Originally from: John
                        
var tempjs1='YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS';document.form1.cont1.value=tempjs1;Wmn Page one opinion by editor Barrie Williams

'Any fair-minded person would accept that the Government has a good record on the countryside." The words are those of New Labour Rural Affairs Minister Ben Bradshaw.

The words are staggering in their ignorance; appalling in their arrogance.

The words come from a man who, as a Westcountry MP, either knows that they're demonstrably untrue or should be thoroughly ashamed that he does not.

On Monday, Parliament resumed after a summer recess in which the self-deluding spin which begets shamelessly misleading assertions like that from Mr Bradshaw has been exposed dramatically.

But there are no signs of an end to it. On the contrary, today, Labour stages a so-called rural summit. It is rightly dismissed as a gimmick by political opponents. It is the epitome of spin.

In a letter to delegates to the "rural policy seminar" party chairman Ian McCartney makes the astonishing claim that Labour has "already demonstrated that it is the only political party that is serious about representing the interests of rural communities".

That from the chairman of a party which has done for rural communities what Jaws did for swimming.

It's breathtaking in its sheer cheek and wilful misrepresentation.

So just who does the Government think it's kidding with such blatant lies?

Nobody of sound mind living in the countryside could possibly believe a word of it.

But if enough well-spun sound bites hit the mainly urban-preoccupied national media, millions of people all over the UK will.

Just as they swallowed the massive doses of dishonest Government propaganda throughout the foot and mouth disaster, so they will be led to believe that everything in the countryside's garden is coming up roses and that the one nation policies of that nice Mr Blair, who will brook no urban/rural divide, are serving country dwellers very well indeed.

That's why, today, the Western Morning News offers its own appraisal of Labour's record on the countryside.

Deprived of the spin and free from the bovine excrement in which every Government statement on its own performance in rural areas comes dripping, it is an indictment of abject failure; a catalogue of shameful neglect, abysmal ignorance and complete lack of anything remotely resembling genuine care or concern.

We have taken nine crucial categories in which government policies affect country life and examined in detail Labour's record over six years in each of them.

In today's paper, we precis those findings and give the Government marks out of ten for its performance.

Starting tomorrow, we take each one of those categories in turn every day and analyse Labour's record in full.

If, when he's read all that, Ben Bradshaw MP still thinks his Government has a good record in the countryside, his self-delusion will be terminal.

But then, he will almost certainly just dismiss it all as Western Morning News bias.

That's another less than endearing trait of New Labour. In its insufferable arrogance it believes that any and every critic is politically motivated.

Wouldn't it make a refreshing and ground-breaking change if this time it was different; if this time the Government stepped down off its high horse and admitted that in six years, it has actually managed to do precious little that's been right for the rural Westcountry; if this time, it admitted the mass of demonstrable failure, took the criticism and the countryside's verdict on its tenure on the chin and pledged to do its utmost to improve in what's left of this term of office.

Sadly, they're so firmly set in their spinning ways that there is more chance of finding Lord Lucan behind the till at Sainsbury's.

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