unoriginalname38 – the blog of Dave Cole

A disappointing blog

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I am very well aware of some of the deficiencies of this blog, not least that it's not particularly well-argued.

Jonathan Roberts is the official Labour Party Conference blogger. Which is a shame, because his blog's crap.

His commentary on Gordon Brown's speech reads as if it was written by one of GB's sublieutenants.

For me, we saw a personal side rarely seen before. Too many people have seen him as a lifeless robot who has one single, pre-programmed dimension.

Well, shit. Gordon Brown, the heir apparent, is trying to make himself more 'human' and the official conference blog confirms that Gordon Brown is, indeed, a member of the human race.

For me, he was reminiscent of some of the best bits of New Labour circa 1997. He seemed like the bloke from down the street who genuinely cares - a trait which has real pulling power at the electorate.

By definition - and thanks to Estelle Morris for the line - political people aren't normal. Normal people don't go to three meetings a month to argue about what the CAC should do, don't give up their weekend lie-ins to stand around on rainy November mornings flyering or knocking on doors and don't spend entire days walking around convincing people to go and vote. I don't want the bloke from down the street as PM (and Tony Blair sure as hell doesn't) but someone who can actually do the job. The electorate are used to managed images. It doesn't always work - Tony Blair's appearance on whatever football programme it was - and people are now cynical to the point that every politician is expected to support Local Town FC, drink beer and like Trisha. If people stopped being what head office thinks 'the bloke down the street' should look like and actually behaved like themselves, two things might happen. Firstly, you might actually find 'the bloke down the street who really cares' not being put off by politics. Secondly, people who are unpolished would be seen to have 'real pulling power at the electorate'. Enter stage right, Boris Johnson, stage left, Ken Livingstone.

Needless to say, the biggest applause he received was his "I would love to take on David Cameron". From the reaction he received, that's what everyone else wants too.

If the best thing a senior politician can say is 'I think I/we have good ideas and I would like to stop the others getting in so I/we can implement them', I despair. This is nice, it's semi-obligatory, it rallies the troops, but decent political discourse it is not.

More later.

xD.

Labels: Americana, Blogging, Films, Insanity, Journalism, Photography, Politicae Britannicae, Politics

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