KIERAN GETS IN A SPIN - AGAIN

It must be difficult for the current Tameside Council Leader as he desperately tries to prevent his platform speeches and blog copy becoming the sort of grand rhetorical waffle that characterises a man who is frantically fighting off a serious threat to his once safe Droylsden seat.

Tameside's broken political spin machine

One can imagine the man, sitting in his soon to be demolished ivory tower; gyrating his huge executive chair to destruction, whilst dreaming up patronising platitudes with which to woo the voting public away from the attractions of UKIP.

Unfortunately, most of his schemes are already being implemented by the existing Government, or are contained in other parties policies, so he’s either relying on the fact that most of his Droylsden voters aren't politically astute or sufficiently worldly wise, to instantly recognise a borrowed idea which aligns the Tameside Council Labour Leader with opposition policies, or he secretly agrees with current strategies and furtively shuns the party line.

In his latest blog  http://www.tameside.gov.uk/blog/leader/ he waxes lyrical about the vital place apprenticeships take in boosting young people’s chances in gaining useful employment.

And quite right he is too!

However, when one looks at Labour’s latest stance on apprenticeships it begs the question whether Labour can really be trusted to build a stronger economy.

It wasn't long ago that they were criticising the Coalition's record on creating apprenticeships, even though there are now more apprentices than ever before. In fact this current Government have created 2million apprenticeships, which means there are 85% more apprentices in schemes in England than there were under the last Labour administration.

You might also recall that last year, Labour called Intermediate (level 2) Apprenticeships "dead-weight" and proposed scrapping the scheme, replacing them with downgraded "traineeships" claiming that Intermediate Apprenticeships had "devalued" the apprenticeship brand and were "of no value to either employers or learners".

So, which is it Kieran?

These latest blogs and press releases are reminiscent of emanating from a poor man's ‘spin doctor’ – a patronising collection of words, calculated to gratify the lowest common denominator of public opinion in an effort to secure the illusion of a Council Leader who fully understands the people!

Oh, how he must wish for the return from Westminster of Michael Kane, - his ‘political assistant’ in all but name, who recognised the enormity of presenting 'image over substance' and could deliver politically spun stories which passed themselves off as plain-speaking honesty like shelling peas!