Day 3 of election hell........and according to a Yougov poll 43% of the population is sick to the back teeth of the whole thing already. It dominates the news as they all fight to get as much air time as possible, because it’s all a “party political broadcast” for them.
Needless to say this airtime is spread among the “3 main parties”... by which I mean the "3 main ENGLISH parties”, because in Wales Plaid is a main party, forming part of the coalition government of the country, and in Scotland the SNP is the party of government.
Out of the entire world it could only be in Wales and Scotland that the party that forms all or part of the government could be considered to be a minority party.
It is such an insult to us and our countries. It’s like Plaid and the SNP were running some little Community Council, organising the Village Fête and the Bring and Buy Sale for the Woman’s
Guild, instead of being responsible for most of the things that affect our day to day lives.
When we complain they treat us like disappointed children. ‘Now now, don’t you worry’, they say, ‘we’ll fit your little man in at the end of the news programme, instead of the item about Mrs McTomshie’s cat being stuck up a tree.’
Last night I wat
ched an impressive performance from Cameron. He called members of the public “sir”; he listened to their questions, long winded and boring though they were, with an eager and interested look on his face, then he opened his mouth and told them what they wanted to hear. It bore no resemblance of course to how it will be, but it made them happy.
But it’s an easy job for Cameron.
Brown has an altogether harder job. He has to explain why the country is in this mess under his stewardship. (When you think about it he’s been one hell of an unlucky Prime Minister. Within days of his taking over there were flood
s and an outbreak of pestilence, and within weeks the bottom had fallen out of the banking system and the economy collapsed.)
Clegg has the easiest job of all. He can make it all up. He knows he won’t have to do it.
Changing tack slightly....Something I wondered as I watched Brown last night, and again as I read this superb piece in Scot Goes Pop this morning: why do they refuse to answer the questions they are asked?
The interviewer asks his question and the politician, disappointed that it’s not to his taste, answers the question he’d hoped for. Clearly I can see that the reason for this obfuscation is that the answer to the question that said politician was asked is one which will embarrass him.
But do they seriously think that we are so incredibly stupid that we don’t see the unsubtle shift from “Wasn’t it rather insulting to business leaders to say that they were led astray by the Tories?” to “I’m glad you asked me that. Low Inncome Tax has always been a top priority of this government....blah”
I find it almost as insulting as my government being ignored as a party in the election. I’d far rather hear someone admit. “Yes. That was a howler. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
It would work for me. What about you?
Needless to say this airtime is spread among the “3 main parties”... by which I mean the "3 main ENGLISH parties”, because in Wales Plaid is a main party, forming part of the coalition government of the country, and in Scotland the SNP is the party of government.
Out of the entire world it could only be in Wales and Scotland that the party that forms all or part of the government could be considered to be a minority party.
It is such an insult to us and our countries. It’s like Plaid and the SNP were running some little Community Council, organising the Village Fête and the Bring and Buy Sale for the Woman’s
Guild, instead of being responsible for most of the things that affect our day to day lives.When we complain they treat us like disappointed children. ‘Now now, don’t you worry’, they say, ‘we’ll fit your little man in at the end of the news programme, instead of the item about Mrs McTomshie’s cat being stuck up a tree.’
Last night I wat
ched an impressive performance from Cameron. He called members of the public “sir”; he listened to their questions, long winded and boring though they were, with an eager and interested look on his face, then he opened his mouth and told them what they wanted to hear. It bore no resemblance of course to how it will be, but it made them happy.But it’s an easy job for Cameron.
Brown has an altogether harder job. He has to explain why the country is in this mess under his stewardship. (When you think about it he’s been one hell of an unlucky Prime Minister. Within days of his taking over there were flood
s and an outbreak of pestilence, and within weeks the bottom had fallen out of the banking system and the economy collapsed.)Clegg has the easiest job of all. He can make it all up. He knows he won’t have to do it.
Changing tack slightly....Something I wondered as I watched Brown last night, and again as I read this superb piece in Scot Goes Pop this morning: why do they refuse to answer the questions they are asked?
The interviewer asks his question and the politician, disappointed that it’s not to his taste, answers the question he’d hoped for. Clearly I can see that the reason for this obfuscation is that the answer to the question that said politician was asked is one which will embarrass him.
But do they seriously think that we are so incredibly stupid that we don’t see the unsubtle shift from “Wasn’t it rather insulting to business leaders to say that they were led astray by the Tories?” to “I’m glad you asked me that. Low Inncome Tax has always been a top priority of this government....blah”
I find it almost as insulting as my government being ignored as a party in the election. I’d far rather hear someone admit. “Yes. That was a howler. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
It would work for me. What about you?
Hate to point this out to you, but the election is for a UK government, not an English, Scottish or Welsh one. Now you may decry the fact that Labour, Tories and the Lib Dems are English based, however that's where the bulk of the UK population resides so unless you're suggesting that Scotland for instance should have the same number of seats as England then it's a fantasy that a strictly Scottish (or even a Welsh) political party will ever dominate the UK parliament.
ReplyDeleteConsider yourself lucky that you have a Scottish parliament to keep the economic idiocy of Labour at bay (to a degree) the English don't have their own parliament and we're about to pay a terrible price for it.
No Quiet Man. I'm in agreement with you. I know it's for a yUK parliament, but it is really irritating that the party of government, the party many people in my country support don't get a look in.
ReplyDeleteI heard the fool Brown burbling on about how he would do this that and the next thing for hospitals and schools yesterday, and I know that Mr Cameron will answer about the schools and hospitals with his plans which will be much the same, but so what I think, nothing to do with me.... They might as well be talking about Botswana schools and hospitals.
LOL.....We've been through this before. I know you guys got a rough deal. I don’t know why you put up with it. Blair did us all over and he set up little toy parliaments because he thought we were all thick enough to say, “Oh thank you Mr Blair sir, that is really good of you. Now we feel as if we matter just a wee bit.” But he kept the English parliament and the UK parliament as one. I imagine he thought that if he gave England a parliament it would mean federalisation. But remember until then, it was by and large an English parliament that had a Welsh and Scottish and Irish minister in it, whatever happened in the Celtic nations was decided by English MPs, and even now, whether we have VAT income taxes, go to war, pay pensions, drop bombs, pay for Princess Mrs Parker-Bowels and her kids’ holidays, are all decided in Westminster in a parliament largely made up of English MPs.
Of course there are 50 odd million of you and only 5 million of us. And as such what we have to say really doesn’t matter. It never has.
I’ve often heard people who hate the EU say and the € say that it’s a stupid currency because the economic situation in Spain is totally different from that in France.
But in the yUK he have an economy that is geared to the south east of England and doesn’t begin to take into consideration the situation in Edinburgh and Glasgow, never mind Lewis, Harris and Skye.
Of course the Celtic fringe will never dominate in the London parliament, but why oh why do we have to keep on listening to these arses blethering about stuff that is happening abroad, when we pay our licence fees too.