Political Blog: who should I vote for?
Not my usual subject but like you I'm more interested than before - my last vote was for the Green Party in 1988, if that was an election year and if not, the nearest to then.
What really impresses me this time is how the parties are conducting themselves. Surely the Conservatives can afford better PR advice - all the free publicity they're giving Labour with the extraordinary poster campaign that, if you're driving by, leaves only a fleeting impression of 'Vote for Me' or 'Let me do it again' next to Gordon Brown's picture. They ought to attend one of my NLP trainings to learn about the subliminal effects of language. This remarkably negative choice of campaign - by David Cameron, the man who first said he would put a stop to and then became the Maestro of Punch-and-Judy politics, marks the Tories as the natural party of opposition. I have to say, some of their scorn tactics really put me off: the Sarkozy-box comment surely lost the vote of the verticaly-challenged, Cameron's mockery of Baldemort must have lost a few of the bald, while Grayling's embrace of the anti-gay posture would not not have helped their cause on Clapham Common.
Of the three contestants, I don't see any having put their foot in it quite so far as the Tories: I am reluctant to believe that they are doing all this deliberately.
So that leaves me with someone to vote against - but who to vote for?
The press don't help at all with their favourites to support. What happened to objective journalism? The TV people are no better: they complain that politicians don't answer their questions, and then don't give them time when they try. Watching Andrew Marr this morning, his constant interrruptions almost to the point of heckling I found so irritating that it was a real effort to pay attention to what Nick Clegg was trying to say. Paxman was a little better with Cameron, at least allowing him to answer even though he rarely did.
We are an enlightened and compassionate society - yes, we are: we have opened our hearts to the huddled masses for generations, and I'm looking for an enlightened and compassionate government. You'd have to go a long way - as I have, to over 50 countries in my 69 years - to find a place where everyone is cared for, even our enemies. We might not like it but its the right thing to do in a land where although we might not agree with what they say we'll die defending their right to say it.
Who was it who said - each nation gets the government it deserves?
What really impresses me this time is how the parties are conducting themselves. Surely the Conservatives can afford better PR advice - all the free publicity they're giving Labour with the extraordinary poster campaign that, if you're driving by, leaves only a fleeting impression of 'Vote for Me' or 'Let me do it again' next to Gordon Brown's picture. They ought to attend one of my NLP trainings to learn about the subliminal effects of language. This remarkably negative choice of campaign - by David Cameron, the man who first said he would put a stop to and then became the Maestro of Punch-and-Judy politics, marks the Tories as the natural party of opposition. I have to say, some of their scorn tactics really put me off: the Sarkozy-box comment surely lost the vote of the verticaly-challenged, Cameron's mockery of Baldemort must have lost a few of the bald, while Grayling's embrace of the anti-gay posture would not not have helped their cause on Clapham Common.
Of the three contestants, I don't see any having put their foot in it quite so far as the Tories: I am reluctant to believe that they are doing all this deliberately.
So that leaves me with someone to vote against - but who to vote for?
The press don't help at all with their favourites to support. What happened to objective journalism? The TV people are no better: they complain that politicians don't answer their questions, and then don't give them time when they try. Watching Andrew Marr this morning, his constant interrruptions almost to the point of heckling I found so irritating that it was a real effort to pay attention to what Nick Clegg was trying to say. Paxman was a little better with Cameron, at least allowing him to answer even though he rarely did.
We are an enlightened and compassionate society - yes, we are: we have opened our hearts to the huddled masses for generations, and I'm looking for an enlightened and compassionate government. You'd have to go a long way - as I have, to over 50 countries in my 69 years - to find a place where everyone is cared for, even our enemies. We might not like it but its the right thing to do in a land where although we might not agree with what they say we'll die defending their right to say it.
Who was it who said - each nation gets the government it deserves?
posted by Kris Deva North at 11:08 AM
