Does outdoor advertising make a difference?
January 5th, 2010
Will Tory fundraising make victory more likely?
Perhaps the key element of the first day of the campaign was the realisation that the Tories have got a lot more money to play with and are ready to invest heavily in outdoor advertising.
We got the first taste yesterday with the NHS poster campaign said to be costing £400,000. What a contrast with Labour’s news in the Times this morning that it is facing potential bankruptcy and is expecting to be outspent by a factor of three or four.
But does the resource gap matter? And how effective are big costly poster campaigns like the one that has just been launched?
For unlike the US and many other countries political advertising on television remains banned in the UK with the result that those parties with big budgets have no real alternative but to put the emphasis on outdoor campaigns. A bonus is that they can be highly selective about the poster sites they buy and can focus heavily on the marginals.
I’m sure you would be hard-pressed to find a single elector who said they were switching to the Tories because they’d seen the Cameron NHS ad. But we do live in a very different media age than even thirteen years ago.
In a multi-channel TV era which most people now enjoy large numbers of viewers never see a TV news or current affairs programme. In the old days when there were just three or four channels it was hard to avoid them - so all the effort to get the best sound-bites on the Ten o’clock news is now less important.
Political views for the marginal voter, it is said, can be determined by fleeting glances and it’s here where the big poster campaigns are said to come. But this requires more than money. The message has to be spot on and to resonate.
If the Tories can get that right then their bigger budgets are likely to give them an edge. The downside is that they can be accused of trying to buy the election.
Mike Smithson
MessageSpace Advertising
first!
It’s not the best poster in the world, but not the worst either.
Everyone I speak to hates seeing politicians on posters though - although that might just be the people I know.
The boards themselves will generate some return on investment - but not a huge amount I expect. The key thing is that the press then report them. We’ve all seen this Dave NHS poster but probably 99.9% of us only via a news site or a blog.
What the billboard campaigns may really be buying is the right to lead the news for a day. That’s quite valuable I suppose.
It’s a good clear ad with a simple to understand message.
KISS is always the way for those fleeting glimpses.
We can froth all we like on sites like this as fellow anoraks but ‘normal’ people don’t care about 99% of yesterday’s Westminster excitement.
At the risk of being confirming Easterross’s suspicion that I am a Liberal Democrat here is Nick Clegg’s piece on pacts and deals.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6975890.ece
“One, we will respect the will of the public. The voters are in charge and the decision is theirs. If voters decide that no party deserves an overall majority, then self-evidently the party with the strongest mandate will have a moral right to be the first to seek to govern on its own or, if it chooses, to seek alliances with other parties.”
5, strongest mandate is not very helpful. Does he mean share of the vote, or number of seats?
re 3. Patrick - but far fewer people are watching the news - that’s the point I was trying to make. The ads themselves have to have an impact.
6: I would imagine that its delibratly not helpful. Giving him enough wiggle room to act.
“I’m sure you would be hard-pressed to find a single elector who said they were switching to the Tories because they’d seen the Cameron NHS ad.”
If it works i think the main impact of the Cameron/NHS stuff will be keeping nominally Labour people at home - especially the women.
7 Well then they need to be perfectly pitched in terms of message and location. No point sticking anything up in Kensington & Chelsea!
It will make a difference; it won’t come anywhere close to making the difference.
Money does matter but probably not all that much. UKIP, the BNP and the Greens ran their Euro-campaigns on a shoestring but still won very good shares of the vote given their historic support. Partly, that was being in the right place (outside Westminster) at the right time (Expensesgate), but it was also about policies and/or image. A big budget can only push things that much further forward.
What I find interesting is that this next election looks like being a referendum on the Conservatives. The Tory posters and press conferences are focussing on the party’s policies - as are Labour’s.
That said, considering that Labour and the Tories had a much longer lead time than they normally will have to get their launches right, they both made a right hash of them. Labour’s dossier was laughable, containing all sorts of claims that were easily and instantly shown to be wrong. However, I’d still give them the day on points after the shambles that was the Tory policy on married tax allowance - what our tennis pundits would call a forced error.
The pretty inept media performances, if continued, will considerably outweigh the impact of posters.
8, but given the electoral system the only party that would have lower vote share but more seats would be Labour.
10 …and I suppose my view on the impact of turnout on the Tory vote is no secret here on PB. The ads should be aiming to get shy or unsure voters to feel comfortable with Dave and to feel very uncomfortable with Brown - that will get more of the DNV crowd into the polling booths. In that sense I think the Dave NHS poster works pretty well..
9 (cont) Although on reflection i suppose anything that keeps soft Labour at home probably also makes soft Tories who can’t handle the “nasty party” tag more likely to come out and vote.
7. But I think Patrick is right - less people may be watching the news but I would guess at least the same number of people (and probably more) are still gathering news from various sources whether that is newspapers, internet news sites, blogs etc (even Politicalbetting.com). As long as the poster is getting reported across the various media, it should be quite effective.
I think it’s more about damping any Labour attacks. It gets the message out there so that inevitable Labour claims about the Tories wanting to destroy everything don’t ring quite true. That will then lead to the potential to get votes. So it’s about that, rather than getting votes directly.
As Goebbels would have told you the point of propaganda is not to change people’s minds but to reaffirm and reinforce already held views.
These posters increase the awareness of the Tories and specifically Mr Cameron, but also have a slight subliminal effect too. The message sinks in - even when you’re not concentrating on the billboard.
Expect many more. This is a 5 month poster campaign.
There’s also the issue of ‘why not’? The Tories seem to be able to afford to start early and there’s limits on what they can do once the GE date is announced.
It’s a bit like one army having a million more shells than the other - so they just start barraging the enemy lines. They may not get a decisive result from it but they’ll kill some enemy and weaken the defences a bit - it does no harm.
Maybe kicking this off now puts a pressure on Labour to go earlier as they seem unable to afford to match the Tories for 5 months.
I hope the Conservatives and LDs have spent some money on their web-hosting.
At the Euro elections the opposition websites fell over due to increased traffic. Labour had no problem.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/04/opposition_website_ddos/
The voters just want to know where to put their Not Labour vote.
Nobody ever admits to be swayed by advertising, yet companies spend billions on it, so the consumer must be lying.
The problem for political parties however, is that billboards are usually used to initiate awareness, or retain awareness of a campaign that takes place mainly on TV or elsewhere. They are not well suited to being the whole campaign.
Having said that, with simple messages, they can make a difference, by rebutting the enemy attack and by supporting other kinds of campaigning. The ability to place the adverts where they really count, also helps.
18 …and to stretch the military analogy they have a morale effect on the parties too. Tory activists will be cheered by it and Labour demoralised. In war the failed morale of an army leads rapidly to defeat. Perhaps this raises the chances of someone on the Labour side making a terrible gaffe - it cetainly puts a bit of extra pressure on Brown and his economic record. Maybe Dave wants to rope-a-dope Brown into a spectacular cock up on live TV and this is the warm up act.
‘You’re Goddammed right I ordered the Code Red!’
5 - “If voters decide that no party deserves an overall majority…”
Isn’t his a pretty meaningless phrase? How do the voters decide this? Isn’t it more likely that about 40% of the voters want a Conservative majority, 30% want a Labour majority and 20% want a LibDem majority. How many (how many could) vote for ‘No Overall majority’ in the polling booths?
It’s just a rhetorical formulation to justify Nick clegg doing whatever he wants.
11 David Herdson
If this election is becoming a referendum on the Conservatives, then that is a major strategic victory for Labour.
The Conservatives need the media agenda to be on Labour’s failure.
Repeated FPT
Clegg doing Mumsnet interview on Wednesday at 1. Early comments very receptive.
What will really make a difference is which of the two major parties manage to annoy the electorate least. Brown on Marr was dreadful, Balls on BBC Breakfast was so transparently indulging in electioneering propaganda and Darling came across as the nitpicking Opposition Treasury spokesman rather than the man in charge. In these dire economic times does the Treasury have nothing better to do than produce a 150+page report on the Tories’ economic proposals? Meanwhile Cameron’s efforts seemed coolly understated but his side did their best to show some disarray over the marriage tax incentives, but this could also be down to the general medias’ efforts (and not just the BBC) to big up even the most puerile government announcement.
The poster campaign did indeed serve to set the ball rolling. On the showing of the past two days it’s going to be a long, aggravating, unbalanced and unfair campaign. Tapestry is PB.com’s Isaiah!
David Herdson, who is on fire this week, sums it all up at 11. Money follows power, not vice versa.
