Using SureStart To Campaign For Labour
ANYONE watching politics, be it just the news, blogs, Twitter or whatever, will be aware that the Labour Party have been banging on about Surestart for quite a while now. They’ve also been constantly lying about what the Tories plan to do, as pointed out by Cathy Newman’s excellent FactCheck blog over at Channel 4 News, writes Dizzy.
Anyhow, whilst Labour have been talking it up as so much of a success it’s interesting to note how much Government money they’ve spent on PR to promote Surestart over the past three years. Can you tell there’s an election coming?
Cathy Newman’s verdict:
Most of the £200m is not, as Labour claims, coming from cuts to Sure Start, but from the health budget. So the inflammatory headline on Labour’s scare story is, strictly, wrong.
But it may be there’s no smoke without fire. The Tories have not promised to protect Sure Start from the swingeing budget cuts we know are coming across the board, and they won’t commit to keeping all 3,500 centres open.
A senior Conservative source told me the party did want to get “better value for money” from the service. That may well be code for cuts in the future – but Labour is misleading voters by seizing on a specific figure.
Posted: 24th, March 2010 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
