Healey drives me up the wall

I heard Housing Minister John Healey defending his party’s dog whistle politics on the Today show this morning.

You’d have thought they would have learnt their lesson after the “British Jobs, for British workers” fiasco.

Instead they decided to promise local authorities more power to prioritise “local people” for housing.

No doubt it’s a reaction to, and an attempt to stymie, the BNP’s success – but actually it plays right into their hands.

Healey dodged the issue, using that most irritating style of ignoring what was being asked and answering a different question.

To be fair, many politicians do it. But when it’s employed with such precise obtuseness, it’s enough to drive one to distraction.