The only point where I’d disagree is that I would have given yesterday to the Tories on points. To be talking about whether an apparently popular Tory policy is cast eye-ron or merely a strong aspiration owing to the current financial circumstances is not that good a message for Labour to be focussing on, when all’s said and done. Meanwhile, Labour’s dossier is chip-wrapping now, having done the Tories no harm, and its attack lines on VAT have been undercut. A complete shambles by both major parties though.
‘Imagine election finished nil-nil’
- Firing blanks … Gordon Brown and David Cameron
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/papercolumnists/billleckie/2794598/Bill-Leckie-column.html
Interesting to see that Nick Clegg is not making PR a pre-condition of his party’s support. He needs to be clearer about what he means by a mandate.
I have never been convinced by Poster campaigns in general but I think that this is beginning to look like a tactical mistake. Cameron looks very airbrushed, and using “I” - as others have said-is something of a hostage to fortune. OGH beleives that DC is an asset, but then he also thinks that “Squeeky” Osbourne is a far more substantial figure than he comes across in the City.
Mary Riddell’s comment:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/maryriddell/6932976/David-Camerons-lone-star-strategy-gives-Gordon-Brown-a-glimmer-of-hope.html
5 Even if you supported Tommy Sheridan, as a fellow Scot I would like you just as much.
So Labour is going to reap what it has sown. I didn’t hear Labour candidates in 1997 complain about the fact their war chest was bigger than that of the Tories, inevitably something which helped people like Nick Palmer capture hitherto safe Tory seats. So this time it’s our turn, good.
The thing about the posters is that they will probably adhere to the 1st Smithson rule of current politics, namely the more voters see David Cameron, the more they are likely to vote Tory, especially the women who do tend to vote for the good lookers, hence Blair’s automatic advantage over Major, Hague and Howard.
Without a paper bag over his head Gordon Brown simply could never look attractive or handsome on any poster.
Today the media is about a split between Brown and Darling over reducing the deficit, brought to the surface (again) by their differing attacks on Tory spending, which is in fact not even Tory spending.
Clegg sitting on the sidelines like an over indulged Violet Elizabeth saying he will not join the game until the other two have broken all their toys is hardly likely to win voters for the LibDems.
Listening to Danny Alexander last night claiming both Labour and Tory parties are moving on to the LibDem agenda was hilarious. This is an MP who has been as effective in the past 5 years as a chocolate teapot. He gets nothing done in his constituency and apart from diehard LibDems, I don’t know any of his constituents who think he has achieved anything in the past 5 years.
23. wibbler - “If this election is becoming a referendum on the Conservatives, then that is a major strategic victory for Labour.
The Conservatives need the media agenda to be on Labour’s failure.”
I totally agree. Thus far things are going better for Labour than for the Tories.
Cameron desperately needs to turn the focus onto ‘The Idiot’, not onto himself!
19 - Mitigating a large denial of service attack is rather more involved than spending a bit of money on their webhosting. Describing it as “increased” traffic doesn’t do a DDoS justice.
I’m sure there’s room for a conspiracy theory somewhere that only the opposition parties suffered DDoS attacks whereas Labour’s didn’t
27 Stuart right now your party is not exactly covering itself with glory so dont crow too much.
2 councils in Scotland had run out of gritting salt yesterday, Fife and Renfrewshire. the thing they have in common is both are run by the SNP. The SNP finance minister had to rush on to TV news programmes last night to claim all Scotland’s councils had adequate funding to secure sufficient road salt.
My dear friend if your Government and councils cannot provide enough salt for the Scottish roads, the voters will not forget that quickly and it is your party, not Labour, whom they will blame.
The Tories are going to need their advertising advantage to counterbalance the blatant attempts by the BBC to prop up the Labour government. The BBC were so transparent yesterday I almost felt embarrassed for them.
31 I suppose the next set of polls will tell us what effect, if any, the opening shots have had. I have to say I think, with respect, David Herdson has this one quite wrong. Governments lose elections, oppositions don’t win them. The loss happens when a government is exhausted and unpopular and the opposition looks electable and credible. 2010 will be only about 5 more years of Brown. A referendum on spend, spend, spend. I can’t see at all how it is becoming a referendum on Dave. Even the Guardian says he looks prime ministerial.
It’s the economy stupid.
re 29. Cicero - you mis-quote me. I have repeatedly said that Osborne has a far better strategic brain than just about anybody else. I have not made a judgement about “how he comes across”.
Off topic, this must surely be the story that epitomises the era:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/04/new-scanners-child-porn-laws
Still snowing in Yorkshire. Must’ve had about 4 inches overnight. Stupid weather.
The first day of the New Year election campaign has disappointed. But it is Labour and its the media that have failed not Tory politicians.
The journalist’s task is to communicate policy announcements made by the politicians; to compare and contrast the offerings of the political parties; and, to provide value added comment within predetermined editorial policy which draws on their own knowledge and experience.
Instead we have been subjected to a new 21st century blood sport, in which journalists set out not to inform or entertian but to sate their own thirst for hunting and entrapping politicians.
“Tally Ho!”, cries Toenails, who sights Dave and chases him into a contradictory statement on tax breaks. Dave quickly goes to ground and the Beeb elevates news of its sighting to the top of bulletins. Farmer Tupac responds to the Huntsman’s horn by hurrying to the covert on a quadbike. Tupac the Terrier Man releases Gabble and Coldstone for the kill. The terriers driven by their owner snap and snarl all over the blogs. But Dave outfoxes them all by slipping from his earth. The chase begins anew.
The unelectable in pursuit of the untouchable.
Shouldn’t this cruel and unnecessary sport be banned?
37 MD
I did warn you yesterday
25. el windy - “On the showing of the past two days it’s going to be a long, aggravating, unbalanced and unfair campaign.”
Ha!
Welcome to how politics in Scotland has always been.
You guys chose to have the Great Chieftan of the Puddin Race as your head of government; so do not be surprised that he imports all the worst aspects of Scottish Labour behaviour.
32 Flange
If you read the comments on the article, you’ll see a ddos attack is the least likely explanation.
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2009/06/04/opposition_website_ddos/
“…their admin is making an excuse.”
To me the powerful message is “We can’t go on like this”. That can be put to use with a wide range of follow-on messages, and it rams home the point that Broon is presiding over a complete shambles.
29. Cicero - “OGH beleives that DC is an asset”
OGH is wrong.
Cameron is already past his sell-by date, and he ain’t even FM yet. Just wait until you see his approval ratings come spring 2011. This lad is gonna break all kinds of records.
38. Excellent post Seth. It is a new blood sport and it risks undermining the entire functioning of political life. The BBC in particular should be hanging their heads in shame.
33. Easterross
Err… road grit? Road grit?!? Is that the last glue holding the Union together? That we have run out of grit in Springfield, Fife and Houston, Renfrewshire?
In that case, you guys have already lost.
Money spent on “campaign visibility” in the form of advertisements makes a huge difference, at least when there’s a spending gap. Those who look at the 2008 US election are often puzzled by the anomalously strong McCain result in Minnesota compared to similar states in the area. The explanation, of course, is simple: Minnesota is the only state where McCain outspent Obama in advertising. (Obama withdrew advertising from the state when it became clear he was going to win, but McCain continued to pour money in until the end.)
Stuart Dickson @ 43
Cameron is already past his sell-by date, and he ain’t even FM yet.
It took a second to sink in, I thought Cameron & Hague had swapped places.
FM is what you call the chap in charge of your dinky parliament. Down here the top dog is called PM.
I hope that Labour can be goaded into trying to outspend the Tories, to have them getting themselves into the same place they put the country would be very just. I also noticed on the morning news from the BBC that they are also staking out their stall as stalwart anti-Tories.
29 As I said last night, Mary Riddell has completely misinterpreted that poll.
34% is the percentage of people (including don’t knows) who would prefer Cameron to be PM, as opposed to Brown or Clegg. It isn’t an approval rating (Cameron’s approval rating is 47%) nor is it a voting intention question (which excludes don’t knows).
If don’t knows are excluded then the favoured choice for PM is Cameron 50%, Brown 33%, Clegg 17%.
One of Darling’s claims in his “Un-Funded Tory Dossier” is “Tory Maternity Nurses For All”!
What…even if you’re not pregnant
That poster invites the following graffito:
We can’t goon
like thisI’ll cut the deficit not the NHSThat poster invites the following graffito:
We can’tgoonlike thisI’ll cut the deficit not the NHS42. FergusMac
I think that “We can’t go on like this” is a great slogan.
