Just picked up on this: Tories attack Baroness Vadera's claim that she could see a "few green shoots" of recovery as "insensitive." (BBC)
Let me get this straight, the party that has recently made choices statements like:
[The economic crisis has created] "an incredibly good moment for us" Andrew Mitchell, Conservative Shadow International Development Spokesperson
and
"Recession can be good for us" Andrew Lansley, Conservative Shadow Health Secretary
says that comment was insensitive?? Hypocrisy doesn't come much better than this.
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2 comments:
So who exactly is the hypocritical one? The one that attacks a party for saying something they themselves said...or the one that says something that they themselves attacked another party for saying?
If I were to read the question to the letter I'd not get much further than pointing out that Vadera, Lansley and Mitchell were all saying completely different things.
What ties the statements together however is the charge of insensitivity, so I'll give you an answer on that basis of comparison.
I think Lansley and particularly Mitchell were being 'insensitive' (Mitchell was simply referring to the political gain for his party that he believed a recession would bring!).
As for Vadera its not totally clear. In her defence it was an answer to a last question of an interview that she had to answer with a one liner and which the other questions had not led into. If she does see green shoots she didn't have time to elaborate on what they are.
However, I suppose I would hazard a guess that she probably felt she had to sound up-beat about the economy and its chances for success for her political benefit, and also so as not to undermine confidence given her role. I'm not sure where these green shoots are but I can't see them from my lowly position and I remain sceptical about their existence because Shriti Vadera is the first to have discovered their wearabouts to my knowledge, and even she says she can't predict their chances of survival. I expect most other mere mortals can't see or imagine them either either. Perhaps why they might feel she was being either selfishly or clumsily insensitive.
Either way, regretfully, the Official Opposition are in a weak position to point that out at the moment.
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