Still burying bad news

Theresa May has compiled a list of 12 stories that the Government machine timed for the 48 hours of election coverage.  She commented:

“The government that thought September 11th was ‘a good day to bury bad news’ is still at it.  This research shows that Labour buried twelve bad news stories during the fallout from the elections.  And they’re hardly petty matters.  More than £5 million was spent trying to recover tax credit overpayments.  Nearly £500 million was spent by the National Health Service on clinical negligence claims last year.  And more than £150,000 of taxpayers’ money went to Gordon Brown’s friends at Opinion Leader Research.  This is yet further evidence that proves, whether we have Blair or Brown, Labour’s spin and deceit will just go on and on.”

Here's the 'dirty dozen':

1. "More than £5 million was spent last year trying to recover tax credit overpayments (HC Hansard, 3 May 2007, Column 1810WA)
2. £466 million was paid out in damages and legal costs by the NHS for clinical negligence claims (HC Hansard, 3 May 2007, Columns 1847-1848WA)
3. The tender to organise ‘Skills Challenge: A Public Debate’ was won by Opinion Leader Research – an organisation with close links to Gordon Brown – with a contract value of £153,484.38 (HC Hansard, 3 May 2007, Column 1807WA).
4. It was revealed that 197,441 complaints had been made about accommodation provided for members of the armed services by the Ministry of Defence (The Sun, 4 May, p.39)
5. The Government was forced to back down and will now allow a vote in the House of Commons on the Government’s handling of Home Information Packs (HC Hansard, 3 May 2007, Column 1646)
6. DEFRA’s Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) reported on genetically modified crops.  Its deputy chairman said that the UK could get its first commercial production of GM crops within two years (The Daily Mail, 4 May, p.4)
7. A Freedom of Information request showed that a hospital superbug killed four people at one of the Government’s flagship £229 million hospitals (The Daily Telegraph, 4 May, p.14)
8. The Office for National Statistics revealed that half the register offices in England and Wales have suspended the new £6 million IT system for recording births and deaths (Financial Times, 4 May, p.4)
9. 128 rural post offices closed last year (HC Debs, 3 May 2007, Column 1820WA)
10. The number of hectares of land in Afghanistan used to cultivate opium poppy increased from 109,103 in 2005 to 180,300 in 2006 (HC Hansard, 3 May 2007, Column 1821WA)
11. The Department for Work and Pensions spent nearly £4,000 on media training for ministers last year (HC Hansard, 3 May 2007, Column 1829WA)
12. Insolvency Service statistics show that a record number of people were declared insolvent in the first quarter of 2007."

(ConservativeHome's editorial reaction to Thursday's very encouraging results will follow later).

Comments

[Tory T]

Great stuff. Don't let them get away with a thing!

[chrisblore]

Keep it up, everybody. Conservative supporters now have a responsibility to keep up the pressure on this corrupt and incompetent administration and to capitalise on the ground we have now gained.

[Neville]

Good to see Theresa raising her profile. I suggest we will see an improvement in her survey ratings if she maintains the initiatives.
Neville

[michael mcgough]

Excellent.
re.point 8 and Registry Offices.I am led to believe that many of these have suffered 'break-ins' for the purposes of assisting ID theft crime------perhaps we should be told.

[Bishop Hill]

The insolvency story is not really fair. According to the Insolvency Service website, the results are always issued on the first Friday in May, and this appears to be borne out by the 2006 figures.

[John Hayward, The Difference]

Re (10): In fairness, we've had the Afghanistan opium production figures for months (cf. Afghanistan Already A Narco-State). The even bigger scandal is surely not just the amount of land under cultivation but the lack of impact NATO forces are having in their mission to eradicate production: just 15,300 hectares of the 165,000 hectares (not sure where the 180,300 figure came from) under cultivation were destroyed.

[Bemused]

Neville at 12.25

Theresa May has had a profile lower than a snake's backside since she was sacked as Party Chairman.

And with all of the women being selected in the marginals that we will hopefully win in two years' time, I really do think that she is going to fade away into the background while the new blood is brought on.

[AlexW]

I think that the "dirty dozen" is undermined by including a couple of "bad news stories" that aren't really the Government's fault (or aren't really bad).

GM crops is an old scare story but it is difficult to see this as "bad news". Clinical negligence claims are hardly the fault of the Government.

[AlexW]

I think that the "dirty dozen" is undermined by including a couple of "bad news stories" that aren't really the Government's fault (or aren't really bad).

GM crops is an old scare story but it is difficult to see this as "bad news". Clinical negligence claims are hardly the fault of the Government.

[Sally Roberts]

Nice work!

[David Sergeant]

Come on AlexW, if this was 1996 and this related to a Tory government do you think anyone would nit pick. We are fighting the most dishonest government in recent history, if an issue is not completely black and white (and most arn't) still throw it at them. Throw everything at them - now people will believe you.

[Mark Fulford]

The graphs in the latest report at the Insolvency Service are pretty damning stuff -- it certainly reveals part of our supposedly healthy economy.