Shame the SNP didn’t think of it first!
45: I don;t think it has anything to do with the union. It has to do with the compentency of the local SNP run council.
Good to see the mandarins (the FDA on the Today prog) rapping Labour’s knuckles over Darling’s Dodgy Dossier, saying such use of Civil Servants was political and therefore improper, and anyway the Dodgy Dossier is full of unfounded political assumptions about what the Opposition might do.
The FDA chap mentioned that the Tories ‘faced the same temptations in 1997′ but pointedly did not say that they did it. It is well known that Major forbade it because he thought it out of order.
Not much of a start for Labour, with the (formerly) Brown Treasury conspicuously not on side.
Hmmm….
David Cameron’s slogan ‘we can’t go on like this’ was used by Thatcher on immigration
- Voters can expect to hear the Conservatives’ new slogan – “we can’t go on like this” – repeatedly in the months leading up to the general election, but they could be forgiven for feeling they have heard it before
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/6932576/David-Camerons-slogan-we-cant-go-on-like-this-was-used-by-Thatcher-on-immigration.html
That Stuart, a Scots separatist, has a poor opinion of Dave, a Tory, is unremarkable. But OGH is not giving an opinion here. Dave IS an asset and popular. That is shown in leader poll after leader poll. Stuart shouldn’t hate his enemies - it clouds his judgment.
It’s probably right that a Dave honeymoon will be brief. His task will be to get as much of the stink to attach to Labour as he can. I’m expecting revelation after revelation to come from the civil service over the coming years.
The one thing I wish NC had said this morning when faced with the inevitable “who will you side with” question, was the following:
“I suggest that before asking me, you ask Mr Cameron and Mr Brown who they would prefer to go into coalition with. You may find that they have more in common with each other than with any other party. for example, look at their recent agreement on Iraq/ID Cards/Etc etc … “
This poster had an effect, unless I’m mistaken. Why does it resonnate 31 years later?
http://backspace.com/notes/2002/09/the-poster-that-won-the-election.php
Patrick bear in mind the commuter road and rail routes through West London, not all poster viewers would be voters in K and C.
52. It wouldn’t work for the SNP in this election, they are the ones in government remember! Recycled for your referendum campaign as the cutting starts (which has to happen whoever is in power) it could be a winner though.
Of course advertising spend makes a difference-often in direct proportion to extra sales.
Using the advertiser’s face to sell his own product though is full of pitfalls. As a rule clients are always advised against. Richard Branson’s a rare exception. His image is such that he’s a positive for Virgin and their target customers.
Politicians by contrast are about as popular as botulism. I can only hope they’ve done some research.
Tabman, I saw the poster on a couple of sites on the A40 into London this morning. They were on the electronic signs - which you can’t really graffito…
Mr Dickson,
Cameron is an asset for winning the election. His approval ratings come 2011 are not the issue right now.
Cameron v Brown for the next five months = rout on the level of say, Culloden
“labour isn’t working” worked as an ad. “you paid the tax where are the nurses/teachers?” was working when Hague switched to Europe. My concern has been expressed above, that Cameron is still in de-tox and hasn’t started being an opposition. They do need to ram home just how unjust and unfair labour have been. It’s the job of the opposition to do that, and there is a big backlog.
The modern environment is very fast moving and people suffer from an information overload. Combined with the feeling that politicians in general have ‘done a Ratner’ over expenses, poster campaigns will have the marginal voters flinching as they try and avoid looking at the damn things.
I think Labour has already arrived at a campaign strategy.
I expect a short official campaign but a long run-in to minimise costs. The idea is to squirrel away Gordon Brown. He will appear and make official statements about matters of government - a statesman dealing with serious business - while others attack Cameron as inexperienced and untrustworthy. Attack the Conservative’s main asset while protecting Labour’s major liability from close scrutiny. By the time the official campaign starts the voters will be sick of the whole business and Cameron’s profile will have been rendered threadbare by attrition - meanwhile, guess who has been above the fray?
60 Gordon Brown could take heart that Bernard Matthews successfully used his face to sell turkeys…
58 For sure - fully agree. Some locations next to main transport routes can get a big audience.
I seem to remember that the key GE fight is going to be in the English towns. Most of them have only a limited number of main roads in and out. Expect billboards on marginal seat roundabouts soon.
48/ I was interviewed by Mary Riddell once. She’s a moderately skilful journalist, but she looks like a decomposing cassowary.
Poor lass.
55 - The electorate will not think they heard it before. Not that much of it will remember slogans from the 70s!
57 - Nick Clegg would be most unwise to say that.
1) The other parties have realistic chances to win outright, so by saying this he would draw attention to the Lib Dems’ lagging status
2) Whether true or not, most voters would think “what a pathetic thing to say”.
56. Patrick
Classic straw man argument.
I do not “hate” FM Dave, so please stop stating that I do.
All there is to say on, ‘Big Dave’s’ poster campaign really.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon/
The Times also has a report that Labour is bankrupt, (nothing new there) of course it could be an underdog tactic, it probably is.
I do hope Ms Lumley, ‘the mother of the nation’ will be increasing the number of shampoo ads etc, that she does to pay for all the Gurkhas who have started arriving, penniless of course.
Which wasn’t going to happen.
66, the key GE struggle may be Thursday night/Friday morning when the ballot boxes are being ’stored’.
70, you were very upset with him when he didn’t back the SNP decision to free the Lockerbie bomber.
70 Fair dinkum. What then drives your view that he is not an asset (contrary to all measured opinion on the matter)? Just your own feelings?
71 - Penniless or not, we owe them.
Good Morning Snowman Voters For Nick Palmer Worldwide.
Meanwhile …. have to say this first poster effort from the Blue Bunker is a dud. My first casual take was that it was a Labour attack poster - picture of Dave and the words cut, defecit and NHS.
Also general media coverage of Day 1 has turned out as a score draw for Labour and the LibDems. For the Tories Our Dave had better sort out his pledge arse from his promise elbow.
Round Two …. Ding, ding ….
48, 67. I just tried to find a picture, on Google images, of a decomposing cassowary, to illustrate my point of how Mary Riddell looks like one.
Weirdly enough, there aren’t any. So you’ll just have to put up with this image of a non-decomposing cassowary:
http://tinyurl.com/nondecomposingcassowary
to compare with this photo of Mary Riddell:
http://tinyurl.com/telegraphjournalistmaryriddell
57. Tabman
Please note that Lab/Con pacts are becoming increasingly common in Scotland.
As UKIP, the BNP and the Greens grow in England, you should brace yourselves for some Lab/con pacts down there too.
59. chris
It was the referendum campaign I had in mind.
“We can’t go on like this”
“We’re full of wind and p1ss” ?
73. Has he died yet?
re 72. And Stuart please could you stop attributing views to me.
http://dizzythinks.net/2010/01/sending-your-neighbours-message-through.html
Yesterday was just the first over of a five-day test, and I’d say the Tories have put one lazy run on the board with a positive message (”I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”) while implying that everyone agrees about Labour’s record (”We can’t go on like this”). At this stage in the match the spectators are not in the mood for aggression – most of them haven’t even arrived at their seats. The Tories are fortunate to be led by Cameron and not Pietersen.
75. The “3 months to live” Lockerbie bomber ?
F1: points for pole positions and fastest laps could be on the way:
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/another-change-coming-for-the-f1-points-system/
87. “75. The “3 months to live” Lockerbie bomber ?”
That’s the chap, he must be dead by now.
64. David Roe - “His approval ratings come 2011 are not the issue right now.”
I, like all people campaigning for Scottish sovereignty, think strategically.
FM Dave may (or may not) be a tactical asset to the English (and perhaps Welsh) Tories, but one thing is for certain: in the medium-term he is a disaster waiting to happen for the Union.
79 - cassowary so wants to be included in re-written lyrics for G&S’s “Three Little Maids From School”.
Three little maids who, all unwary
Come from a ladies’ seminary
Freed from its genius tutelary
Three little maids from school
Three little maids from school
Ms Mary Ridell who, all unwary
Looks like a rotting cassowary
Thinking of which made SeanT feel merry
(or was it) Three little maids from school,
Three little maids from school?
So, what have we learned from the first day of the phoney war?
That ‘the broadcast media’ will try to derail any carefully pre-prepared statement/dossier and then run with their ‘exclusive’ take on the material available. So, this isn’t neutral reporting.
