Though Cowards Flinch

The Tories have a dual election strategy. 

At national televisual level they have Cameron and Co.  preaching their message of cuddly, modern Conservatism, with only the odd hiccough.

At local level, the message is more strident.  Here, if this local leaflet is anything to go by, it’s the well-worn messages of fear and hate.

What drew my attention to that particular leaflet (h/t Claire French via Twitter), though, was the happy proclamation that the Tories will abolish the Human Rights Act (HRA).

This is on the basis that all the ‘foreign criminals and illegal immigrants’ roaming the streets of Romford can be immediately deported, which will of course immediately resolve all other issues to with housing, speeding traffic, access to dentistry, and people leaving dog poo on the pavement.

The abolition of the HRA will, say our local Tories:

Restore confidence, common sense and justice in our English legal system.

The Human Rights Act is, we are led to believe then, inimical to the English legal system.

Perhaps our local Tories could explain, then, why their local Tories running the Local Government Association have spent months carefully, and very explicitly, modelling  new local government legislation on this very same Human Rights Act, arguing that the power of local authorities to do whatever the hell they like – and more to the point NOT do anything that meets the needs of residents – should have preference over ALL other legislation set down by parliament and interpreted under English law by our English courts.