Crewe and Nantwich - dirty politics part 2 - Name calling

1.07.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 22nd May 2008

Another thing that has annoyed me about the Crewe and Nantwich by-election is the silly name calling.

This is not new, the first time I really experienced it was in the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election in 2004 (one of the dirtiest I have ever seen), Labour's whole campaign seemed to be based on calling the Liberal Democrat candidate Nokia Davies - as she working for the Mobile Operators Association. Of course Labour also used it in the Hartlepool by-election and now we are seeing it again in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.

Labour are calling the Conservative candidate Edward Timspon a 'Toff'. Mr Timpson has not as far as I have seen pretended to be anything but the millionaire he is, but does being a millionaire or being a bit posh or having gone to certain school, own a big property bar you from being an effective MP? Surely not - this name calling is just rather silly.

If you have to rely on name calling does this mean you have lost the argument?

Labour of course tried something similar with Boris Johnson in London and all three parties have resorted to it in the past - it's not big and it's not clever and I am sure it doesn't impress the electorate.