So, what’s the solution. To use a different ‘medium’ [pl. media] that you can control to get across the message that you want to be heard.
The media is not just fracturing at the broadcast level but in other technological ways as well. And in order to get a message across, you need to be active in all media segments, not just the traditional broadcast & print modes.
So of course, billboards will work. They’re part of a series of mediums. Just don’t rely on them entirely. Use them to distil the key element of a more complex message that’s been delivered in the broadcast/print arena.
The traditional media should tap the nail into the block. The poster should bang it right in with a hammer blow. Different tools for different jobs.
87. The Ernest Saunders de nos jours?
Is Mary Riddell the ex-Guardian journalist, just another one of the lefties hired by the Labourgraph?
The self-same man who is living at home in Libya?
One other little thoughtlet …. the Conservatives spent a juicy defecit on posters in the 97 election. Oopps
Like all other advertizing the subject has to be tuned in, if only vaguely and liable to the message. A tuppence of truth also helps a little.
76. But Jack,you are about 109 years old, and by your own admission heavily incontinent and borderline senile. The rest of the population, which is in possession of its wits, will see quite an effective poster.
The more I see it, the cleverer it seems. A very nice soft cuddly blue colour, a sober yet approachable pic of Dacid, with a gentle but needling reproach against Labour, and an inclusive use of the word “we” as in “we can’t go on like this”.
The pic of Cameron is especially smart. He looks like the kind of intelligent, personable, trustworthy and truthful young doctor you’d like to see if you had a very serious heart problem (or bladder and brain problem, in your case, Jack).
The nation is worried that it has a very serious heart problem. That nice Doctor Cameron can sort things out and he says he’ll do his very best to minimise the pain.
Like it.
PS the idea that a party can be accused of “trying to buy the election” is intriguing. Because any such accusation is petulantly pointless. Chelsea were accused of trying to buy the premiership a few years ago. The whiners sounded like whiners, and Chelsea duly won the premiership.
90 - I’ll keep my pennies in my pocket before betting on Scottish independence any time soon.
An unpopular Tory government might actually lead to a Labour revival in Scotland come the next North Britain council election?
53. What tosh, the contractors did not deliver the orders , almost certainly diverted to some English council that offered them extra cash for it , cash that probably came from Scotland as well.
You could not make it up and then we get numpties on here making out it is the SNP at fault. It started and ended in London, we just get the mess thrown at us, be interesting to see if DC finds some gumption and gives Scotland real fiscal power.
95. With £1.8M in a Swiss bank account ?
Just a picky point on the poster, “cut the deficit” equates to “carry on borrowing and increase the national debt further (but not as much as the other lot)”. A stronger message would be to claim that the Tories will start to reduce the debt by the end of the parliament - is that their aspiration, or is that economically impossible, and it will take more than 5 years to achieve zero net annual borrowing?
99 is for 55
94. Yes.
66. bono publico - “I think Labour has already arrived at a campaign strategy… Attack the Conservative’s main asset while protecting Labour’s major liability from close scrutiny. By the time the official campaign starts the voters will be sick of the whole business and Cameron’s profile will have been rendered threadbare by attrition - meanwhile, guess who has been above the fray?
A very astute analysis.
By the time the GE is eventually officially called, marginal voters will be sick to death of FM Dave already.
Tories: do not come crying to us saying that we did not tell you!
I said yesterday that posters are only effective if they have simple, easy to understand, one liners.
The poster in question really has three distinct message:
1. I’m Dave Cameron, look at my face and trust me.
2. The main slogan: It cant go on like this
3. a Secondary slogan: about the NHS.
It also has the “Year for Change” logo in the corner which doesn’t detract from the main message.
Whether all three messages will resound equally will have to be researched later.
22/5. The voters have always decided that no party deserves a majority. It’s just that the system usually ignores their wishes…
105. Message=messages
“The pic of Cameron is especially smart. He looks like the kind of intelligent, personable, trustworthy and truthful young doctor you’d like to see if you had a very serious heart problem (or bladder and brain problem, in your case, Jack).”
But the trouble is, Sean, he also looks (and sounds) like the kind of over-confident doctor who then proceeds to take out the healthy kidney, as opposed to the diseased one, because he’s so sure of himself he doesn’t listen.
91 Tabman
May I suggest an Oxonian amendment?
Line 3 of Verse 2
“Thinking of which made SeanT feel merry”
to become
“Thinking of which made SeanT re-marry”
101. We had this debate yesterday. A number of us (me included) said the message should have been “I’ll cut the debt” not “I’ll cut deficit”, simply cause the word “debt” is stronger, shorter, and more easily understood.
Your well made point adds to that argument, though I suspect it is probably true that it will be almost impossible to balance the books by the end of one term, so huge is the deficit Labour are giving us.
Agree here with Richards think Clegg can only gain as the other two bicker.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-and-the-firstround-winner-is-clegg-1857780.html
77
Wait till 100,000 of ‘em turn up on what could be Dave’s watch all needing feeding and watering, the law of unforseen consequences will mean something then.
101. Sandy - yes getting the budget into balance in 4-5 years probably is unrealistic.
So, pace what some people suggested yesterday, I am very glad this poster doesn’t suggest that. The contrast with the deliberate conflation of ‘debt’ and ‘deficit’ by Labour sources and their sympathisers is notable.
69. If you think Mary Riddell was ugly what do you make of this poison dwarf….
http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00034/thomas_tarantula_34777s.jpg
104. Stuart - do you think that this poster is targetted at you ie a diehard SNP voter who will support 31 teams at the next World Cup and whos vote will not change the outcome of then next election or at the wavering swing voting female who will ?
In the same way as cat hating me thinks all catfood adverts are rubbish you blinded by the fact that you are not the target audience - hence why you weren’t asked to a focus group for your opinion.
73 ‘The Times also has a report that Labour is bankrupt, (nothing new there) of course it could be an underdog tactic, it probably is.’
Crocodile tears from Blunkett. Labour have the benefit of more MPs with access to the communications allowance, a largely compliant BBC and the COI which appears to be doing it’s damned hardest to spread the message on behalf of it’s political masters. Quit whining.
75. Morris Dancer
I said that his disgraceful, infantile Megrahi statement showed that he was unfit to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
I have not changed my mind on that.
However, at no point have I said I hated the man. I most certainly do not.
104 - Oh dear. This FM Dave is already as tedious (and prepubescent) as wage slave’s Khamoeroen.
101. “A stronger message would be to claim that the Tories will start to reduce the debt by the end of the parliament - is that their aspiration, or is that economically impossible, and it will take more than 5 years to achieve zero net annual borrowing?”
Economically impossible. The Labour government hopes to halve the deficit by 2014, which would still be a disastrous level, and do so by magically achieving continual above trend growth (at about twice the level of the preceding decade).
Cutting spending enough to end the deficit and pay off debt in one parliament would require enormous cuts that would never be accepted by the public. You’d literally need to find savings or growth equivalent to the cost of the NHS, Education and Defence combined.
108 - Seth, like it
Calling all PBers:
We in London are threatened with heavy snow starting around 18:00 hrs this evening.
I know that it is now snowing in Manchester, and that Wales and the West country are going to be affected soon.
Could kind lads/lasses inform us when SNOW arrives in their area, as it will give the rest of us news of the approaching storm.
Thanks.
115, aye, your very words brim with love and respect
97 seanT. Happy New Year to you too !!
I may be slightly over the age of consent but I’ll piss all over a fourth division Cornish sex delusional all and every day of the week !!
As for the poster - it invites ridicule, like yourself - a borderline criminal mugshot and a couple of lines of fiction !!
117 Cutting spending enough to end the deficit and pay off debt in one parliament would require enormous cuts that would never be accepted by the public. You’d literally need to find savings or growth equivalent to the cost of the NHS, Education and Defence combined.
..and therein lies New Labour’s epitaph…
99 ‘What tosh, the contractors did not deliver the orders , almost certainly diverted to some English council that offered them extra cash for it , cash that probably came from Scotland as well.’
malcolmg, you’ve excelled yourself with that post. BTW is your car snowed in today? I’m sure I sure a Rover with the number plate ‘Clown 1′ on the TV news earlier.
66/104 That strategy works if you’re relentlessly attacking someone who’s unpopular.
It doesn’t work if your target is popular. For example, the relentless attacks on Boris Johnson in 2008 were ultimately just water off a duck’s back. They probably motivated some more Labour voters, but Johnson still won comfortably.
