UK Conservative Fake Ad from Channel4

[seehispugnosedface]

What a wonderful vision of the nation the Tories are offering to create!

[cncxgrinder]

i want all you selfish conservative bastards to loose everything you hold dear. vote cameron. gordon brown has to leave the labour party he is a tory selfish wanker stealing from the poor to prop up the rich. shame on you gordon brown#

[Drowzor]

Gordon Brown is in the labour party...

[h8bigbro]

Idiotic Tories! Ha! The reason why it is a spoof is because of the obvious and hilariously ridiculous reaction the producers knew it would get from Tory voters. Its funny because it contains no substance and blatantly plays on peoples' fears and yet the Tories (such as you having commented favourably) are still ready to vote for the conservatives just because your angered and ignorant. "Are you thinking what we're thinking?" How the hell do you know?

[morrid]

You're missing the point. It's not a "Spoof" in the funny sense, C4 just made alternative PP broadcasts that they thought summed up the parties' main message.

An opposition's job is to point out the failings of a government and yes, to propose solutions which they of course did too. Labour were just as guilty of "playing on fears" when they decribed tory tax cuts as "cuts to public services" when in fact it was not a CUT but a marginally SLOWER GROWTH in spending.

[h8bigbro]

I'll skip a rebut of the second paragraph of yours as, quite frankly, it has nothing to do with anything I said. If I had been unaware and uneducated as to what the role of HM Official Opposition was then I would be most grateful and if I had asked for a ramble regarding the economic policy papers of the Tories in 2005, I would be grateful for the yawn-worthy attempt to defend the Conservatives on that front as well.

[h8bigbro]

Do you really not think that the producers/director did not have in mind the general consensus of Tory voters (or at least their perception of) in all of this? They are SIMPLY (and I write in upper case as it helped ME so much during your DEFENCE of Tory economic policy) satirising the application of propaganda through the use of PP broadcasts. If you don't believe me (or if your a conservative thinker and simply don't want to) then take a look at the Labour and Liberal Democrat versions.

[morrid]

The reason for the 2nd paragraph is because you said the Tories' message played on people's fears. All parties are guilty of this. Further to the spending cut example, remember the anti semitic posters of Michael Howard as Fagin, or him and oliver letwin (both jewish) as pigs, or the one of Hague superimposed over Thatcher?

[morrid]

It's not a simple satire, the writers make no mention of this. They said "C4 gave us a completely open brief to do whatever we wanted. Basically, we set about creating the kind of broadcasts the three main parties would like to make if there were no regulations and they didn't have to be politically correct."

Nothing there about satire. It leaves them completely open to write in whatever tone they please- in this case, extremely seriously. It's an effective ad, if somewhat over the top.

[janelson3]

fantastic! so true 4 britains situation and how labour has pulled our country down into the dreadful depths we now find ourselves in. the conservatives should certainly adopt this as their televised ad it really hits home. come on conservatives your country needs you to sort out the blair-brown fiasco and save our once proud nation. get rid of labour asap, vote tory!

[Drowzor]

Do you remember what it was like under the tories?

We had full blown loss of control accross the country, no jobs, bad schools and no health care system.

The army dressed as police to hold back the riots.

[morrid]

Do YOU remember before 1979: Blackouts, 3 day week, rubbish piling up in the streets, bodies lying uncollected. They left the country a lot better than they found it in spite of the mistakes. Your comment is a gross exaggeration. "Loss of control" is having a country held at ransom by unelected unions.

[Drowzor]

No _I_ don't remember before 1979, I wasn't alive back then and I doubt a history lesson will have any impact on the point I was making. I was comparing governments, labour and conservative which is the general means to any election in the last... twenty+ years. My comment if anything is a brief insight to how it actually was under the torys and it is your interpretation of my comment that needs amending. Selling off our oil (which we are still paying for) taking million of jobs away, etc.

[morrid]

Your comment is a very narrow insight to how it was under the Tories. You can only evaluate the success of something by looking at what came before. That is exactly what you did in your comment, so I am saying look at what Britain was like pre 1979 and you will see that the Tories were a vast improvement on this.

[Drowzor]

I wouldn't call a vast decline in our economy, jobs and we are still suffering from their bad choices today. If they hadn't sold off the oil rigs we would have our own oil and not have to import. I wouldn't call that a narrow insight, I would say I am looking at it from the individual (losing jobs) global (economy) and national (oil example).

[Drowzor]

I wouldn't call a vast decline in our economy & jobs and we are still suffering from their bad choices today an improvement*

[morrid]

Oh dear.."Vast decline in our economy" What?! Are you getting your information from a senile relative? GDP went from 230,695 mill in 1980 to 718,282 mill in 1995 whereas it only grew by 41,699 in the post-war pre Thatcher era. That doesn't look like a decline to me. As for jobs, 3.3 million people are forecast to be unemployed by 2010- higher than under the tories.

[Drowzor]

Quoting figures without a source isn't exactly a good way of showing information either. And saying by the time we reach 2010 we will finally have someone who had more unemployed people than the tories (in theory) isn't exactly great for their defence.

