Remain’s “senior strategic advisor” Jim Messina has learned from David Axelrod how to fly in for a couple of days, shake a few hands, send a couple of tweets and then jet off having trousered a thick wedge. With ten days to go Messina is forgetting about the referendum – he has just been hired by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to help with his election strategy. According to the Spanish press Messina begins work immediately:
“He will combine working for Rajoy with other work such as assisting Cameron in the campaign against Brexit, though his involvement will be higher in Spain. Messina is responsible for online communication.”
The last sighting of Messina in London was at a crisis meeting with BSE on May 31 as the polls started to turn. How much are they paying him to jump from the sinking ship?
Jim Messina was seen at the Remain HQ in the City yesterday on the day the polls turned. Presumably Messina was there to give the campaign – now largely sidelined by Downing Street when it comes to strategy – a kick up the In-side. As a result the official Remain campaign’s Director of Strategy seems to have plenty of time to tweet slogans to his small band of followers:
No policy on immigration is the right policy if it crashes the economy. #StrongerIn
— Ryan Coetzee (@RyanCoetzee) June 1, 2016
So a sovereign parliament having the ability to control its borders will crash the economy, say BSE. Vote Leave are already jumping on this as evidence Remain are out of touch…
Ryan Coetzee, who was Nick Clegg’s campaign strategy chief in 2015, clearly picked up some FibDem habits. This is a an implausible stretch:
Lots of people in Liverpool talk enthusiastically about how the EU helped regenerate their city. #StrongerIn
— Ryan Coetzee (@RyanCoetzee) June 1, 2016
And this shows more brass neck than a tuba:
Leave camps' premise is that Britain is too weak and incompetent to succeed as part of Europe. That's talking down Britain. #Marr
— Ryan Coetzee (@RyanCoetzee) February 28, 2016
Guido’s favourite recent tweet from the campaigner who oversaw the loss of 85% of the LibDem parliamentary party:
The Leave people really are wreckers, aren't they? Happy to wreck the British economy, wreck the EU, wreck their own parties.
— Ryan Coetzee (@RyanCoetzee) May 29, 2016
Lyin’ Ryan cracks us up…
The new Electoral Commission data dump out this morning shows that some £2.4 million, or 15% of the Conservative Party’s £15.5 million election budget, went to Lynton Crosby’s CTF. They spent £369,000 on the services of their American former-Obama campaign guru Jim Messina. Given the against the odds result, that surely represents great value for money…
The BBC point out that UKIP had the most cost-effective campaign:
- Conservative Party: £1.38 per vote
- Labour Party: £1.29 per vote
- Liberal Democrats: £1.46 per vote
- UKIP: £0.73 per vote
- SNP: £1.01 per vote
- Green Party: £0.98
Labour managed to spend £577.58 on chicken suits. Guido has some expertise in this area and bought his for £30.
Labour, overspending as usual…
Jim Messina tells the Speccie:
“To this day I can’t tell you what Labour’s message was other than I guess we don’t like the Tories. But until the famous Ed Rock or Ed Stone, you sort of had no idea what they were running on and when you are trying to do that five days before, you’re in deep, deep trouble.”
David Axelrod has the last word on his rival campaign managers…
“My operant theory about politics is you’re never as smart as you look when you’re winning and you’re never as dumb as you look when you’re losing.”
