Labour man accuses FF of "black propaganda"

"BITTER exchanges took place between Fianna Fail and Labour last night, after the chairman of the Labour Party's general election committee accused Fianna Fail of resuming its campaign of "black propaganda" against the party and "its leader.

Senator Pat Magner said he had spoken to some Fianna Fail members who were uneasy about that kind of politics, and he was assured that the instruction to demonise the Labour leader, Mr Spring, and try to separate him from his party, had come from the highest levels within Fianna Fail.

A Fianna Fail spokesman dismissed the charge as "absolute rubbish" and synonymous with Labour Party politics in the run up to the election. "Unlike Labour, that is not the kind of thing that Fianna Fail engages in."

Senator Magner insisted there was in attempt to create an impression that Labour could not be trusted with the management of the economy. Fianna Fail had run the same campaign in the 1992 election and had imported Saatchi and Saatchi executives from the Tory campaign in London to target Labour.

"Now they are at it again, only this time, their campaign is much more viciously personal than before. Fianna Fail candidates and spokespersons are being coached, in media training courses, to set out on a course of demonising Dick Spring to try to turn him into a target figure throughout the campaign.

He said candidates were being instructed to constantly refer to Mr Spring and "arrogant" in the same sentence. "They are also being told to try to get across the message that the Labour Party would be much more amenable to persuasion if they can undermine Dick Spring personally."