(not satire – it’s the Tories!)
Here’s the nice country road* on the new Tory election campaign poster:
And here’s the real road in the original photograph:
The Tories have clearly photoshopped the original picture a bit to suit themselves.
Including covering up the cracks in the road.
Which says it all really…….
.
* The photograph is by German photographer Alex Nikada. Could Cameron be admitting his way to a stronger economy lies along a German road?
.
Please feel free to share. And comment.
.
The Coalition Government Colouring and Activity Book is now available for download as a PDF and in print:
Pride's Purge 
Pingback: Tories photoshop out real cracks in road for election campaign poster | Alternative News Network
Reblogged this on sdbast.
LikeLike
And there was Call Me Dave talking about road privatisation a while ago ,maybe thats what he means ?
more privatisation on the way
if they stay in office
LikeLike
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/19/david-cameron-sell-off-roads
THERE YOU GO , VOTE TORY AND WE WILL FLOG OFF EVERYTHING EVEN ROADS
LikeLike
They paid £195 for a picture of a foreign road they had to photoshop?
LikeLiked by 2 people
are you sure its same photo ?
Tories one has wobbly bits in it and an opening of trees on horizon and your one is a pretty straight road and different trees
LikeLike
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/fraser-nelson/2015/01/which-tory-mps-will-repeat-the-porkie-about-halving-the-deficit/
Blimey even the Speccie claims Tories are lying !!
LikeLike
oh ok i couldnt see it before but yeah seeing them together they are pretty similar i guess they arsed around with the trees and distorted the road
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
Once upon a time, the Tories used to joke about the Communist Russians altering pictures for propaganda purposes. It seems from this that their real objection was that they were better at doing it.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on nearlydead.
LikeLike
However much the Tories paid for this it is too much.These old Etonians are hopeless as well as heartless.
What a waste of money.
LikeLike
It looks more like a German road/fields anyway, a lot like where I used to live…… It certainly doesn’t evoke thoughts of good old Blighty does it……
Do “they” really think we are stupid? From the crass statistical chicanery to the crappy photoshop job? Sigh.
LikeLike
Looking at their poster reminds me on the talking heads song
” On the road to nowhere “
LikeLike
“Follow the wobbly grey road “
LikeLike
Can’t expect anything other than lies from Tory bast**ds. They are even lying about the deficit.
LikeLike
LOL They also photoshopped the lines out of the road to make it look narrower, changed where the hills in the distance are positioned to make it look longer, and enhanced it’s bumps to appear more curvaceous. That road has had almost as much done to it in the name of politics as models get re-touched in the name of “fashion” and “beauty.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Different photos, as fun as it is to tear apart the tories let’s at least try and keep it within the bounds of the evil they’ve done (there’s enough out there) without making stuff up.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
LikeLike
@korenwolf, they are not different photos… the hedges/shrubs at the side of the road in the foreground match, the low trees in the distance match.
The road was manipulated, the clouds changed and the distant hills were adjusted…. and god knows what the huge bump in the middle distance was supposed to represent, someone had way to much fun with the push or clone tool.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So what. This is what stock library images are there for, as is Photoshop. Using both image libraries and Photoshop together like this is standard practice in advertising. It’s pathetic trying to create an issue when none exists. You may as well also complain that the Union flag is superimposed on the road and isn’t really there. Doh!
LikeLike
@Korenwolf i thought they were different photos at first but upon closer examination i saw marked similarities in the two , what they did was create a gap in the trees and distorted the road if you look at hills on left they appear to be alike and
stuff alongside in the grass is alike too
LikeLike
It’s funny. Because this opens up to various new meanings of the poster: The Tories actually want Britain to be like Germany, just better (without the cracks). Or they want to make Germany more British (Flag crawling up the supposedly southern german road). It’s a PR desaster anyways.
