Has Labour started a dirty tricks campaign?

Scoopit!

Audrey Young blogs at the NZ Herald on the Labour Party’s attack ad. Like Ms Young, Adam is inclined to think they are relatively mild.

One comment by Ms Young caught Adam’s attention though:-

From NZ Herald re Labour attack adverts

The pictures chosen did get me wondering though. Having chosen such an aggressive photograph of John Key for the first picture in the ad, I wondered whether the Labour leader’s attempt to portray Key in last week’s television debate as aggressive at home was quite the error it appeared to be at the time.

An interesting comment indeed, was the Helen Clark attempt to portray Key as some sort of tyrannical figure at home part of a wider strategy as suggested by Ms Young above. Was Helen’s tantrum part of some misbegotten plan? Has Labour embarked on a dirty tricks campaign?

So Adam went back and read these comments from the HoS editorial of last Sunday again:-

Clark added to his advantage in the debate and in post-match analysis with several needless cracks. The inexplicable “You might be used to shouting people down at home, but you’re not shouting me down” had an ugly undertone, particularly given that it was delivered in a full-throated roar. The insinuation, even if it was unintended, that Key was some sort of tyrant in his domestic life was gratuitous to say the least.

The next day, after most commentators had found that Key had won the debate on points, Clark made matters worse by blaming the ref, accusing the National leader of “having a tantrum” and then saying he benefited from exceeding low expectations and “the fact that he didn’t collapse with a stress attack on the set probably gave him marks”.

Perhaps there is something in what Audrey Young is suggesting after all. Though if that was the plan, Adam would suggest that it may have misfired as the HoS went on to say:-

Beside those petty and personal attacks, Key’s comment that he would leave it to viewers to decide how he’d performed looked positively statesmanlike – the last thing Labour needed to happen.

Though it is fascinating that Audrey Young thinks Clark and Labour fully capable of such a strategy.

Now remind Adam which party is supposed to be employing evil spin doctors. Who is going on about trust all the time?