The worst political soundbite of the week

Welcome to the first and quite possibly last in a new and therefore also probably soon to be axed series: the worst political soundbite of the week. (Not to be confused with the worst political phrase ever.)

Paris is a city generally held in high esteem in Britain: it’s a popular holiday destination, it’s got great food, it’s got the Eiffel Tower, a Doctor Who story was filmed there, it has public transport that seems cheap and spacious compared with our own capital’s underground and so on. All in all, helped of course by the usual grass is greener on the other side factor, Paris gets a pretty good press in Britain.

So what phrase have Labour deployed this week to attack the government this week?

Warning that the government is hell bent on turning London into Paris.

Hmm.

The context, in case you’ve missed it, was housing but the point about the soundbite is that in much media coverage that’s all the impact you get; you don’t get to also say “They’re turning London into Paris the swines! Well, not the good bits of Paris like the public transport because we’ve already part-privatised them or making our food better or replacing Centre Point with the Eiffel Tower or improving the weather or importing any of those many things you really love about Paris. No, none of that at all. So really please wipe from your mind all the many positive things you think about Paris and then listen to me again. Thanks.”