Well, New Labour have gained a little bit of ground on the Tories in the Hove Election Poster Count as I found while taking the kids to the dentist today:

Conservatives: 11 (up 1)
New Labour: 4 (up 3)

All the four posters were along Portland Road which is one of the main arteries through Hove.

The Tory one was another of those handwritten “what if a bloke on early release attacked you daughter” ones which we all know is code for “we’re going to abolish the early release system and good behaviour in prisons along with it“.

Interestingly, and opposite to my prediction that we’d never see the poster again, two of the New Labour posters were that “WARNING: TORIES WILL CUT £35BN FROM PUBLIC SERVICES” one, which I though had been comprehensively exposed as a semantic trick, sorry, lie. The posters must have already been at the printers when Tony was exposed as a liar.

The other one was once warning the Tories will introduce charges for NHS services which is also stretching the truth to breaking point, I’d say. The Tory policy is to offer half the cost of an operation if a person decides to go private. I’m not defending the policy, I think it’s a bloody rubbish idea, but the poster doesn’t reflect the truth as far as I’m concerned.

Does the Advertising Standards Authority have jurisdiction over political campaigning? After all, ASA’s code states:

Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove all claims, whether direct or implied, that are capable of objective substantiation.

I’m not sure either of the New Labour posters would stand up to that kind of scrutiny.

I don’t want to look like I’m siding with the Tories - I’m not - but you’d think New Labour would have enough real ammunition to bury them without resorting to shabby, and easily debunked, untruths.