General Election 2010: Now for the hard part
All sides will be relieved to have got through Day 1 without a disaster, though there’s a few hours to go and we have yet to hear from Dave at his rally in Leeds. The Tories can claim a win for effective stunt of the day with their idea of getting a Vote for Change poster in place in Trafalgar Square for the helicopter cameras to pick up as Gordon Brown drove past on his way to the Palace. Cute. It makes up for the weirdly missed visuals of his County Hall event: camera angles wrong, Westminster bridge behind his head so it looked like cars and buses were flossing his brain as he spoke, the all-bloke backing chorus (with the hair thing). That will take time to work itself out. Looking at him on News 24 now, it’s not much better (although he’s just remembered to name check the gay community). The Tories are pleased with their pre-emptive start. But its best to remember there’s another 30 days of this, so it’s too early to get smug. Dave was at the same hospital where Sharon Storer ambushed Tony Blair in 2001, and word on the street is reporters were banned from following him in.
Gordon Brown had by his terms a good day. There was no obvious clanger, if you ignore the by now standard technical snag (for teleprompter screens, read sound glitch) and his mis-spoken words about ‘the contract between the people and those they are sworn to serve’. That and the Stockholm syndrome Cabinet. Labour put on a professional show, complete with groupies apparently passing themselves as passengers at St Pancras (thanks Guido Paul). Mr Brown’s visit to the Kent seats suggests a campaign that is not quite ready to retreat to its Bavarian redoubt. An election campaign is a slog, that requires reserves of patience stamina, determination. It’s about more than clever Twitters and helpful blog-trends. The hard part starts now. On current evidence, I reckon a Tory majority of between 15 and 20. But as Dave has just said in Leeds, people are not just going to wander up to the ballot box and give the Tories their vote. But that image of Dave in his rolled up sleeves finishing with – blow me – “fire up the quattro, it’s time for change” is going to help no end.
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Is Gordon Brown grounded?
April 9th, 2010 6:06Comment on this
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The BBC’s Laura K and her chums
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COMMENTS
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Mr Brogan: enjoyed this — ‘flossing his brain’, ‘Stockholm Syndrome cabinet’, ‘Bavarian redoubt’. All nice to see a professional at work.
As for the ‘all-bloke backing chorus’ (another nice phrasing) that you insist on: surely the Sikh was within blow-tickler distance? And if your readers could spot women there, surely the electorate can, too?
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I think I meant to say ‘all good phrases’. But somehow I forgot to type it.
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I’m glad to be having a holiday during the campaign. I will need the rest.
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“his mis-spoken words about ‘the contract between the people and those they are sworn to serve’.”
You have proof that was mis-speak I presume.
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Brown did stumble. Actually, his face smacked the tarmac on the BBC 6 O’clock news. During his jaunt in Rochester:
Brown, speaking to little girl: How old are you?
Little girl: 5 – (holding up five fingers )
Brown: 5? (Holding up ten fingers…)
If the Tories want it I have it on video…
Wonder if the Beeb have it on IPlayer still?
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Yes, Benedict.
Rolled up sleeves, ready to face facts, do the job, get UK PLC back to real work, not Brown’s fantasy finance, debt bubble, liar stats; get down to the gritty business of pulling this country back from the brink of Brown’s Stalinist nightmare. It will be a long, hard slog, and it will be worth it, imo. Free the people from Big Brother State, assembled by Stalinist Brown, bought and paid for in his youth by his Soviet mentors, aided and abetted by the Fabian Society, the enemy within.Forewarned is forearmed, as follows:-
‘…Meanwhile, his former spin doctor Charlie Whelan – now political director of union Unite – backed up the class war diatribe with his own intervention.
Appearing on Sky News, he said: ‘People know David Cameron’s background. He went to Eton. That might be a factor in how people vote.’
Crush this, thus: ‘People know Gordon Brown’s background. He is a career politician. He’s never held a job outside politics. He cannot understand the life of people who take a job, any job, pay taxes, obey the law, and send MPs to Parliament to do their bidding. Brown says he is a ’son of the manse’. That means nothing to most people. It’s a privileged place. All stats show how Britain has become poorer under his reign. Brown has got richer. Everyone else is poorer, and his tax plans will make us poorer still. The gap between poor and rich is bigger under Brown’s reign. He knows nothing about ordinary working class or middle class people.’
Or words to that effect. Gloves off. This is not a polite parlour game between politicos and media. Fight Brown. Bury him.
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PS,
I agree, Benedict. The Tories can win a working majority. Our Darling admits that this is the worst financial crisis in 60 years. ;-) That was the last time the Tories overturned the odds, and won.
This is the moment. This the time. This is when this country will vote for sane politics, not appeasement.If the Tories keep their nerve, stay true to this nation’s values, allow Saatchi to do their job, then they can fix broken Britain, financially and socially.
One problem: can the Tories stun their lazy Party members into becoming activists, ambassadors for the cause?
Hmmmm. Lazy Britain is Brown’s ace card in this game of political liar’s poker.
Whelan understands this weakness in his own party, and other parties.
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