[morrid]

I used the figures in another thread, so I don't have the source anymore but the very FACT that the economy grew by such a large amount during the Tories' time in office compared to before they came to office shouldn't need to be backed up since it's common knowledge.

I'm not arguing with you in "Defence" of the tories- they made some terrible mistakes (poll tax) but you have to be objective. Most people like simplifying arguments to black and white though so I dont hold my breath.

[morrid]

Oh yes, and this also means I admit labour did some good things. Minimum wage was very good.

[Drowzor]

I'm not here to say everything the Tories did was bad, for example I agree very much with a lot of what enoch powell said. It is also fact that the Tories made Wales suffer a great deal and lost control of the country. The riots are a prime example of this.

[morrid]

The downscaling of the mining industry was bound to have a huge effect on Wales. But I just think in the *long term* they were the right decisions. Sooner or later all the unprofitable industries would have had to go (labour have continued this) better sooner so they aren't a drain on the economy. It does surprise me that you're so Pro Enoch since, had he been PM, i can imagine his policies creating even more social unrest!

[Drowzor]

I wouldn't go as far to say I wold vote him to be PM but I think he had a lot right with immigration. I tend to opt for old labour views, look after the working man and it's a shame labour has moved so far from its roots.

Downscaling the mining industry would have happened eventually but to close almost all of it down and all the metal works in one clean sweep was the problem. Having a clear idea of how the country should progress is one thing, the methods are what I question.

[theredraven]

Actually you're suffering from the bad choices of the common man and his banker.

In fact most of the oil in the North Sea is still used here. It's just cheaper to have it run by someone other than the government.

[Drowzor]

I wouldn't call these prices cheaper, certainly when we have to buy what used to be ours. The common man and his banker doesn't seem to affect fuel prices.

[morrid]

Drowzor, come on, this is GCSE economics here. Nationalised industries haemorrhage money due to inefficiency. True, fuel prices are high, but overall the price is lower than it would be if they were nationalised. Similarly, protectionalism or "buying what is ours" is equally dangerous to efficiency. The modern world simply doesn't work like this, and for good reason.

[Drowzor]

Obviously in some cases it is cheaper to import rather than maintain our own rigs, however I would argue that in the case of oil, it would work out a lot cheaper than buying from other sources. As evidence for this; all the countries with their own fuel have it a lot cheaper than us, making the problem us not having our own oil. An effective method to maintaining the supply can be copied easily or contracting that out rather than selling the whole supply and having to buy it back bit by bit.

[Drowzor]

P.S. Economics generally isn't an offered GCSE. Rarely people have that qualification.

[nickalbion1234]

That video is a very good reflection of life in Britain, it should have been a proper Tory advert.

[kragle]

ummmm yes.

[phalanx25]

WOW, dude British conservatism is so weak!

[Scrufflemut]

You idiot, you're aware this is showing the problems the Conservatives plan to SOLVE.

[phalanx25]

Sorry, I dont get it...

[DanLeDude]

Your obviously not British, only British people would understand this ad. The Conservatives are showing the problems in Britain because of how Labour has run the country for the past 10 years.

[nickalbion1234567]

Nah he's American. I don't think he realises what Liebour have done to this country.

[h8bigbro]

Amen to that! :)

[Oz92]

BOO!

[Canadien001]

Very powerfull ad. I don't completly understand it, seeing as I live in Canada and don't understand issues in the UK, but if I lived in Britan, I would vote Conservitive right now...

[daintreepeters]

What was channel 4 (or any channel) doing dabbling in overt political manipulation (aired or not)?

[Oz92]

channel 4 normaly do this sort of stuff.

[GeeGee3374]

they did 1 for all 3 parties, this made me vote tory though

[Eliothampdenturner]

As a old style hard right Tory, I must say that it is a terrible shame that this video wasn't aired as the official Conservative Party Election Broadcast. It really sums up Labour's appalling record.

[stjohns1969]

Likewise old chap I agree with your comments. You really have to be living here to appreciate the true calamity of our centralised "dictatorship". This may have been a spoof, but it seems very real now does'nt it? As you say Cameron could do with using such provocative imagery. After all images speak louder than words. Vote Conservative !! Regards Stuart Turner

[EGI313]

nice rhythm!

[Almafeta]

... so the conservatives are the UK's Entirely Too Artsy Music Video party?

[daneslord]

no...this was a fake ad made by Channel 4 as an election spoof...

[johnvb001]

Thats a bloody good ad. Far too true for my liking.

[daneslord]

Well, I'm a High Tory, (yes, I even live in Tunbridge Wells) so we just about nothing in common; but I can admit that I'd prefer an old-fashioned Red-socialist to this slow strangulation of red tape and banality via Bliar.

[VladimirIUL]

Im a socialist, but I must admit, its a very good advert. I agree with the Tories that social excess has got out of control...

[daneslord]

Gosh, I wish they'd actually have the courage to air it....