Tuesday 20 July 2010

Who'd have thunk it?

According to a book by Gordon Brown's pet pollster, British people are a bit thick, and Labour Party members (probably all party activists), of which I'm one, are a bit weird!
Labour's 2010 election slogan – "a future fair for all" – was confusing. "Voters misunderstood, thinking that this might refer to some sort of futuristic theme park – a 'future fair'," Mattinson writes.
Basically, they are all a bit weird. I mean, what they had in common wasn't their political opinions – they covered the whole spectrum, from centre-left to far left – they weren't united by any ideology or political belief. 

No, it was that they were all slightly strange people ... strange personally, I mean. They were people who really did want to spend their evenings sitting in church halls or community centres agonising over quite arcane points of detail. 

And they weren't just doing it that night, but every night – the committee for this, the committee for that, the council, whatever. They were sort of lonely and socially odd.



I guess you do have to be a little it obsessive to care about participatory democracy rather than just hope it carries on without any help, and it can be time-consuming, but I'm a bit miffed by the arrogance of this rich cosmopolitan parasite. Activist keep the parties alive, raise the money, pick candidates, hear about voters' concerns… all things that the centralised marketing scum who run party HQ want to abandon. To them, party members are the annoying ticks who keep reminding them that beliefs and policies are more important than soundbites and acquiring free lunches and lucrative directorships. The bastards.


I don't think voters are thick either.


Unless, of course, it's possible that a pollster is just one rung up from an advertiser in the intelligence/values/trustworthiness stakes…

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