Why are Labourites always accusing other parties of being "nasty" when their own representatives are often so snippy and snide and unpleasant? What a rude - and ignorant and panicky - little madam Lucy Powell is! I would have expected someone - even a Labour MP - who studied Chemistry at Oxford and London Universities to be a lot more intelligent and to have better manners. "The real world where I live" is evidently one devoid of facts, figures, logic, truth or common sense.
Ghastly woman.
Is it my imagination or have many female politicans or female "spokespersons" interviewed on TV or radio anticipated a set of questions and then learnt a response by rote [ and therefore perhaps not fully understanding the content of what they have memorised ?] . Some of them sound very mechanical and "monotonous" when answering. The giveaway on radio is the tone which remains flat as if they are reading straight off the page and their syntax is faultless.
ReplyDeleteBut if a clever interviewer steers them even slightly off course they soon unravel [see Natalie Bennett of the Greens, for example. Grats on the World Cup by the way ...er, that's Cricket, Ms B. Don't they have a Green party down under?]. Ms Lucy Powell, instead of trying to regain some cohesion with charm or humour or quick repartee, gets emotional and shirty with Brillo [who has demolished some proper heavyweights in his long career as opposed to this piece of fluff. You once ran a clip of Vince Cable getting a seeing to from Neill?].
Anyway, the road to the election in May is probably going to end up looking like "The Highway of Death" out of Kuwait City in 1991 and I suspect that along with a lot of other people I really don't care who the various pieces of wreckage belong to. What an uninspiring shower our current politicians are. Starting with Osborne and his vulgar little quiff and bumfreezer jacket....
Mind you, after the election we have the Ashes and the Rugby World Cup so these Southern Hemisphere bastards will be swaggering all over out TV screens once again which is also hard to take. Perhaps the campaign won't be too bad? [Yes it will].
It was 1997 and we'd invited some female Labour candidate onto our nightly, free-flowing panel discussion programme on BBC2 to discuss Labour's proposed hunting ban, because one of our researchers had met her at a party and she'd been very relaxed and chatty and she had written about the cruelty of fox-hunting. She arrived at BBC MIllbank accompanied by a Labour Press Office thug. Instead of joining in the convivial pre-programme refreshments with the other guests, the fembot and her minder sat huddled in a corner of the Green Room (i.e. my boss's office) evidently rehearsing potential questions. She looked terrified. I offered her a drink (very cheap wine, I hasten to add). She declined. I introduced her to the other guests (including Freddie Forsyth, so they weren't all nonentities). She said nothing. I told her that it would be a genuine live discussion rather than some rigid Paxman-style Q&A. "Look, do you mind?" her chaperone barked at me. Mr. Forsyth and I exchanged glances. Her performance on the programme was execrable and embarrassing. The other guests tried to jolly her along and get her not to parrot prepared phrases in a dreary monotone - but after about ten minutes, they all started ripping her to shreds - like a pack of foxhound, come to think of it.
DeleteMandelson and Alastair Campbell started this ghastly trend, I suspect. Yes, they are coached, and yes, they can't think on their feet (or at all, in some cases).
Like you, I am mystified by the current penchant for short, overtight jackets - looks like they've borrowed them from a 13-year old.
The Ashes campaign will be horrendous.