LikeLike
Nik you dont get it. They “cleaned up” the road to make it look better
In fact it smacks of those propaganda and futurist posters showing a ” .brighter cleaner tomorrow”
it also aimed at core vote who are countruside dwellers , they didnt use a dirty looking suburban london main road as,
It would be clogged up with traffic , this is tory land of small pubs and cricket on the green and countryside churches and ” morning vicar” and ruddy faced paperboys ( not being molested of course) circa 1950s
LikeLike
Actually to be more realistic that road should be flooded (all caused by gay marriage of course and its good to see that road completely immigrant free as well
LikeLike
You see the tag line “THE DEFICIT HALFED.” – has the poster gone live yet? Shouldn’t we all be putting in a complaint to Advertising Standards Authority about printing misleading claims.
LikeLike
As an ‘English’ photographer struggling to earn a decent living again thanks to the recession, I would have loved the chance to have some of the 40,000 images in my ‘English’ stock picture library used for any publication, but, as usual our Government choose to give our money to non English people.
LikeLike
I’m surprised the Tories didn’t go all the way and opt for a Yellow Brick Road….. –Does anyone know whereabouts in England this road is? — In which constituency: Tory, Labour, Lib Dem? — Some people on Twitter seem to think it may even be in France, not in the English countryside, because ‘it looks a bit French’….– George Osborne however told C4 News that the photo ‘was taken in England’ — but he omitted to mention the post-shoot airbrushing…..
LikeLike
The original photo by German photographer Alex Nikada is probably of a road in Germany. Note the typical absence of hedges, and the cut verges. Hedges are unproductive and impair sight lines, and verges are cut for hay, not amenity. The German, and, indeed, most western European countryside, is managed with the goal of maximum productivity. In England, its sole purpose is to provide cover for game.
LikeLike
Country Road by John Denver
LikeLike
@Rachel even the tory supporting Spectator magazine has taken them to task over this claim . Tut tut .
LikeLike
I realise this, but Number 10 press office is arguing the point that this number is as a proportion of GDP – this statement is not qualified in the advert – and in real terms the deficit has actually only been thirded.
The Advertising Standards Authority adjudicates about advertising claims clearly aimed to mislead the general public and can force the take down of advertising if the complaint is upheld. It is the only way to make the Tories think twice about continually publishing untruths.
LikeLike
Sadly the ASA have no power to control the inveterate liars that are so prevalent in our political arena. Perhaps we need an online petition to bring this to public attantion and get it changed.
LikeLike
@Rachel you mean like “were all in this together” and no ” top down re construction of NHS ” oh and DWP reluctantance to publish deaths of claimants and ” no sanction targets ”
oh those lies
Ok
LikeLike
What about the electoral standards people? Can we complain to them (don’t laugh at my naiveity or my error 😉 )
LikeLike
This looks like the roads in my English town, which mimic rural roads in Greece.
Craters splitting the roads down to its under foundations, nearly tyre deep. And we have been Tory since 2010.
In the UK, the roads are far far worse than this original photograph. As they not only split at the joins, but craters forming where tyres dig into corners or above and below speed bumps, and by bus stops with lots of stop/start of heavy-laden buses.
Where is all this mythical extra funding to repair roads?
Not on estate roads, nor A roads, nor town centres.
My town in fact keeps getting cut off from the outside world more and more by roadworks that dig up the road and so the joins fail at the point where the new asphalt is put down to cover the new pipework for new housing developments, on roads already suffering gridlock at commuter times.
And not only are their craters, but strange troughs and peaks, with splits at the pinnacle of the peaks.
And try to be a low slung mobility scooter crossing a road with such failing tarmac surfaces on roads and pavements.
In car or mobility scooter your back will get even more hammering.
As Osborne said state spending would fall to 1930s levels in his Autumn Budget, there will be no public spending left.
The deficit is not a national debt. We have had a deficit for 300 years to no ill effect. And national debt is rising not falling to pay to spend less for the people and more on MPs, who gain an 11 per cent pay rise in 2015 on the taxpayer.
