Another example of misguided conviction

Yesterday's blog reminded me of when I attended Any Questions at Morecambe High School. John Hutton was the Labour representative and he had just been appointed as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, so it must have been November 2005. The subject of benefit fraud arose and Mr Hutton certainly had conviction when he criticised the Liberal Democrats for not saying a word about this subject. His conviction got cheers from the Labour supporters some of whom were sat behind me.

Lembit Opik was quick with his response by saying that the Liberal Democrats had lots of policies which John Hutton didn't know about. Furthermore Lembit would send them to him and with great generosity he could keep any that he wanted. However the Labour supporters had had their moment by thinking that the Liberal Democrats had no policies.

I went home and searched the 2005 manifestos. Quelle surprise. The only mention that I found of benefit fraud was in the Liberal Democrats manifesto.

I am pleased that John Hutton is standing down at the next election. I didn't think much of his comments on any subject but this particular instance shows the man to be opportunistic and uninformed. If you cannot trust his words when spoken with conviction (and cheered) then when could you trust them?

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