Yes it's obviously cut, edited, pasted, shuffled around and contrived to paint a particular picture.
I think the intent is to immediately portray Argawal as the underdog who had the door of the civic slammed in his face by bullying Tory council and was left outside in the icy winter.
Alligator asks whether it's relevant?, strictly speaking the denied-access-to-the-civic part isn't relevant at all.....unless you think what I said earlier has some merit:
I believe that Rod Bluh and his cabinet within a cabinet have given the Labour party a perfect opportunity to almost completely localise the 2010 general election debate in Swindon
Given that there is a long and well documented history of acrimony between Wills and Rods bunch I'll bet the 'Tory Council Doesn't listen/care/give a stuff about voters or their elected MP's' message will figure prominently in the labour general/local election campaign(s) and I think Argawals 'key' message in the piece gives very strong hints of this. Why would a PPC be so interested in the local council if he's going to campaign on national issues?
The only public interaction Argawal is shown having results him saying:
"So, despite reporting it to the Borough Council, you're seeing a lack of activity from the Tory run Swindon Borough Council, where they're denying that they're even aware of the problems that you and your neighbours are suffering"
I think that's where the relevance to the civic is. Had the council allowed Montaut & Argawal to have their press conference in the civic the 'out in the cold' image wouldn't work at all and the 'caring labour candidate' message wouldn't resonate. But unfortunately I think they both
do work.
Not that I think PPC's or even MP's should expect to have media access to the civic for their campaigns, but was permission even sought ? I have doubts. It's even possible that Monty just said: "No, we can't film in the civic, right?", or was briefed on what to say by someone that knew how a political editor would construct a narrative around a seemingly innocuous statement.
I don't think Justin was portrayed in a good light, forgive me for saying this Justin but you came across as a tad smug and the 'Shame labour couldn't find a local candidate' quote may return to bite Robert Buckland.
I'd score that as: 1 - 0 to Victor which is disappointing