We’re only a couple of months into the general election campaign, but political parties are already scraping the barrel for ideas.
Keen-eyed politicos, reports the Independent, have spotted that a Tory attack advert released in January bears a striking resemblance to one from the Australian general election10 years ago.
It looks like the Conservative party’s Australian election campaign consultant Lynton Crosby – also known as “The Wizard of Oz” – has been recycling ideas from the 2004 Australian election, which he helped win for the incumbent Liberal party and its coalition parter the National party.
A Conservative attack advert set to the 1939 Gracie Fields song Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye warns that a Labour government would mean the end of a growing economy, lower unemployment, a falling deficit, low mortgage rates, more jobs and a more secure future. The video ends with a picture of the Labour leader Ed Miliband next to a learner driver’s L plate and the words ‘Miliband and the economy’.
An advert from the 2004 Australian election campaign from the Liberal party plays out to the same tune and threatens that Mark Latham, then leader of the country’s Labor party, would mean the end of a strong economy, low unemployment, low debt, low inflation, economic stability and low interest rates. The video ends with a picture of Mark Latham next to a learner driver’s L plate with the words ‘Latham and the economy’.
Lynton Crosby joined the Conservative party as their full-time election strategist in November 2013 in a £500,000 deal. The political strategist also ran the party’s 2005 general election campaign and London mayor Boris Johnson’s 2008 London Mayoral election campaign, which reportedly cost the party £140,000 for four months of work.