Whilst the poor of half the over 60s denied state pension since 2013, watch as their money is called a surplus since 2013 in the full and ring fenced National Insurance Fund, when it is the non-paid-out state pension, payable if remain in work or lose job, under the massive austerity job cuts, and be left with barely 4 per cent lowest income on average works pensions.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
LikeLike
@bob, those two are slightly different. If this ad goes up in public unamended then taken at face value “THE DEFICIT HALFED.” is a lie because it hasn’t been qualified by adding as a percentage of GDP. If someone said to you they’d halfed something what would you understand by that? I’m guessing not that two thirds of the original still remains.
Has anyone seen it printed anywhere? Maybe we use Tory tactics and complain to the same body as they complained to regarding the Oxfam poster campaign. I’m looking to take this further as soon as I have a live example I can reference.
LikeLike
http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/64054827
@RACHEL looks like this poster has been given a public airing already in this link
LikeLike
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2893824/Is-pedestrian-ad-best-Tory-spin-doctors-Cameron-s-election-poster-blasted-boring-looking-little-French.html
@RACHEL in this daily mail article the poster is being trundled about see the photo of poster on wheels
LikeLike
Thanks all, if you are interested, I’ve been looking at the Electoral Commission website about making a complaint, it says:
“Political advertising or campaign and election material
“We frequently receive complaints about political advertising or campaign material and the behaviour of candidates, especially in the period before an election. These are not within the scope of the complaints policy and will be referred to our Public Information Team.
“While we have regulatory duties relating to campaign spending, including in relation to political advertising/election material, we have very few powers to deal with the content of material published by candidates and parties, or their general conduct. In most cases we will not be able to deal with such complaints, which should instead be made directly to the party or candidate responsible for the material.
“If you feel that the content of the material may constitute a criminal offence, you should contact the police. Every police force has a dedicated Single Point of Contact officer (SPOC), who may be contacted about such allegations.”
So it would appear a member of a political party can report a charity to a watchdog about what they publish, but a member of the public cannot report a political party to a watchdog about what they publish.
Still feel ASA is my best bet, or raise the disparity with my MP.
LikeLike
Another funny and revealing one… Wonder if the road really did have so many cracks ?
>________________________________ > From: Pride’s Purge >To: y.alam@ymail.com >Sent: Friday, 2 January 2015, 23:46 >Subject: [New post] Tories photoshop out real cracks in road for election campaign poster > > > > WordPress.com >Tom Pride posted: “(not satire – it’s the Tories!) Here’s the nice country road on the new Tory campaign poster: And here’s the real road in the original photograph: The Tories have clearly photoshopped the original picture a bit to suit themselves.” >
LikeLike
See: uk.thetruth24.com/ website: Tories general election poster is actually a photo-shopped road in Germany…. I wonder if David Cameron was bribed by Angel Merkel to use this poster?? — Well, they are good EU chums, aren’t they? — Compliments to Roger Groocock, for tracking down the original photo [on istock] by Alex Nikada. Yes, the original colour photo was snapped on an ill-repaired country lane near Weimar, in Germany; yet George Osborne has the gall to tell us that it was shot ‘somewhere in the British countryside…” — Upshot: the Tories are liars and spin-doctor merchants, as ever.
LikeLike
We’re on a road to HELL..
LikeLike
Maybe Scameron thinks he is a
ROADie
LikeLike
Actually it should be a crossroads not a straight road
Tory, Labour,Fibdems and Niggle Frogface Barmy Army
Which way to turn ? maybe the traffic lights will turn Green
LikeLike
I could do with the GPS co-ords of this image – it is certainly in Germany but in the original I would be interested to see if it veers to the left or right before it hits the trees in the distance!
LikeLike
Pingback: We are hypocrites if we allow Muhammed to be satirised but not the Holocaust | Pride's Purge
Pingback: Opinion – The Tory machine is gearing up to back Boris Johnson as the next leader – Telegraph – John Gelmini « Dr Alf's Blog