The gloves come off in U.K. poll campaign

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MAY 30. A week before the general election, the gloves were finally off as personalities overtook the issues drawing even the normally unflappable Mr. John Major into an uncharacteristically loud slanging match.

The fuse was lit by Labour's cruel parody of the Tory chief, Mr. William Hague when it launched a poster showing him dressed up as Lady Margaret Thatcher - complete with lipstick, earrings and a wig. The poster was designed to portray him as an effeminate leader, lacking an independent vision and ``trapped in Lady Thatcher's shadow''. This was seen as a low blow from a party which has been accusing the media of personalising the election campaign, and the arrival of the poster on a day of lowest ratings for Mr. ``Hague had even Hague-sceptic Tories rush to his defence.

``The Campaign Turns Personal'' screamed the headlines this morning with the ``Maggie Hague'' poster warning voters to ``get out and vote or they get in'' dominating the front pages. Mr. Hague, people said, could certainly do with some hair but giving him Lady Thatcher's wig was a bit ``iffy'' - and clearly that garish lipstick and those tacky eartops were not something a true-blue Tory gent wore in public. No doubt even Mr. Major was angry.

In one of his most withering personal attacks on the Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, Mr. Major came close to calling names as he accused the latter of ``spin'' and ``deceit'' - the ``ultimate hypocrite'' who, he said, had lost his ``moral compass''. ``He whinges about an alleged lack of media interest in policy but at the same time his every word and deed advance the cult of personality. Mr. Blair is not to be trusted,'' he said, speaking at Brighton shortly after the launch of the controversial poster.

A jaded election campaign, whose only talking point so far had been the famous ``Prescott punch'', finally looked liked coming to life as Mr. Major tore into the Labour leadership - ``masters of nods and winks''. And, yes, he had something to say about the man behind that historic left jab - the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. John Prescott.

The second most important man in the Government had behaved like a ``street delinquent'', Mr. Major said, pointing out that this sort of behaviour tended to land football hooligans in jail. But he was more angry with Mr. Blair's ``spin'' on the punch. ``And what did our Prime Minister say? `John is John.' A pathetic line that will no doubt be favoured by the best friend of every punch first, think later hooligan around the country. Well, Tony is Tony,'' he remarked.

For someone who had been mothballed since he led his party to one of its most humiliating defeats in 1997, Mr. Major came up trumps surprising his critics with the sheer passion of his attack. ``John'' had come good, and they were happy for him. Labour, however, thought the Tories were over-reacting and argued that the poster was nothing more than an attempt to inject some humour into the campaign. And what was wrong in depicting Mr. Hague as ``heir'' to Lady Thatcher when she was openly campaigning for him - and he had never repudiated her policies. If anything, he had brought his own position on euro closer to hers after her recent statement that she would ``never'' agree to a single currency.

Besides, much of Tories' own campaign had been negative, Labour pointed out, specifically mentioning its election advertisements on crime and education. The whole point of the Hague poster, according to Labour officials, was to emphasise that Mr. Hague was ``trapped by the Right wing of his party'' and failed to set up his own agenda.

Lady Thatcher herself was out on the ``stumps'' campaigning for an Asian Tory candidate, Mr. Shailesh Vara in Northampton as the controversy over the poster swirled around her. And like a good Tory she kept up the pretence that the party could yet pull off an unexpected victory on June 7 even as a new poll this morning predicted a landslide for Labour. ``Of course. That's why I am here,'' she said when asked if the Tories would win. Much of the rest of Britain, however, had its own view.

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