At the moment, Cameron has high approval ratings, is hugely preferred as Prime Minister to Brown, so unless he implodes, it will be as futile as every other strategy Labour have pursued since he became Conservative leader.
97
There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston’s own.
You are Winston Smith and I claim my £5.00
104. I know one thing that is going to bore the bollocks off me if this goes on much longer, it’s you saying “FM Cameron” in every comment. Whatever obscure point you are trying to make about your petty parish politics up there in Midgeland, please stop.
112 - that picture does rather invite some captions, doesn’t it?
http://www.thisissurreytoday.co.uk/redhill/Peter-Ainsworth-stand-East-Surrey-MP/article-1669583-detail/article.html
He was a Tory front-bench spokesman. Any reason for complete lack of interest in the main media/political blogosphere?
101 Like others here, I don’t believe it is feasible to begin cutting the national debt (as opposed to the annual deficit) by 2014/15.
Like it or not , and he certainly spouted some rubbish , Brown came out better over the weekend than Cameron. Most people have little clue about politics and national debt etc , they need soundbites and Brown was giving out plenty. He kept pushing the line that labour will do it slowly and help the people , whereas the Tories will once again just make everybody unemployed and wreck the country. To most ordinary punters worrying about their job and mortgage, feeding the family etc , that will sound better than Dave’s , I will cut the deficit. As stated most people will not really understand what is meant by this and assume it is some weasely word just to stitch them up.
126
Well known libertarian tells someone to stop doing something ‘cos ‘e don’t like it.
101: If he said he’d cut the debt, that implies a specific level of reduction in the deficit - to less than zero (as opposed to a vague cutting of it), and questions on what taxes he would increase or things he would cut to reach that.
Obviously there are no such concrete hostages to fortune he’s willing to make (and in reality, I expect a fair chunk of the defecit will be addressed by economic growth… but if politicians base their promises on that it always sounds like flim-flam and wishful thinking).
117. Indeed Labour’s plans will only reduce the deficit to the level it was around the time of the IMF bailout in the 1970s - if implemented.
In reality, the assumptions are so unrealistic that the deficit might only fall to the peak level it hit during the early 1990s, around 9% of GDP.
Once again, it becomes clear that there is very little understanding of just how bad the public finance situation is.
All the outdoor advertising in Britain can not compansate the Tories for the inbuilt Labour bias pumped out daily by the BBC and Sky.
Morning all! Had to go through the snow to the local shop this morning for the papers and I came across the footprints of someone who had been walking through the snow barefoot!
Weird or what?!
125 - perhaps Cameron should grow a ‘tache.
123. Edp , your sad joke failed last week and is no better this week. My large BMW with personal number plate is perfect for the current weather thank you, hope your bicycle is adaptable to snow and ice.
134. You’ve found the last Labour voter
130 That might be so if Brown had any credibility left with voters. But Brown is now on -43%, and far more voters prefer the Conservatives to Labour on the economy. The parties aren’t starting with a blank slate. The 44% or so of voters who currently favour the Conservatives or UKIP are precisely the sort of people who are horrified by the deficit.
WRT the poster, above, most political advertising leaves me cold, so I’m not the best person to judge. But if one party can afford to advertise relentlessly throughout the Spring, and the its rival can’t afford to advertise until the campaign proper begins, that’s a big advantage for the former.
128 - possibly because of this:
General Election 2005: East Surrey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Peter Ainsworth 27,659 56.2 +3.7
Liberal Democrat Jeremy Pursehouse 11,738 23.8 -0.6
Labour James Bridge 7,288 14.8 -4.3
UKIP Tony Stone 2,158 4.4 +0.5
Legalise Cannabis Winston Matthews 410 0.8 +0.8
Majority 15,921 32.3
Turnout 49,253 66.6 3.3
Conservative hold Swing +2.1
I think even the most optimistic of Lib Dems doesn’t think this one will fall …
Thanks for all responses to my 101. So have Cammo/Osborne given a target of where they aim to cut the deficit to by the end of the parliament? It is easy to remember that Labour have said they will halve it (whether you believe that is of course another matter), but unless the Tories state that they will cut it further, then their message translates as “we will borrow more than the other lot”, which I am sure is not a winning message.
133.
A point much overlooked is that GDP includes the goverment spending including borrowing !
http://cynicuseconomicus.blogspot.com/2009/12/as-2009-comes-to-end-where-does-uk.html
“Regular readers will be aware of the fact that GDP includes debt based activity, so it is apparent that the record levels of government borrowing are still insufficient to prop up the GDP figures. Such an outcome is quite shocking, and suggests that the underlying state of the economy is truly dire. The key question is to ask what GDP might look like without the government’s huge borrowing, and the word ‘ugly’ comes to mind. “
131. Coldstone, next we will see all his lovesick followers on berating Stuart for daring to have an opinion other than their hero.
I would much rather see Stuart’s considered opinions than Sean’s ill considered propaganda.
136 - have you fitted snow tyres?
136 ‘My large BMW with personal number plate’
malcolmG, I understand that cosmetic surgery is available for gentlemen with, ahem, ‘inadequacies’ in the trouser department. Surely a call to a discrete clinic in Harley Street would be a cheaper and greener alternative?
112. Roger, lol. I had to eat that tarantula. Legs and all.
labour have run themselves like they have run the country - into the ground. Conversely the Tories have practised good husbandry, enabling them to have plenty of dosh when it counts. Voters may well conclude the conservatives would run the country in the same way, whether they like Dave’s message or not. Therefore big advertising is very very important I think.
labour have run themselves like they have run the country - into the ground. Conversely the Tories have practised good husbandry, enabling them to have plenty of dosh when it counts. Voters may well conclude the conservatives would run the country in the same way, whether they like Dave’s message or not. Therefore big advertising is very very important I think.
142 They’ve certainly outlined a number of cuts in public spending.
I cant believe you can still lay March for the GE date on betfair around 6s - better rate of return than any savings account..
138 malcolmG
My large BMW with personal number plate is perfect for the current weather thank you
Personal in the sense of handwritten?
142 - Until they get to see the books, any figure would be pulled from thin air.
Though that seems to be how Darling makes up his Treasury figures anyway so maybe they should!
128. Can’t say I was impressed with Ainsworth’s performance as a front bench spokesman, at best he appeared to be incohernet and poorly briefed.
The Daily Whail found that he had tried to claim for a pewter radiator cap.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1189104/MPs-EXPENSES-Peter-Ainsworth-tried-claim-1-000-pewter-finish-radiator-cover.html
Perhaps he is spending more time with his family, outside interests, or has peaked too soon.
O/T http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8439870.stm
Gurkhas ‘in need after coming to the UK with nothing’
Coming over with nothing, finding no homes or jobs, and starving in the street. So perhaps not a bad thing that Lumley was excluded from New year’s Honours list.
As she has engineered this avoidable disaster I very much hope we will have heard from her by lunch time how she proposes it should be solved. A five figure donation by her to a charitable fund would be a start.
146. Edp, you just cannot hide that “green cheese” mentality. If you apply yourself , work hard for many years then you too may be able to get one. Trying to boast about having a big sausage does not cut it I am afraid. You need to get out and work.
150
1. First of all catch your rabbit.
and that goes for ‘em all.
156 ‘“green cheese” ? Must be a Scotch thing.
39 Seth
Excellent point. If the press were doing a good job of informing, election campaigns might be more interesting.
134 Oncoming Storm
Vibram Five Fingers?
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/
152. Seth, Yes and with my own crayon as well, it looks lovely.
155 - Slagging off Gurkhas, nice.
143. My ill considered propaganda? The only propaganda I propagate on here is for myself and my books, like my new one, the Marks of Cain, which is coming out in April in the UK:
http://tinyurl.com/brilliantnewthriller
And in May in America:
http://tinyurl.com/fabnewthrillerbyme
Doesn’t the American cover look a bit too Tolkien? Does to me. Like a hobbit should pop out from behind the door. Oh well.
But you can hardly call this propaganda ill considered. It is very considered indeed.
156 - whereas talk about a “BMW with private number” isn’t boasting
146/136. I too have a BMW with a PP. I was in a pub with my girlfriend over Xmas and we got chatting to another couple. We were all a bit pished. The guy asked what car I drove and when GF told him he got a bit snidey like EdP@146.
GF, who was more pished than most, blurted out in a voice audible to the entire pub.
“Oooh, No, that’s not true… Rod’s got a big **** as well!”
I was most embarrassed.
