Tell Simon Burgess your views
Today I received a letter from Simon Burgess of Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven Labour abour “Our NHS”:
Click for a bigger (readable) version.
To which I felt compelled to reply:
Dear Simon Burgess,
I’m am writing to express my most sincere disappointment with your
latest mailing: “Our NHS - the next 60 years”.
Like its police-focused predecessor, your letter is the worst kind of
unsubstantiated spin disguised as consultation. Sentences such as “I
care passionately about the NHS.” are so empty that they serve only to
warn the reader about the rest of the drivel in your letter and, in my
case, almost caused me to stop reading altogether.
I eventually managed to force myself to continue reading your missive,
but my persistence was only rewarded with my worst fears… Not only was
there an unholy abundance of partisan political rhetoric (seemingly a
desperate attempt to prevent me from voting Tory), but a distinct lack
of quantifiable facts, targets or solutions.
As a long-time Labour supported myself, your campaign methods sadden me.
It symbolises the fall of Labour from an advocate of socialism and
equality to a shiny marketing firm intent only on ensuring its own
survival. The New Labour of 2008 seems to treat the general public as
some sort of moronic cattle placable by positive, yet empty, sentiments
and promises. Please have some faith in the voter; give us facts and
plans so that we can make informed decisions as to our parliamentary
representation.
Moreover, the name-calling and emotive language aimed at the
conservatives is also highly galling - I, for one, am quite capable of
not voting Tory, without the goading, thank you all the same… Your
attempts to rubbish the opposition come across as a childish, futile,
and wholly pathetic effort to salvage some of the good-feeling Labour
has managed to destroy in recent years.
My final quarrel is with the mailings themselves. My household received
no less than five of your letters this morning. Whilst I might question
the need for such mailings in the first instance, I would be prepared to
concede that you hold them in high esteem as vehicles for your
self-promotion - and that’s OK. No, the aspect I cannot forgive is the
sheer scale of waste. Would not just one letter to my house have
sufficed? Or otherwise, could you not have simply put the five
(identical) letters into one envelope? Is this really a responsible way
to spend party funds? Furthermore, what of the environment? Not only
have you wasted five sheets of paper and five envelopes, but you made it
needlessly difficult to recycle the envelopes because of your use of the
type with plastic windows.
My criticisms are not intended to cause personal offence - it is a sad
fact that the problem lies not with you, but with the modern ethos of
the party. I feel sure now that I cannot vote Labour again until these
fundamental issues are resolved.
I sign off then, as a disillusioned red, with perhaps too much time on
his hands.
Wishing you the best of luck in your campaign,
Tom Wright
PS *insert meaningless catchphrase here*
In the name of good sport, I will happily post his response here too.
Tom x
