Suspended election campaign: A fantastic opportunity to bury bad news

So it turns out one of the only actual figures in the farcical Tory manifesto (£60 million for school breakfasts) was ridiculous plucked-out-of-the-air nonsense.

Less than 7p a meal!

The figure the Tories plucked out of the air to cover this policy worked out at just 6.8 pence per pupil per day to provide them with a proper nourishing breakfast!

Now, after getting rumbled, the Tories have admitted that it'll cost way more than that, and that they don't actually know how much!

Another manifesto climbdown

So after the Dementia Tax debacle, this is the second Tory manifesto policy to descend into farce within a week!

The widely respected election specialist David Butler said that he's never seen anything as shambolic as the Tory Dementia tax climbdown in the 20 General Election campaigns he's covered, and now we have another massive Tory blunder to add into the mix.

Economic competence

The Labour Manifesto is carefully costed. The Tory manifesto is an unprecedented farce.

Additionally - since 2010 the Tories have created more new public debt than every single Labour government in history combined!

Yet somehow, still, millions of people still allow themselves to be bamboozled by the mainstream press into believing the ridiculously backwards notion that the Tories are the more economically competent ones!

A good time to bury bad news

The fact that the Tories decided to sneak this humiliating news out under the cloud of a national tragedy is yet another revolting new low for the Tory party.

They knew the other parties had agreed to suspend campaigning because of the atrocity in Manchester, so they decided to sneak out their latest blunder when they knew opposition parties had voluntarily gagged themselves, so they'd be subjected to very limited scrutiny.

Remember that Labour Party adviser who was (rightly) lambasted for describing the September 11th attacks as "a good day to bury bad news"? Well this sneaky Tory behaviour is infinitely worse.

This isn't just an adviser suggesting the idea of using an atrocity to bury bad news, it's the Tory party actually following through with a "bury bad news" plot in order to try to salvage their foundering election campaign.

The Tories knew perfectly well that political campaigning had been suspended, so they blatantly took advantage of the terrorist atrocity to sneak their bad news out when they knew the opposition parties wouldn't hold them to account for it.

Conclusion

This farcical made-up costing is yet another ridiculous Tory blunder, but the bigger story is their decision to sneak out their admission when they knew the opposition parties wouldn't hold them to account for it because campaigning has been suspended.

Using a national tragedy as a smokescreen to hide from political scrutiny is utterly despicable, even by Tory standards.

The opposition parties won't resume national campaigning until tomorrow, so they can't hold the Tories to account for this ridiculous blunder or their despicable effort to use the tragedy in Manchester as a smokescreen to hide it behind, so it's up to the public to spread awareness amongst ourselves.

Share this article, share other articles on the blunder, write your own Facebook posts and Tweets about it.

The mainstream media won't hold them to account for trying to hide their blunder in this despicable way, so it's up to us.

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