Campaigns are conducted in poetry, former New York mayor Mario Cuomo once said. This one seems to be conducted in hyperbole. Every party is doing their level best to show that there is a difference, and a big one, between them and their opponents. That’s normal. But to do so, they are stretching good arguments beyond what is sustainable.
“Brownies” may be a particular mendacious form of hyporbolic campaigning (and governing), but there are bound to be a few Tory and Lib Dem exaggerations on display during the campaign.
Exhibit A. The Tories say a hung parliament will doom Britain as the markets will react badly to a potentially unstable government – with ruinous consequences.
Exhibit B. Labour is at it too. They say that Tory withdrawal from the EPP will doom a Conservative-led Britain to the margins of Europe.
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