Well, all I know is you can't take the moral high ground and play in the gutter at the same time without sounding mightily hypocritical.
I fear this will not end well.
Who said anything about the moral high ground.
I think Labour have often failed when they've attempted to portray themselves as somehow morally 'better' than the tories, because clearly the people they need to convince - floating voters - aren't likely to be such moral absolutists. And actually these people will sometimes vote tory and sometimes vote labour, so portraying labour as somehow being morally better implies these people's choices were, at times (when they voted tory) morally wrong - not good politics.
No, better to identify when and why the tories have failed, and in particular appeared to have claimed one thing and delivered something else entirely (hence the adverts) - well actually delivered very little. And not to appeal to 'morals' but to the political instincts of the voters. Hence the basic message on the first ad - why on earth are you voting tory if you think child sex offenders should be locked up - look at their record and judge them on that.
Having been heavily involved in the 1997 campaign I don't remember labour focussing on moral high ground (except in one respect, more on that later) - their basic line was;
The tories have failed to deliver and their record is woeful
The tories can't govern as they are riven with ideological divisions
The tories have run out of ideas as they've been in power for ever
Labour can be trusted to do better and will focus on pragmatic solutions, not ideology
Time for a change
Sound familiar.
The only 'moral high ground stuff' was on sleaze - but that largely links to being in power too long and is evident in spades today too.