163 Tabman, it screams ‘Road warrior’. Is malcolmG a rep?
Those who toiled over Darling’s dossier must be well peed off that it didn’t last to the end of his own press conference.
Re the outdoor posters - as a first shot 8/10. Where it goes next will be interesting. If they don’t follow through with something punchy, it’ll be a wasted and expensive opportunity.
Someone mentioned several threads ago that the COI had pulled out of booked slots from end of Feb [sparking a load of GE speculation] - anyone know what the current state of play is?
just broke off work for a cuppa and from travel roundup on R5 it seems that the North just falls apart when there’s a sprinkling of snow….
164 - he obviously doesn’t mind never being let out of junctions
O/T, forget who asked, but its snowing in central Nottingham …
163 Tabman. You old rogue Tabbers. Is the head of Nottinghamshire Yellow Perilists of PB and family in fine fettle ?
I note you taking the odd arrow out of the quiver the nearer the election looms !!
161
No one is ’slagging’ off Gurkhas, but there was no real appreciation of the consequences of good intentions.A Policy which has its roots in sentimentality is a sure road to disaster.
Snow now means huge fuel bills just before the election: it’s a Tory plot.
Outdoor posters may be irrelevant
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6933232/Pimco-move-to-sell-gilts-raises-spectre-of-a-UK-sovereign-debt-crisis.html
Fears that Britain may be heading for its first sovereign debt crisis since the 1970s hit a new intensity after Pimco, the world’s biggest bond house, declared that it is starting to sell off its holdings of gilts
92 “So, what’s the solution. To use a different ‘medium’ [pl. media] that you can control to get across the message that you want to be heard.”
I think any politcal party guardianistas don’t like needs to tailor their TV comments to very simple bullet point type comments that are hard to mess with. Any wandering and expounding wants to be done in formats that are more controllable.
Also the people that pay most attention will be reading newspapers and using the web so stuff there wants to be heavy on logic and detail while TV and posters wants to be simple and more emotion based.
Labour outspent the Tories in 2005 when they were still (just) on their winning streak. They are only moaning about Tory money now because support (and in consequence, money, obviously) is haemorrhaging from them. It’s what happens. And ooo look. They want to change the rules now. Sore losers, these losers.
A BMW and a personal number plate…
The tally for the ‘I’m a cock checklist’ is filling up nicely.
164 EdP
Stuart Dickson’s chauffeur.
158. Edp, to spell it out for you ENVY is not good for you, I see now why though.
Morning comrades. On the topic of the poster, it’s not especially brilliant, but it’s not awful either. The one thing I would say is that Cameron might want to be careful with the amount of airbrushing he lets his PR people do. Because if there’s one taunt that still stings him a bit, it’s the style over substance one- he’s smooth enough already without the Photoshopping.
Anyway, I know he’s aiming for sunny uplands, but a bit of gritty realism would go down a treat as well. Although I’m sure CCHQ are one step ahead of me on this.
174 If it’s debadged and has a fake double exhaust pipe - that’s the killer
162 “Doesn’t the American cover look a bit too Tolkien? Does to me. Like a hobbit should pop out from behind the door. Oh well.”
I think they were going for the Dan Brown “ancient door under the vatican” idea but went a bit too far.
168 - all well, thank you Jack. The distaff side is currently in Antipodean climes, lucky thing! Trust all is fine at the home of fine pies.
As the election looms its always good to offer oneself up for herd target practice!
162. Sean , wonderful plug, very witty indeed, up to your best standards.
178 - a set of outsize dark-grey anodised alloys and ultra-low-profile tyres sets it off a treat.
Also on F1: the joint launch scheduled for late this month has been cancelled because more than half the teams (especially the new ones) wouldn’t be ready in time.
Given testing starts on 1 February this may prove a further hindrance to new teams, and lax ones, as they’ll have less testing prior to the opening race.
It’s interesting that the Tories have decided that they should not mention themelves in their election posters. If Labour were halfway decent I think they could probably make a bit out of that as it reinforces a lot of what people like Alan Johnson have been saying - Dave might be nice and unthreatening, but what about the rest of them?
174. Careful or Malcolm will up the ante by telling us about his stone cladding and giant plasma TVs as well.
163. Tabman, it is called humour , Edp in his delusion has been trying to say for some weeks that I am an old labour f*rt with a rover. I realise that this is either his attempt at humour , or he really is stupid, and was posting in a similar fashion at the opposite end of the spectrum. His change of tack to trying to now make me a rep, shows how dim he is unfortunately and maybe he actually believed it all.
185 - I happen to have a pic of the said vehicle, taken by the German from whom he bought it.
185: Or his ‘wine cellar’ (read cupboard under the stairs).
Mike!! seant is using this site to flog his books, tell ‘im if ‘e wants to do that try ebay.
‘Aaaah been on for 3 months and the only bid 5p, and that was me in the hope of getting things going’
174. Slackman appears and adds his usual zero value.
187.
175 ‘Stuart Dickson’s chauffeur.’
Brilliant. I can just imagine malcolmG sat up front like a ginger haired Parker from Thunderbirds, wearing a tartan cap, vest and string backed driving gloves.
169 - It was not sentimentality, it was a hrd nosed decision to attack the government. Not by Ms Lumley - who was no doubt sincere - but by the press and the other parties. That’s politics.
180 Tabbers. Good man …. but au contraire …. I enjoy stalking the herd and then a clean shot and a former many pointed old hand sits astride a pony.
Earlier this morning poor old SeanT offered himself up between the sights, but then scuttled off to another glen. He’s got shocking antlers these days - too much rutting in foreign climes !!
MalcomG @ 144
I would much rather see Stuart’s considered opinions than Sean’s ill considered propaganda.
Breaking News:
SNP supporter prefers views of other SNP supporter over those of Unionist.
In other news, Sex Novelist is rumoured to enjoy the company of lithe young wenches.
189. You tried to flog Ken as Mayor for 3 months without much sucess either
186 - Rovers tend to be more beloved of Conservative Association stalwarts, I would have said.
142. “Thanks for all responses to my 101. So have Cammo/Osborne given a target of where they aim to cut the deficit to by the end of the parliament? It is easy to remember that Labour have said they will halve it (whether you believe that is of course another matter), but unless the Tories state that they will cut it further, then their message translates as “we will borrow more than the other lot”, which I am sure is not a winning message.”
I agree that the Tories should be clear about tax rises and spending cuts, and they should make a realistic projection for GDP and the deficit. That said the Labour line is in essence, don’t worry we can avoid cuts by growing the economy twice as fast as we did when we claimed it was booming. That’s not just improbable it’s downright delusional. If you believe press reports even Darling doesn’t believe in this painless recovery that Brown is trumpeting.
178. Plato, it has all the bling and blacked out windows so that I do not have to see people like Edp on his bicycle and have my day spoiled.
184 Southam Observer
election posters
Bit early to draw conclusions. We have only seen the first one out the stable!
196. The market for pub-bore opinions is a crowded one, so no bids…
194 - well, I’m your man for venison stew! Or is it stu?
161 David Roe, what a dim post. What on earth makes you say I am “slagging off” Gurkhas? What I am slagging off is the patronising saccharine nonsense spouted by Lumley whose effects would clearly be bad for the Gurkhas, bad for their families and bad for their communities in Nepal. And yes, I said so at the time. I know you work for the Sun but that doesn’t mean you have to think like it.
188. Slacko, my wine cellar is my stomach , no need for storage.
196
I didn’t so much as flog Ken, (to be honest he should retire) as take piss out of the pretensions of the Boris is God types, that infest this site.
I hope the next mayor is a Libdem or Independent, fed up with buggins turn.
195 - perhaps Sean wills tart a south of th eborder version of the SNP - the Sex Novelist Party?
195 - perhaps Sean will start a “south of the border” version of the SNP - the Sex Novelist Party?
187. Did I not mention the expensive 4 wheel drive system on my gas guzzler, methinks you do not know your cars from your carrots.
Our Great Leader is in the White House dog house.
Accuses N10 of intel mistakes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6934672/White-House-accuses-Downing-Street-of-making-a-mistake-over-intelligence-claim.html
O/T - tres amusant: http://www.jimmy540i.com/bmwnightmare.htm
179. Yes, I have notable reservations about that cover. It has the same Hobbity vibe as the cover of a mid 70s solo album by falsetto-singing Yes front man Jon Anderson: Olias of Sunhillow.
http://www.insideoutshop.de/images/AndersonOlias.jpg
However I have learned over the years to shut the F up about covers, in the end, when arguing with publishers - unless the cover is so embarrassing it makes me cry.
