UK Politics

[Mundungus Fletc]

Originally Posted by Overdose

I would also add though, that I have heard a lot of people ask why the parties are so reliant on posters. To which I answer, they are not.

Posters are a dirt cheap way of getting a lot of free publicity - all the newspapers cover them for nothing.

I think Labour are right to concentrate on the eighties even though many voters don't remember them. That vile, corrupt, greed-driven, divisive decade is what we can expect the Tories to try to repeat. (Though given that they now have neither oil revenues nor any assets to flog off cheap it will be difficult for them to do it)

[Overdose]

I guess it's a good way to get the base out, but I'd point out that a "return to the 80s" would get a whole lot of the Conservative base out as well.

EDIT: OH WAIT is that the entire point of the campaign? Oh man I'm a genius. (Hopes that all posters forget that they all came to that conclusion a good long while before I did )

[Melaszka]

Originally Posted by AldeberanBlack

If people are struggling with debts, mortgages, job losses, council tax, rent etc....then a dumb poster clumsily mocking another party offers no comfort or hope to them.

Actually, I think both main parties have, to an extent, been forced into negative campaigns bashing the other party, rather than positive campaigns highlighting their own ideas (always assuming they have any ), because sites like MyDavidCameron have been so effective in parodying attempts at positive campaigning. It's much harder to do a MyDavidCameron on the Tories' latest posters highlighting Brown's flaws than it was on e.g. "I've never voted Tory before".

I keep reading that the poster is now almost dead as a campaigning tool because the Internet lampoonists will always be one step ahead.

Re the Gene Hunt posters - I don't know. There is a danger that people too young to remember Thatcher will just think "Gene Hunt - cool!" I'm less worried about the section of the electorate that look back fondly on the 80s as a time of economic boom, because I'm assuming they would have been voting Tory, anyway.

I'm actually extremely worried, though (at a time when we're still waiting to hear if anyone's going to be charged over Ian Tomlinson's death and when no-one's faced charges over Jean-Charles de Menezes's) to hear David Cameron speak affectionately about Gene Hunt's bending-the-rules-and-the police-are untouchable-and-don't-need-to-be-held to-account policing methods and implying that it would be a good thing for the police to go back to the 80s. No-one wants police stuck in an office filling in forms all day, but there's a reason why the police have to be more accountable now than they were in the 70s and 80s (Birmingham Six? Guildford 4? St Paul's/Brixton/Toxteth riots?)

And I think the most interesting thing about the Gene Hunt campaign is that, in order to cut costs, they got a member of the public to design it. I'm not sure if I think this is a positive step forward, away from spin doctors and towards people power, or just a depressing indication of how empty the Labour HQ coffers are.

Originally Posted by Overdose

I don't mind the posters too much, they're witty enough. Plus, whilst I know that people want debates over the issues, I'm going to have to bring up the axiom about whether democracy works: the best argument against democracy is a 5 minute chat with the average voter.

It's still the least bad alternative we have. And the "average voter" doesn't seem to bother to vote any more, anyway, which worries me more.

[Klio]

Actually, turnout is my biggest worry. I'd rather have a government I personally haven't voted for elected by a majority of a large proportion of the electorate, than anybody being elected on a small turnout.

[Overdose]

Now that the election has been called I thought I'd make a new thread for the election itself. I know that we have limited participation here, but I'm hoping that people will be more likely to join in now that an election is imminent. I'm hoping that a dedicated election thread would help.

[Klio]

Look at that... has he finally called it.

The surprise is overwhelming, I see...

I am still outside the UK and won't have much time to deal with the election before sometime in mid-April - but I am sure that a thread will get posts eventually. It's going to be a pretty exciting election, at least because the outcome is so uncertain. I can't say that I can get very exceited about any of the possible outcomes....

[Overdose]

Oh, also, I posted the Economist interview with Mr. Brown, here is their one with Mr. Cameron. I think both are worth-while reading since they are rather more sober than the standard catchphrase diatribe.

http://www.economist.com/world/brita...ry_id=15814344

[Alastor]

I'm fine with giving that election thread a chance, but if we experience difficulties in keeping the threads apart I'll close this one for the duration of the other.