News from the New Party

'Orwellian' C02 advert prompts New Party call for withdrawal

A new television advert being aired by the Department of Energy and Climate Change has been slammed by New Party spokesman Richard Vass as "the worst possible example of state funded propaganda" and triggered a complaint* to the Advertising Standards Agency seeking its immediate withdrawal.

The one minute advertisement for the government's Act on CO₂ campaign has been slammed by University of London Professor of Biogeography Phillip Stott as being straight out of Orwell's chilling depiction of the future, 1984**. Now Vass is calling on government to cancel the advert.

"It breaks a raft of Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) rules. It places unfair pressure on children as well as distressing them with images of a drowning dog and an atmosphere of fear. It also distorts the balance of political debate and rides a bulldozer through ASA rules on misleading advertising.

"With its war-like imagery reminiscent of old World War Two propaganda and cold war broadcast rhetoric, it relies on fear rather than reason to be effective. How very Labour. It's as if the clock is being turned back. The government needs to do the right thing and withdraw it now," says Vass.

The advert is in response to a survey undertaken by the government showing that over half of people (52%) believe climate change will not significantly affect them with only a third thinking it will. This old-style left-wing reaction to whip citizens into line highlights the true nature of the Labour government, says Vass.

He says: "If it cannot win with argument then it will try fear, just as happened with ID cards. Did the government ever consider that the 52% that said 'No' had simply not bought into its rhetoric on climate change? Of course not, it is a case of keep pressing until you get the answer you want.

"Scratch at the surface and the true Labour reveals itself; a party willing to throw away money on expensive threatening adverts at a time when spending needs to be slashed.

"The irony is that during conference season Labour was telling us all how progressive it was. I think the word they were looking for was regressive."

* The New Party's complaint to the ASA was lodged 13 October.

**Professor Stott was quoted in The Times: "It is straight out of Orwell's 1984: an attempt to control with images of a perpetual war against something, in this case climate change."