The publishers in foreign markets know their markets better than me. Apparently all the reps in America loved this cover, etc etc (though my New York agent was less keen; then again my London agent really liked it)
Anyway Viking Penguin made an executive decision, overruled me, and chose this cover, and I trust them to know what they are doing.
Also and relatedly I thought the German cover for Genesis secret was just terrible:
http://www.amazon.de/Genesis-Secret-Tom-Knox/dp/3455401503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262687011&sr=8-1
the worst cover of any of my books, dull and offputting. But it sold five figures in hardback, went into profit in Germany a couple of months ago, and they have bought the rights to the second for more money than the first, so it seems, in fact, that I know absolutely nothing about covers.
I’m sure JackW has a wine cellar worthy of a cask of amontillado.
169 More miserable outpourings emanating from Coldstone’s cynical pit. It might just be instead the Government didn’t like getting egg on their collective faces over this issue and as a result they’re only done the bare minimum to help the Gurkhas who’ve arrived in this country since the summer.
161
Interesting letter in the ES on that subject.
Prince Charles was a backer of Joanna Lumley’s efforts to gain Nepali Gurkha pensioners the right to pensions and to settle in Britain. Neither seem to have thought through what this meant financially, or culturally. Elderly Nepali’s are arriving in Britain with only a suitcase and without speaking any English!
Will either of the pair be putting their hands in their substantial pockets to fund these impoverished new arrivals and their families? When British pensioners went to Spain or anywhere else to settle, they not only took their pensions with them, but savings. And every one of them settling abroad in Spain, France or wherever will have bought their own homes. (Even British pensioners who took part in the liberation of France in WW2 will certainly never have expected the French to house them if they have retired there).
Joanna Lumley would be advised to make a trip to Nepal to inform the expected influx of ex-Gurkha’s that they are far better off in Nepal with there British pension. It will go a lot further there. That with the heavy troops in Afghanistan and the injured returning, army allocation of houses are in short supply and in heavy demand. Especially for returning wounded and families.
Nobody in Kathmandu is telling these retirees and their families that to arrive in Britain without means, work and the ability to house themselves, that they face a dire future of poverty here. Culturally they will be extremely isolated. Bad look-out all round.
You work for the Sun! so you wouldn’t read too many newspapers then!
205 coldstone, with all respect, since your a resident of Dorset, and before that Godalming for a number of years, your views on the next Mayor of London are largely an irrelevance.
208 - what, like this?
212. He probably has pendulum down there as well
On the subject of the weather - how about a 25% performance related pay rise for the head of the Met Office?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6931584/Met-Office-chief-receives-25-pc-pay-rise.html
210. Tabman, Some ace looking cars there.
217 - As JackW himself would say
218. Well they did predict a bbq summer followed by a mild winter.
202 Tabbers. Sadly the market for tough as boots SNPers is a difficult one. The last one in the 1996 game book was used for fertilizer and the odd tongue strap in the dungeon.
Frankly in my view it was shocking waste of shot and we now just capture and feed them directly to the prize winning Auchentennach pigs - who seem to thrive on a nationalist diet of political porkers !!
Is coldstone saying he favours an immigration policy that means only those with the finances to support themselves can come to the UK?
That’s pretty stringent.
221: Maybe he’s got a payrise by doing a ‘Roger’ extremely accurate, just as long as you take the opposite of whats said.
207 Tabman
Your 206 was funnier than the correction!
212 One of the grimmest short stories I ever read as a child.
Quick, can someone think of a posh but slightly poofy French surname for my effete and sinister leader of the archaeological dig in Lozere in my new thriller The Severed Men?
I am on chapter three and this French villain is making his first appearance.
BTW I had an agreement with someone on here, a prize kind of thing, that I would put their name in the next Tom Knox. Can’t remember who it was.
But when it comes out in April, turn to the monastery chapters, and you’ll see I was as good as my word.
209. I think that that is the third dodgy claim from Number 10 relating to the incident. 1) That Brown spoke to Obama. 2) That they agreed to fund new counter-terrorist training, it was already ongoing. 3) We told them he was a suspect.
What next? Brown claiming that he is the man on the plane who tackled the undiebomber?
227 - Francois Delhaye?
227
Leffete?
227 - M. Poussoir de Chemise
212 antifrank. I tend to the Fino. Dry as a bone and well chilled - The Thatcher of fortified wines !!
227. de Toqueville?
228. If you have already saved the world, would you stoop to such a minor act of heroism?
223
We should not forget that the Gurkhas are, (when you boil it down) mercenaries, they are paid for their military skill. Gurkhas should be well paid for that skill, but the UK’s obligation should end there.
I believe as the French did in 1831 we should be considering the use of mercenaries in Afghanistan, operating as part of the British Army. Highly paid professional soldiers, who join up to fight and accept they are likely to die. The UK’s obligation would not extend to citizenship or right of admission to the UK, it would be purely a business transaction: as it should be with the Gurkhas.
227. Poussin
227. Some poofy place names I can think of..
Deauville
Chantilly
Lafayette
Quimper
Fontainbleau
Cholet (wombles beat you to that one)
and of course
Nancy
More snow stuff: it’s been falling heavily, consistently, for ages now. It’s a damned pain in the arse.
Ponce d’Amour.
#122, by Jack W January 5th, 2010 at 9:38 am
…a borderline criminal mugshot and a couple of lines of fiction !!
Enough about Scotchlandshire history. Just because Christina and RedMeteor have cut their droning output does not mean we need any more dull Jockanese utterances.
On-topic:
Shyte poster, but Patrick has already made the best point: Labour can’t compete with the Tories without going bust. Adam Smith must be immitating a fly-wheel when he observes his fellow-natives inability to understand simple economics and finance.
227 SeanT
Louis Dix-Neuvième
Politicians by contrast are about as popular as botulism. I can only hope they’ve done some research.
by Roger January 5th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Your good wishes for the Tory campaign is welcome.
Perhaps the research was in what not to do. Your description of ‘botulism’ might fit the Saatchi campaign proposal with ‘Not flash just Gordon’? On the face of it a quality concept but the result was not as they wanted. Well it was Brown, after all.
You can sell the same crap product several times to the gullible. But the revelation that they have been had brings on terrible negatives.
Politics is not product placement although many of the advertising strategies will work but only if the message resonates with the public longer than it takes to buy a tampon in the supermarket.
The consequence of the choice in politics is much longer term than for consumer products. The result for buying the wrong wine is far less severe than choosing the wrong government which in extreme cases can lead to poverty, corruption or war.
Or in our case, all three.
Enough people understand this game of consequences to have a real consequence itself.
lol. Merci. That’s really f*cking helpful.
“The stooped and wily leader of the Provencal excavations, Monsieur Poussoir de Chemise, led them into the subterranean passageway….”
I’m confused about this Gurkha business - I thought that HMG had agreed that the cost of allowing them to have residency here had been sorted out when Ms Lumley chased Phil Woolas around that TV studio?
How are they now reliant on charitable handout?
244, should Ms Lumley attack the Government it would eclipse all other political stories.
243 -
I didn’t realise it was a novel about daisy-chaining. Which, incidentally babelfish translates as “guirlande”.
Morning all.
The clear lesson from yesterday, for the Conservatives, is to reinforce what I think they already know: that, as far as possible, they will have to by-pass the biased media and go direct to voters. The concentration by the media on an entirely fictitious ‘gaffe’ shows just how difficult it is for Cameron to get a fair hearing. Meanwhile, Labour’s inconsistencies, disastrous management of the country, and near-total lack of any policies post-GE, get almost no coverage.
The latest example was the Today programme this morning, with Benn effectively allowed to make a Labour Party Political Broadcast on agriculture and food policy. In a staggering example of soft-soaping, he wasn’t challenged on anything: not even on the £680M which the Audit Commission says his department has wasted on the Rural Payments Agency fiasco, nor on the hardship caused to farmers by its spectacular incompetence, nor on the decade of neglect of the farming sector by a government which seems to hate the countryside.
Of course, Cameron has to deal with the world as it is, not as he would like it to be, so I wouldn’t expect any explicit complaints about the pro-Labour bias of the media (especially, but not exclusively, the BBC). Instead, they will use advertising, the internet, and of course the live TV debates if these happen, to try to get their message across directly. It is going to be expensive, and hard work, but it is the only way.
