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Politicians are odd, aren't they?
Comments
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shaven-monkey wrote: ». It's much more appealing for you to ambush the prime minister in front of cameras!
OK, I just saw the clip.
That absolutely stinks of set-up.
Ben Butterworth, with a toff accent straight out of public school, ambushes Brown in front of the cameras, and says.....
"Gordon, Gordon, Gordon, can you tell me why I can't get my children into a state school in my area".
"Gordon, you say you're talking to the voters, but you're not talking to me."
"Gordon, can you tell me why I can't get my children into a state school in my area".
Then turns and smirks into the camera, exclaiming that "Gordon is a joke".
Perfect soundbite material for the evening news. Coincidence? Absolutely no chance.
And in the post confrontation interview, he lets it slip.
He can't get his children into a "good school", not any school in his area, just the one he thinks is the "good school". Gosh, I wonder which Tory activist fed him the soundbites and gave him Browns travel schedule.....
Expect more stunts like this as the campaign progresses.“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
-- President John F. Kennedy”0 -
HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Alistair Darling, George Osborne, Nick Clegg....
I'm 100% sure none of this lot would have, particularly in an election campaign.
Cleaver, I completely agree that it's a sad state of affairs.
But I've gone through media training for various employers, and watched case study after case study of competent and confident senior executives have rings run around them by professional journalists twisting their words and leading them on with trick questions.
In the media frenzy that surrounds an election, where one false move or slip of the tongue can cost your party the leadership of the country, I understand precisely why they don't risk it....
Osborne is writing to people to ask what they think. At least, he's written to me - addressed to me by name at my address, but opening "Dear Elector..." Since I have had no contact or involvement with any political party, and I always refuse to answer anyone or anything that asks me how I am going to vote, I assume that this is because I live in an ultra-marginal constituency. I'd be interested to know if anybody else has had one.
It has lots of stuff about tory economic policies and the reasons for them, and a tear off thingy at the bottom for replying. There's a list of 7 policies where you tick the ones you agree with, a space for what you would most like the next government to deal with, and a final bit asking how you intend to vote and whom you would prefer as PM, Cameron or Brown.Do you know anyone who's bereaved? Point them to https://www.AtaLoss.org which does for bereavement support what MSE does for financial services, providing links to support organisations relevant to the circumstances of the loss & the local area. (Link permitted by forum team)
Tyre performance in the wet deteriorates rapidly below about 3mm tread - change yours when they get dangerous, not just when they are nearly illegal (1.6mm).
Oh, and wear your seatbelt. My kids are only alive because they were wearing theirs when somebody else was driving in wet weather with worn tyres.
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Anyone who thinks the Tories are going to be any better than Labour is going to be sorely disappointed. In the age ot austerity that lies ahead the Tories will be more concerned about helping their rich friends than the ordinary person.0
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Rubbish.
It doesn't matter if it's an undercover Sun reporter (although it clearly wasn't), if Brown is happy with what he's talking about then he can have a conversation about it. What are the two outcomes? Either Brown still disagrees with the man and tells him respectfully after hearing his issue that there isn't anything he can do, or he hears that the guy has genuinely been hard done by and promises to get someone to look in to the issue for him.
The public, generally, are morons, and this guy was especially moronic for expecting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be able to give him any answers or have the time to deal with his trivial local issue. The whole thing was clearly just a banana-skin that Gordon was wise to avoid stepping on. A Prime Minister that wasted his time with such things just because someone manged to ambush him at an opportune time would be short-changing the other sixty million UK citizens on the far more important duties he should be performing.
The whole (originally Tory) policy of parental choice is idiotic. Given a choice, everyone naturally wants to send their kids to the best school in the area. This obviously cannot happen, there aren't enough places and someone has to go to the other schools. The real issue that needs to be tackled is why some schools are so much better than others in the first place. Solve that and no-one would care.0 -
But that's exactly why parental choice and internal markets etc. were introduced - so MPs could evade responsibility for making sure all schools and hospitals in their area were of an acceptable standard. What, you're expecting them to earn their salaries? What next? Legitimate expenses claims only?0
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If I was in that guy's position, I would have asked........
"Gordon, why are you and all politicians such lying f*cking thieves"?"The problem with quotes on the internet is that you never know whether they are genuine or not" -
Albert Einstein0 -
If I was in that guy's position, I would have asked........
"Gordon, why are you and all politicians such lying f*cking thieves"?
And then Nutrisse would have reported your question to the abuse team.:rotfl:“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
-- President John F. Kennedy”0 -
Degenerate wrote: »The public, generally, are morons, and this guy was especially moronic for expecting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be able to give him any answers or have the time to deal with his trivial local issue. The whole thing was clearly just a banana-skin that Gordon was wise to avoid stepping on. A Prime Minister that wasted his time with such things just because someone manged to ambush him at an opportune time would be short-changing the other sixty million UK citizens on the far more important duties he should be performing.
The whole (originally Tory) policy of parental choice is idiotic. Given a choice, everyone naturally wants to send their kids to the best school in the area. This obviously cannot happen, there aren't enough places and someone has to go to the other schools. The real issue that needs to be tackled is why some schools are so much better than others in the first place. Solve that and no-one would care.
This post, combined with one of Hamish's above are the correct ones.
Thing is, politics ain't about a clean fight. Actually, the party activists follow opposition party candidates around with the sole purpose of upstaging and heckling.
The guy raised a local issue, which as degenerate correctly identifies is not a party political issue. It is a local council issue for the guy. If he feels so passionate about it, he is more than welcome to stand. However, if he can be identified, I'll bet a lot of money he would have very specific links to the tory party.
I also agree wholeheartedly with shaven monkey's comment. The electorate will allow themselves to be duped, hear what they want to hear, & buy the sun believing every word as fact & especially the sun says... A society gets the government it deserves. We have stood back for years & allowed our parliament to slide & we've accepted falling standards. It is now our responsibility to remedy this, by standing, voting for real beliefs rather than a colour, by voting for independents, by putting forward real issues instead of the insignificant ones politicians actually follow up (due to self interest more than anything else).
Remember, politicians are public servants, they can only act on what we give them. So go to their surgeries, meetings, consultations. Lobby them for what you want/believe in. It isn't just about voting for them once every 5 years - the interaction should be ongoing. Once voted in, they are there to represent their constituents. So make them answerable to.
That said however, we'll probably be lucky to get a voting turnout in excess of 30%.
& then everyone will moan for the next 5 years...It's getting harder & harder to keep the government in the manner to which they have become accustomed.0 -
lemonjelly wrote: »The guy raised a local issue, which as degenerate correctly identifies is not a party political issue. It is a local council issue for the guy. If he feels so passionate about it, he is more than welcome to stand. However, if he can be identified, I'll bet a lot of money he would have very specific links to the tory party.
Spot on. And do we really expect politicians to stop and have a chat with each and every twit shouting at them?
"Gordon, why can't my kid go into a good school??"
"Gordon, what you gonna do about the potholes??"
"Gordon, why is my local library closing??"
Come on....0 -
Well, I have to say I have had a positive response to asking politicians things (cross party). I posted recently I was pleasantly surprised by response to a somewhat lacklustre email I sent to a local candidate.
HAve to say too though, Martin Bell did start crossing the road for a while when he saw DH. I think the issue was more DH than bell.0
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