Pigs Cannot Fly. Nor Does the UK Labor Party’s Poster Showing the “Pigs” to be Jewish

Philip Stone January 31, 2005

In advertising timing is everything. So is recognizing quickly when you have made a faux pas and fix it.

But the day after British Prime Minister Tony Blair tells a gathering marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz that anti-Semitism begins with the “shout of racial abuse in the street,” his Labor party unveils a poster superimposing the heads of two leading Jewish political opponents over the heads of pigs.

And when it was pointed out that it is insulting to associate Jews with pigs, and that Jews are forbidden to eat pork, a Labor Party spokesman said, “We reject absolutely suggestions that this poster is in any way anti-Semitic.”

To make its point that before Conservative Party economic polices can work “pigs will fly” – a colloquial English expression meaning “never” -- the Labor poster depicted two pigs with wings. Their heads were overlaid by the heads of Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, and Oliver Letwin, the Conservative shadow finance minister.

The “pigs can fly” theme is at the very heart of the Labor Party campaign for the general election that many politicians believe Blair will call for May 5. Alan Milburn, a general election coordinator, told a news conference a few days before the poster appeared, “When they (the voters) hear Michael Howard promising tax cuts, and promising extra spending on schools and hospitals, they look upwards and see skies full of flying pigs.”

The poster was a natural follow-on, it was very clever in its simplicity, and it made its point. Unfortunately, its target happened to be two Jewish politicians and that puts a whole new connotation to it. There are plenty of Jewish members of the Labor Party including those in Parliament, and one can hardly believe the party intentionally wants to offend them let alone anyone else. But what is not understandable is that once Labor was told it had a problem, it refused to see the error of its way it.

Instead it opened itself up to bad media and to Conservative politicians, especially those campaigning in heavily Jewish precincts. The media and politicians lost no time in invoking the Auschwitz liberation anniversary and the increased anti-Semitic attacks in the UK over the past few weeks to question Labor motives. “This advertisement has the capacity to offend very many people and I urge the Labor Party to apologize and withdraw this tasteless campaign poster immediately,” said Conservative candidate Andrew Mennear in a typical statement.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a body that calls itself the voice of British Jewry, refuses to get involved in political issues (at least publicly) but one member did say the Labor posters were not the smartest of ideas.

The poster has not actually been officially released for nationwide use, giving Labor a possible way out. Party members are being asked to vote their preference via the Internet on four posters which would be displayed on more than 200 billboards around the UK– this poster was considered the favorite for its political message (another shows Howard hunched over a watch and chain giving a vivid image of Shylock.). Negative votes by party members could put the issue to rest.

The previous week, the Conservatives launched a poster attacking Blair and Gordon Brown, his finance minister.  The two have bickered for many years, and a new book quotes Brown saying to Blair, “There is nothing that you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe.” The conservatives turned that into a poster of the two men facing off against one another with the bold type tag line, “How Can They Fight Crime When They’re Fighting One Another?”