place.

[Tom Weiss]

This is certainly the most substantial argument against public funding of political parties I have ever seen.

At least we didn't have to pay for this rubbish.

[Stephen Alley]

I agree with Serf.

Also negative campaigning really doesn't go down well, I say Cameron should lap it up and stay positive.

I also see they've got the chameleon riding a bicycle. Is this supposed to be mockery. I fully support his riding of a bicycle to work, it shows he is a true environmentalist.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Quite apart from the rainbow referring to the children's programme and youth, there is a more subliminal and much more ancient reference - to Noah in his ark the rainbow was the symbol of better times to come!

[Chad]

and hope we will not resort to it.

Come on Sam, all three parties are at it. Labour with this parody, Ming bringing up the "right-wing"-ness, Cameron calling UKIP racist.

It is more a question of who is best at it. We'll have to wait and see.

[Stephen Alley]

Do you think Labour couldn't help but release this on the back of Cameron's soundbite "Vote Blue, Go Green"?

[Sam Coates]

It's certainly fortuitous timing, the web release precedes tonights PPB - something I doubt can be booked last minute.

[Rick]

Labour is consulting Dr Goebbels and Julius Streicher again - depicting opponents as reptiles is a symptom of anti-democratic politics.

We have had Letwin as a pig and now Cameron as a reptile. Labour is coming apart at the seams and reaching deep into its well of poison - this party is getting to the very margins of decency.

[Ted]

Agree on the negative campaigning but I'm sure William Norton could do a good movie precis about Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. Born Edinburgh and educated at Fettes College then St Johns College Oxford. Anthony stood for election for Sedgefield on a manifesto opposing EEC membership & supporting Unilateral Nuclear Disarment....

[Rick]

Ted.................why ?

Why bother ?

To know Blair is to loathe him.............in May next year he will have been in power a full decade..................who needs to dig into his background when his present is such a disastrous mess ?

Don't patronise the public - it is fed up of the whole circus

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

On the subject of cartoon political broadcasts, I seem to recall that one featuring Jacques Chirac was rather popular last year, particularly as a downloadable ringtone for schoolchildren.

There was even a musical version of it that reached number 1 in the charts.

[C Hodgson]

My goodness this is a pathetic campaign, I thought the vote blue go green campaign might be a little weak... but this is is really rather poor, and our campaign looks much better in comparison.

[Annabel Herriott]

I watched what part of DC's questions to the press that BBC 24 let us. I noted that DC is going to hang the "nice little cartoon" on his kitchen wall. Might I suggest the LOO would be a better place for it!!

[Andrew Woodman]

There is no point going tit for tat with Blair as he'll be gone soon.

I've never really studied him before, but to what extent has Brown acted the chameleon in the past?

[Ted]

Gordon Brown; Prudence Personified a Chameleon?

unfortunately while he hid his tax and spend proclivities for quite some time he's now quite open on his vision ( as Mr Stelzer has noted in the Times) that tax payers money is better directed by Gordon than by ourselves.

[steve e]

Wow

pretty low stuff. Playground name calling. Ignore the name calling and start announcing some policies and a good result this may is more likely.

[John Hustings]

The best line of attack against Cameron, in my view, is that he is silly, vapid and out of touch.

That would work because it is quite patently true.

[True Blue]

The best line of attack against Cameron, in my view, is that he is silly, vapid and out of touch.

I would guess that if someone thinks that about a party leader, they would be an idiot to vote for that party in a general election, on the basis that you wouldn't want a silly, vapid, out-of-touch Prime Minister. Who will you be voting for, Mr Hustings?

[Rick]

to vote for that party in a general election, on the basis that you wouldn't want a silly, vapid, out-of-touch Prime Minister.

I think you can safely say that no matter who you choose to vote for David Cameron will not be Prime Minister after the next election.

This viewpoint is shared by the Chairman of the Conservative Party, one Francis Maude.

[John Hustings]

"Who will you be voting for, Mr Hustings?"

That's a matter for me whenever the general election comes along.

