Quote of the day 30th May 2015

"It would help Labour if it had leaders who talked to the voters as if they came from the same human species — or if that is too much to ask, from close relatives among the higher primates."

(Nick Cohen, in an article in Standpoint titled "Labour doesn't get why the Tories won.")

Comments

Jim said…
It would help if all people from all all parties done more of this, and I have to say that the attack on Carswell has not helped, its hindered this approach.

All it done is sent a message that the political class should be segregated from every one else.
8:16 am
Chris Whiteside said…
Fair comment, and you are absolutely right about the fallout of the attack on Carswell.

The last incumbent Prime Minister who was willing to meet ordinary people in an environment where nothing was scripted or controlled was John Major (literally on a soapbox in town centres) and that is nearly 20 years ago now.

David Cameron did hold "Cameron Direct" meetings around the country which were genuinely unscripted and at which many of the people present and asking questions were not Conservative activists when he was leader of the opposition.

But to the best of my knowledge he's not done anything that unscripted as Prime Minister. I am convinced this is for security reasons rather than because he's personally afraid of difficult questions from the public - if the "Cameron Direct" event I attended in Cumbria is anything to go by he did not have the slightest difficulty dealing with such questions.
1:38 pm
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