Monday, April 12, 2010

Ask a silly question

The opposition parties are, or claim to be, very worried about whether Labour’s cancer leaflets were sent out to people selected using personal NHS records to which a political party could not possibly have access:

shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said he had written to Gordon Brown to ask him to confirm that no confidential information had been used to select the recipients. He said the leaflets raised "a number of serious questions about who authorised the potential misuse of personal data and who was involved in the production of the cards".
Lib Dem treasury spokesman Vincent Cable said there needed to be an investigation to see if there had been any abuse of data protection laws.

When in doubt, raise bogus possibilities and call for an inquiry.

Me, I’m far more concerned about the Tory campaign leaflet showing a photo of a bloody machete. Never mind that the UK Statistics Authority has comprehensively smacked the Tories down over their use of these dodgy crime numbers before – what about the picture? How did the Tories get this photo of a bloody machete? Are they fraternising with criminal gangs while out on stabbing sprees? Or did they even stab someone themselves and then capture it on a cameraphone (‘happy stabbing’, as I believe it’s called)?

I think we need a full public inquiry. Perhaps even a police investigation.

No comments: