This article rang a bell the other day.
The Conservatives accused Labour of “raiding” taxpayers’ money to fund their election campaign.
New figures uncovered by the Conservatives show that spending on advertising has increased to £232 million, which is a 39 per cent increase on the previous year.
Then I remembered ... it was mentioned here in July, complete with a (not so) pretty graph.
The actual gross figure, including all government promotional activity, was a tad higher than Grant Shapps's quoted £232m, as the COI (the government's advertising spend aggregator) explained on their web-site at the time.
The COI, which serves government departments and public sector bodies, also revealed it has spent £540m on marketing and communications, up 43% on the previous year. Spend on digital marketing also rose 84% to £40m.
I dunno, perhaps they forgot there was a recession on.
Still, Labour have a robust defence which is bound to boost their popularity.
Labour argues that the COI’s role is to promote important campaigns such as anti-smoking, obesity and in the past year swine flu.
It's the political equivalent of the playground bully - stealing your dinner money and giving it to his mates in payment for administering your black eye.
Give them a bloody nose in return come the election, eh? Anyone but Labour.
UPDATE: Worth adding this from Spanish Sue. Your money again, and Brown is legally binding you to spend it.
