The End Of Spin...?
"...I haven't got an autocue, I haven't got a script, I've just got a few notes so it might be a bit messy; but it will be me..."
David Cameron
What an incredible feat that was, to deliver a carefully written and well rehearsed off-the-cuff, straight-out-of-my-pretty-head speech like that.
I now realise what British politics has been missing these long years, the ability to memorise something clearly being a much more desirable quality in a leader than the ability to read out loud.
Personally I would rather vote for Chris Lyons, the Melbourne man who can recite the first 4,400 digits of pi from memory. And I don't even know what his politics are.
The end of spin....? Pah.
I now realise what British politics has been missing these long years, the ability to memorise something clearly being a much more desirable quality in a leader than the ability to read out loud.
Personally I would rather vote for Chris Lyons, the Melbourne man who can recite the first 4,400 digits of pi from memory. And I don't even know what his politics are.
The end of spin....? Pah.
21 comments:
Still - He assures us that he knows where he is, and he knows where he's going.
And in a world of focus groups, spin-doctors, photo-opportunities, media-manipulation; where public services are managed by ever-shifting performance indicators and targets and where "care" cannot be measured and therefore doesn't count; where the buck never stops anywhere and where figures are massaged, or released on "bad" news days; and we're led to war by a campaign of mis-information; and our politicians get their speeches written, and their hair cut and their suits tailored by PR people;
I suppose knowing where you are and where you're going is a rare commodity?
If only you could believe him.
Perhaps the political parties should just use out-of-work actors as their leaders, and have done with it, like America, or get Rupert Murdoch to do it.
We are so lucky to be born in a democratic country, yet even our politicians undervalue it, treating elections as a glorified sales-opportunity for another uninspired, value-lacking, five-year power-trip.
It must be nice to have all the time in the world to learn someting by heart! Cannot remember getting round to doing that since childhood/school... when I had to learn catechism by heart and said I could not do that as I had a bad memory...and didnot see the point. Oh well, he's one of us, isn't he, just?...
I like your rant, Paul, and yes, actors as politicians might just be the solution to all our ills.
I'm worried that he's right about Labour being wrong about enough things that people will vote for him. And not realise that his rhetoric about freedom is completely at odds with his insidious notion that everyone wants to organise themselves into his ideal of a family, and that those who don't should be penalised.
Ms M _ I haven't read 'pah' for a long time - it sounds just right - contempt and show he barely registered. (I quite like 'BAH' too;) I detest his smugness and the fact that he is so transparent. I can imagine him, Osborne and Hague chuckling together, little shoulders hunched up, as they formulate the 'Brilliant' plan . 'Tee-hee! We can show Brownie up here' When I read he called his wife 'babe' well, that was the end of the Tory dream for me, even before it ever started. (shucks indeed)
Bugger the lot of them. I know I'm getting old now that I say what my grandfather used to say about politicians.
(successfully straddles two posts with one comment)
Hi Ms M
Yet another great reason to move to Victoria. I'm still recovering from Gordon Brown nicking his sound bites from the BNP. Someone's moral compass has gone on the blink there.
xxx
Pants
Did the snotty Etonian actually say that the real wealth of his privilege came from the love of his family, and not the leg up that a £130,000 13-18 education with the "elite" of the country's elite might offer?
Some things just make me gip!
Sadly they seem to be coming in waves lately, like seeing that fuckwit Paul McKenna's mis-titled "I can make you rich". Obviously he didn't have an Eton education, confusing "You" for "Me".
That's very clever of Chris but who actually wants to listen to someone recite the first 4,400 digits of pi? I guess he could make a recording of it and it could be sold to insomniacs.
Hey Paul, great point(s) well made....couldn't agree more. And doesn't Murdoch already run the country?
Hi Seachanges, learning by heart does seem to have gone a little out of fashion in schools. Perhaps Cameron has plans to resurrect it, following his magnificent performance?
Hi Greg, damning onesself with such faint praise should surely set some very loud alarm bells ringing somewhere...but I fear we are all too weary to even notice. Agree with you entirely about his spurious notions of freedom and that hoary old chestnut, 'the family'. I think it really is about time the left nailed this one...(is there such a thing as the left anymore, by the way?)
By the way, just love your blog! Made me laugh lots....suggest you go have a visit folks.
Hey Janejill, I think smugness is on the person spec for the job thesedays, along with a political philosophy picked up from Janet and John readers. God, I feel old....
...Wonderful trousers!
Hey Pants, I think there must be an EU mountain of moral compasses somewhere, as so many have clearly been abandoned. Victoria sounds just about right. Got any room in your suitcase?
Hi Bobo you can make me rich.....very funny!
Hi there Emma, I guess the answer is probably no-one. But seeing as we are now valuing feats of memory over actual leadership skills, it seemed churlish not to give the man a mention.
The irony is that DC is so detached from reality that he probably thinks we were taken in by that "off the cuff" shit. How insulting is that?
bobo thanks for reminding me of an ace word - gip :) have not used it for ages but will do soon!!
On a political note I am gobsmacked to see the current contest between the paries - who will give us the highest inheritance tax allowance?
Cons £1m
Libdem £500,000
Newlab £600,000
It's like watching Tesco and Morries slash the price of tinned tomatoes! We may be a democracy, but if all the policies are the same what's the point?
Boris
PS MS M u r ace, but mushroom soup?? GIPTRON!
Giptron, Boris! What the hell does that mean???
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