Avoiding answering the pertinent question

The Telegraph report that:

'The "Yes" campaign, which is supported by Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, was severely embarrassed after it emerged that it had removed the poet Benjamin Zephaniah from leaflets destined for the home counties, while leaving him in leaflets distributed in London.

Mr Zephaniah is one of six celebrities who adorn a leaflet from the "Yes" campaign calling on householders to back the Alternative Vote in a forthcoming referendum on May 5 in which people will be asked if they want to change Britain's voting system.

He appears alongside Joanna Lumley, Eddie Izzard, Colin Firth, Honor Blackman and Stephen Fry in the leaflet which was delivered in London and which is signed by Katie Ghose, chair of Yes To Fairer Votes.

It calls on people to back AV because it will give them "a stronger voice".

However, in an identical leaflet sent to other parts of the country including Sussex and Cornwall the poet is not there. Only white celebrities are featured and Mr Zephaniah is replaced by a picture of the actor Tony Robinson. '

The Telegraph then explain that:

'Terry Paul, spokesman for NO to AV, said: "Why are Yes to AV ashamed to have the support of Benjamin Zephaniah in places like Cornwall and Hampshire?

"The Yes Campaign's leaflet offers a chilling preview of politics under the Alternative Vote. We have warned that AV would encourage parties to pander to extremist opinions in a chase for second and third preference votes, but we never imagined the first example of such outdated views would come from the Yes Campaign itself." '

When the Yes Campaign purport to answer the question why they dropped Benjamin Zephaniah from the leaflets sent to less multi-cultural places than London, they really don't:

'A spokesman for the "Yes" campaign said: "We have a number of endorsers and we vary the endorsers we use on our leaflets.

If the No campaign want to accuse us of racism on the day that Kriss Akabusi launches our campaign, that is up to them. Who are Operation Black Vote and the Muslim Council of Britain backing? The Yes campaign." '

The No campaign were not accusing the Yes campaign of racism but of pandering to minorities, including those who would be more likely to listen to pay attention to what white Tony Robinson says than black Benjamin Zephaniah.

It seems to me that the Yes campaign have done precisely what the No campaign have accused them of and just like many lefty politicians they have resorted to reacting to being accused of being racists when no such accusation was made. In fact the Yes campaign have tried to pander to racists and been found out.


Comparing  Benjamin Zephaniah and Tony Robinson, we find that whilst Benjamin Zephaniah is a vegan, supporter of PETA, has written a book about the Animal Liberation Front, has spoken in favour of turning Britain into a Republic and the disestablishment of the Crown, Tony Robinson is a long time Labour party supporter, a former member of Labour's National Executive Committee and a participant in the recent 'March for the Alternative' protests in Central London.