Put your left foot in ... - by Richard... Thursday, April 29, 2010

Put your left foot in ... - by Richard... Thursday, April 29, 2010

The "great" debate droned on, but did any of the three leaders actually tell us how they intended to reduce the deficit? Of two highly political friends of mine, one watched the football – the other went out to a pub quiz. They got the better deal.

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From his own mouth ... - by Richard...

"You don't deserve to govern if you treat people like fools," says David Cameron.

"I want us to be in Europe, but not run by Europe," says David Cameron.

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Dunn Conservatism - by Richard...

Anita Dunn, former Obama aide who told a group of high school students that Mao Tse Tung was one of her two favourite political philosophers, has been hired by Tory hopeful David Cameron to help him prep for today's televised debate. Pajamas Media has the story.

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Not the only one - by Richard...

It appears that Gordon Brown is not the only one to have been caught out forgetting to switch off his microphone. A recording has now emerged of a secret conversation between Daniel Hannan and "call me Dave" Cameron. It is unclear who was wearing the microphone, but the voices are easily recognisable. And thus goes the narrative:

DH: We should allow the public to vote on our continued membership of the EU.

Dave: There's a chance they might vote no, and so we simply can't do that.

DH: You're the boss, Sir.

Dave: Now get out there and ensure the public vote "conservative" – throw in a few lines about UKIP whilst you're at it.

DH: You're the boss, Sir.

Dave: Remember to tell the public I give them a cast-iron guarantee that I want to be in Europe but not run by Europe. Remember to phrase it as Europe and not the federal EU government.

DH: You're the boss, Sir.

Dave: If anyone points out that the other 26 countries need to agree to my repatriation of powers manifesto pledge, tell them I can persuade them.

DH: You're the boss, Sir.

Dave: Now get to work my little muppet.

The rest of the tape is indistinct, but it terminates abruptly with what sounds suspiciously like shoes being polished.

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She ain't wrong - by Richard...

You can agree with the sentiment, even if some of the detail is questionable. There is no disputing the importance of energy as an election issue.

The silence of the politicians, though, is adequate testimony to an election where they have let the children out to play, and locked the adults indoors. Put another way, there are so many "elephants in the room" now that one wonders how there can be any room left for people.

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A degree of overstatement - by Richard...

I woke late this morning and staggered to the shop to collect the newspaper. Scanning the headline, through bleary eyes and half-engaged brain, my heart skipped a beat. "What have I missed?" I thought. "Has the euro finally crashed ... has war been declared ... has the Royal Flight crashed and burned, with the Queen on board?"

One had to turn the paper over to see the substance of the "disaster". This is almost unbelievable ... today marks the day when the media marked its progression to the bottom, demonstrating with absolutely clarity that it has totally lost the plot.

Whatever your views on the issue, compare and contrast the headline in the Evening Standard for 1 September 1939, the day that Hitler's forces invaded Poland. And alongside is the news of the foundering of the Titanic on the front page of The New York Times.

There is something terribly, terribly wrong when the media can take such a minor event in the grander scheme of things and inflate it out of all proportion. When confronted with a real disaster, what does it do then?

But, more importantly, it betrays a mindset. This is "bubblespeak", where the political claque, of which the media has become part, has become so wrapped up in its soap opera that it has lost the ability to discriminate, to see and understand what really is important.

By that measure, today's front page will become a collector's item – treasured by historians to come, marking a passage into puerility from which it scarce seems possible that we can escape.

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