Election comment 1

Mark 8 Comments

I wonder whether Emily Thornberry and Barry Gardiner have been on a media training course – if so, it’s certainly working.  Back on 20 April Barry gave Adam Bolton a trouncing on SKY news and he had a really good go at Nick Robinson on the Today programme last week. And then Emily Thornberry puts Michael Fallon firmly in his place over making up the views of the Labour party on the Marr show yesterday.  These two spokespeople are particularly good at media work, partly because they are calm and usually quite softly spoken – so when they get a bit narked it really looks as though it means something. And both of them have been doing a great job at not accepting the premise of the question (West Wing fans may remember this phrase) or in the case of Fallon insinuation or allegation. If these corrections are well done, then they are very effective and makes the speaker, and thus their party, look strong.  Or perhaps they haven’t been on a course at all, it’s just that the ructions within the Labour Party over the last few years have allowed real talent to float to the top.

The Greens have stepped aside in 31 seats in order to allow the non-Tory incumbent to stand a better chance of holding the seat or the non-Tory challengers a better chance of taking it.  This includes in half of the eight seats that the LibDems held in the last general election.  The LibDems have stood aside in Brighton Pavilion and the Labour Party has stood aside nowhere.

It would be a great shame if Caroline Lucas didn’t get back into parliament and my guess is that she will. She does a great job in parliament and this is her third general election contesting the seat whereas the Labour Party has fielded a different candidate in each of the last two elections and another new candidate (20-year old student Solomon Curtis) this time around.

In other news, a Frenchman was shockingly captured on camera surreptitiously kissing his own wife! Rumours have it that he was softening the blow that his first act as President would be to legislate that putting out les poubelles would now be regarded as le travail de la femme.

 

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8 Replies to “Election comment 1”

  1. I have been impressed with Emily Thornberry and Barry Gardiner too. They both in eyes would make very good PMs.

  2. In Tory news Theresa May was confronted by someone with mental illness over benefit cuts and not only refused to apologise for damage already done but hinted darkly about much worse cuts for people with mental ill health and disability in general. She has “big plans” for them, but refuses to say what those plans are. Probably workhouses knowing her religious beliefs, which are stuck in the 1880s.

  3. Emily is my MP. She’s on track to be one of the last two Labour MPs left in the UK (along with Jeremy in Islington North, thus constituting the Continuity Labour Party of North London.) So she’s not doing everything right.

  4. ‘it’s just that the ructions within the Labour Party over the last few years have allowed real talent to float to the top’

    Mmmn, like Dianne Abbott and Dawn Butler you mean?

    Shame we don’t hear more from Jess Phillips, I always enjoy her candour and refreshing sincerity.

  6. Noam Chomsky had some interesting things to say except it was cut out of the aired BBC Newsnight interview.
    https://www.thecanary.co/2017/05/11/heres-the-moment-from-yesterdays-newsnight-the-bbc-didnt-want-you-to-see-video/
    The Guardian gave him more scope
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/10/labour-partys-future-lies-with-momentum-says-noam-chomsky

    Best of all was May in front of a bus with about 40 people.
    https://www.thecanary.co/2017/05/13/a-bystander-took-a-behind-the-scenes-photo-of-theresa-may-that-reduces-her-campaign-to-a-sham-image/

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