[Oberon Houston]

It seems to me that as this argument develops, Labour are raising the ‘trust’ issue, knowing only too well how damaging it can be to an opposition party – they themselves spent at least one extra term in the political wilderness of opposition because Kinnock failed to address it.

The similarities to the situation we face today are striking. Cameron has possibly added to the tension by having so many, lets be honest, failed right-wingers in his cabinet. However Portillo makes the interesting point that Cameron didn’t have that that much choice, with so few other experienced individuals in the party to choose from.

This leads to the un-enviable situation where defeat at the next election looms, because, in the eyes of the electorate at least, we are still too right-wing despite what our manifesto says. However the younger MPs are maturing all the time and in a few years may be sick of being in opposition and ambitious enough to really push for the top positions in government, then we may see electoral success.

That’s a pretty pessimistic summary, I admit, but it does beg the (academic question if you agree with it), is what position would Cameron really take if he had a free hand? The centrist position he alludes to, or is it more to the right that many of his senior lieutenants prefer? As someone who is convinced that in the current political climate, winning is only done in the centre-ground; I hope it’s the former.

[Jack Stone]

Nice to see so many backing our leader now he is under attack by our opponents. Now all we need is for you to back him when he is not!

[Sean Fear]

I am unconvinced that there is a big constituency out there who would vote for us if only we were more left wing.

[Oberon Houston]

Well. being right-wing didn't work, time and time again - so if thats true, we may as well give up and go home.

[Sean Fear]

I'd say the Conservative Party has moved pretty steadily to the Left since 1990. It's not obvious that such a move has been electorally successful.

But I don't think our lack of success is really a left/right issue.

[James Hellyer]

Well. being right-wing didn't work

Being useless didn't work. And being irrlevant didn't work.

[True Blue]

"Who will you be voting for, Mr Hustings?"

That's a matter for me whenever the general election comes along.

Of course it is, but at least I now have a better idea of the perspective of your criticisms.

[Oberon Houston]

My point exactly James. We agree at LAST!

[John Hustings]

"Of course it is, but at least I now have a better idea of the perspective of your criticisms."

How so?

[Phil Taylor]

Watching the Labour election broadcast just now it is clear that Labour does not take the local elections seriously. Rather than talking about the issues they used their whole 5 minute national TV slot to take the Mickey out of the Conservative leader. Not only do they not take the elections seriously they obviously don't take voters seriously either.

Interestingly their chameleon character goes around stealing Labour policies. Notably the cartoon character grabs the "Minimum wage" with his sticky tongue. The Labour party is not quick to tell you that tax on a single person doing a standard working week on the minimum wage has gone up from 6% to 9% since it was introduced. See here.

[Richard Allen]

Why do people repeatedly come out with the same old rubbish about how negative campaigning always back fires. It can do, if done badly, demon eyes being a classic examaple.If however, it is done well it is a potent weapon. If you destroy your opponents credibility in the eyes of voters you are well on your way to victory. At the next general election Labour will contrast Brown (experienced, strong, principled) with Cameron (inexperienced, weak, unprincipled).

[Oberon Houston]

Its a bit of a hollow argument to accuse an opposition party of accepting established policy it originally opposed once it has been shown to work. Labour have done just that with respect to a whole raft of Tory ones, and in Education and the NHS it did even worse, by scrapping it, making a mess of the alternative and then trying to re-introduce it (that wally Dobson as Health Sec., City Acads etc.)

[Oberon Houston]

Good point Richard, we should not be dismissive of this type of tactic, especially from Brown - who is ruthless when employing using it.

[True Blue]

"Of course it is, but at least I now have a better idea of the perspective of your criticisms."

How so?

From your other comments, I thought you were a Conservative as opposed to a floating voter, perhaps a disaffected former Tory, a person on the outside looking in.

We must take account of the views of floating voters, of course, but party policy needs to be formulated within the party.

I'm also concerned that the only other home for a conservative is UKIP, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

[John Hustings]

"From your other comments, I thought you were a Conservative as opposed to a floating voter, perhaps a disaffected former Tory, a person on the outside looking in."

I am still a member of the Conservative Party, not an outsider looking in.