Crewe by-election snapshot 2 - ugly and uglier

Labour row over "toff tactics" (The Times): An inquest is already under way into Labour's campaign. Mr Brown is thought to have personally authorised the use of class as a campaign issue despite the reservations of a number of senior ministers and advisers. Stephen Carter, the new strategy chief at No10, is reported to be among those who urged Labour not to attack the Tories on class grounds.

Dirty tricks? Crewe TV says: "A few posters have reported candidates' boards being pulled down (especially Tamsin Dunwoody boards), but not by drunken nutters spilling out of the pubs. Instead, there's talk of a white van whizzing round the estates in the early hours! Can this be true?"

Inside the Conservatives: They think they are going to win

More Harman unhappiness at campaign? Angela Eagle said they had been concentrating in Labour areas and she hadn't gone to "the posh bits". When Harriet Harman visited Nantwich last week, Labour's deputy leader said that Dunwoody "always felt Nantwich was just as important as Crewe."

Labour helps opposition? Accoding to the Sunday Times: "A glamorous outsider could have a significant impact on the outcome. Gemma Garrett, otherwise known as Miss Great Britain and candidate for the Beauties for Britain party, has been given tips on how to run her campaign by Shaun Woodward, the Tory defector who is now Northern Ireland secretary. The pair met at the Ivy restaurant in London several days ago, after being introduced by friends."

Inside Labour: The campaign team told Number 10 it's not going as badly as is being reported in the media

Online: A bitter, bitchy, nasty battle is underway in the comments section of this page of the Crewe & Nantwich Guardian website. This one seems typical: "Timpson may be ok with Daddy's money, but we're too busy plotting a course to get the British economy back on track from the setbacks of the global credit crunch to do this punch and judy politics". The 'debate' goes on from there....

Polls: ICM for the News of the World found that the Tories had doubled their advantage in Crewe and Nantwich over the past week, with 45% of constituents planning to back them, compared to 37% for Labour. If repeated on Thursday, the result would destroy Labour's 7,078 majority and deliver Mr Cameron a new MP by a margin of more than 1,000.

Anonymous (but almost certainly Labour encouraged) class war website 'Keep the Tories Out of Crewe': His rich family also allowed ‘Ed’ to go to university at Durham; a place known for taking those plummy-voiced public-school toffs who weren’t good enough to get into Oxford or Cambridge. I’m currently speaking to someone who went to Durham with ‘Ed’, and apparently there’s some interesting stuff to follow showing his sheer wealth and elitism. Now, however, ‘Ed’ is a normal bloke living in a million pound mansion as shown here; out in the rural village of Kelsall, well away from the plebs in Crewe.

Comments

[TrevorH]

Sounds like labour have been taken over by the Communists.