227 St Quentin
228 Gordon tried to make it sound like he had spoken to Obama but Marr did question that (picking up on the language used) and Brown admitted he hadn’t, so it never actually made it to a false claim.
It is rather sad though, Gordon trying to get some political advantage out of another near disaster, trying again to repeat the floods, fire and plague editorials of his first weeks (remember they were in the words of the Guardian the toughest any PM had faced)
243 SeanT
Let’s hope your French publisher doesn’t commission a back translation.
245 - check this out
245 Indeed! And more amazing opportunities to hear her tell Phil Woolas what his policy was going to be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcdeK27Y65s
249, call me picky, but didn’t Churchill have a worse in-tray?
Off topic, latest best prices on the month of the election:
January: 150/1 (Victor Chandler)
February: 66/1 (BetFred)
March: 7/2 (BetFred)
April: 12/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral)
May: 4/11 (Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Coral, BetFred)
June: 12/1 (Ladbrokes)
For small stakes you can do better in January, February and March on Betfair.
235: coldstone @ 10:44
Sometimes, Coldstone, you give the impression of not knowing what you are talking about. Sometimes you give the impression of not actually thinking through the ideas you are putting forward.
In this case you have managed to give the impression of both at the same time. Well done.
223. Just read the BBC article and coldstone’s post at 214. There is no political axe to be ground here; labour never articulated the real reasons why Lumley’s campaign should be rejected (for the sake of the Gurkhas themselves) and therefore don’t come out of this any better than their opponents. I would have though it wrong from any political viewpoint whatever that these people (of whom I think very highly indeed) should be freezing, starving, homeless,penniless, massively in debt for the cost of the flight here, separated from their families and unable to go home. Do you not agree?
252, further to this point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X10GOlJtvzU
Gordon about to make a statement - anyone know what it’s about?
700,000+ Redundancies.
BBC1 Today programme, about 7.10 this morning, announced that in 2009 there were over 700,000 redundancies.
However, it did not make the connection that this number is less than the 1m+ extra public sector staff employed by GB and friends over the last 10 years.
243 SeanT
What about
Mauvais
or
Malefique
or
Teigneux
WARNING ALERT **** WARNING ALERT **** WARNING ALERT ****
**** Grand and Most Noble Order of The Cracked Chamber Pot ****
Contender - Richard Nabavi - Post 247.
“…. The concentration by the media on an entirely fictitious ‘gaffe’ ….”
Consideration will be given to mitigating circumstance.
According to Freakonomics, no.
The amount a candidate spends has virtually no statistically measurable impact on their electoral success, beyond a tiny minimal amount.
Ah - a random selection of issues. How odd.
227
‘de’ to make it ‘posh’
Include a ‘Q’
and an ‘elle’ or ‘elles’ ending
eg.
de Quoinelles
(there was a french(?) botanist ‘La Quoinelle’)
256
Dominic Lawson got it bang on!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/dominic_lawson/article6211395.ece
SeanT - he should obviously be a rather short Frenchman of Hungarian descent, with a napoleonic complex, prone to wearing heeled boots with internal uplifters and have a very attractive ex model wife but can’t think of a name to go with that….
261 Jack W - I stand, Sir, on my ground.
The policy before the alleged ‘gaffe’ was (a) there is a commitment to recognise marriage in the tax system, and (b) there is no commitment to implement transferable tax allowances.
Cameron repeated those two points in the interview where the alleged ‘gaffe’ occurred, in response to Darling’s claim that a policy of transferable tax allowances were an unfunded commitment:
“It [transferable tax allowances] is something we want to do, it is something we believe we can do, it is something within a parliament I would definitely hope to do,” he said in an interview with BBC political editor Nick Robinson.
“But I am not able today to make that promise because today we face this vast budget deficit.”
He added: “There are some tax changes we will be able to make [i.e. (a)]. There are others we would like to make but we cannot guarantee that [i.e. (b)].”
CCHQ confirmed point (a) after the interview.
Where is the gaffe?
On topic:
The downside is that they can be accused of trying to buy the election
And Labour and particularly Gordon Brown have never attempted to buy the electorate’s vote? Of course Brown did so despite how disasterous the consequences might be (like encouraging the culture out of which the worst recession in 80 years and highest peacetime public debt in history were created, for example)?
A few caveats on the boiler scrappage scheme - including it has to be gas powered, old and still working to qualify !!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8440557.stm
” To qualify households need to have a working G-rated boiler. It is likely to be G-rated if it is more than 15 years old and gas fired “
227 Francois Le Mignon, Pierre de Crayon, Louis de La Tour d’Argent.
Hampstead & Kilburn Cons doing their own Billboard campaign in West Hampstead. Created great coverage in local papers.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/2009/12/chris-philp-takes-out-giant-billboard-ads-to-remind-voters-that-he-fought-to-save-local-police-stati.html
I prefer something like
Marcel Dupont
or
Henri Bouvier
for a French character
243, SeanT
How about - Poission-Frite (an anagram of sinister poof, and almost a fish and chip joke!)
Or the surname Bouverie as a historical amusement
Pierre de la Petit Pois. Jacques Surrendereaux.
Dominique de Villepin?
268 One has to search hard to find a reference to the “gaffe” in today’s papers.
265. I refer the honourable member to the answer I gave some moments ago (at 234). OK, it ends in ille not elle, but otherwise ticks all of your boxes.
I suppose I should suggest “de Rentoolle”.
Just seen the weather forecast. Lots more ‘global warming’ to shovel away. No doubt in the ‘climate science’ world of temperatures being secretly adjusted in accordance with ‘international standards’ this will turn out to be the hottest winter of all time.
I see that people are dying of the cold all the way across the northern hemisphere, even in India, especially poor people. What are the political parties going to do about it apart from their murderous plans to increase the cost of fuel?
Don’t these political quacks and their ‘experts’ now claim to know all about cold and hot weather? So why are we all freezing cold? Why do the policicians want to make the world even colder? Why is the absence of a brain not even a small handicap in the world of politics?
Hague opens Yorkshire campaign in Morley and Outwood. The ‘audacity of hope’ perhaps?
Tories eye up Leeds seats for election hit list
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Tories-eye-up-Leeds-seats.5954427.jp
280-Because it’s not gloabl warming any more, it’s cliamte change. Sooo different…get with the times….
Of course, next time we have a mild winter it’ll be global warming again.
Though I see, happily, no one mentions Copenhagen any more…
280-Because it’s not global warming any more, it’s climate change. Sooo different…get with the times….
Of course, next time we have a mild winter it’ll be global warming again.
Though I see, happily, no one mentions Copenhagen any more…
276 Et son frere M. Fromagemangent
227.
Côme-Marie Campourcy
280-Because it’s not global warming any more, it’s climate change. Sooo different…get with the times….
Of course, next time we have a mild winter it’ll be global warming again.
Though I see, happily, no one mentions Copenhagen any more…
256
I despise sentimentality, its time to remove the flag from the military. Purchasing equipment and the skills that go with it is a business, no different from any other.
Now go off and have a good cry, in some quiet corner.
Paul Quinelle
268 Richard N. You add to the crime sheet with a well reasoned defence that is entirely blown apart by the BBC gaffe-o-meter.
Sadly you’re also the present joint holder of the PB PotY - the direct opposite of the GaMNOotCCP, and accordingly are held to vastly higher standards than mere mortals of PB.
Should you be awarded this truly wonderous accolade be assured that you are in eminent company :
Nick Palmer .. Rik Willis .. Marcus Wood .. The LibDems.
274
Apologies if this has already been posted but the excuses are already being made:
We’re being outgunned by slick Tory machine, says Labour’s Andrew Slaughter
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6975887.ece
Is Slaughter going for the sympathy vote by pleading poverty? Funny he didn’t mention his communications allowance…..
coldstone, in the same way that OGH has a list of banned words, would it not be quicker and easier for you to produced a list of things you DON’T despise.
278
Didn’t have a problem!
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23791074-david-cameron-denies-u-turn-on-marriage-tax-breaks.do
No ES in Luton these days.
288 Jack W - Eminent indeed, although surely no-one would accuse the LibDems of ever mounting a well-reasoned defence.
288 - Jack, I missed our being awarded the CCP - what did we get it for?
284. M. Fromagemangent rester pour la petit ville de Sourendez-Monkaye.
291 - it’s weird that one of the things he doesn’t despise are tragic bunker yes-men who spend all day slagging off Gurkhas and people who try to help them, while chilaxing in a country pile somewhere.
278
Oh! you might have missed this in the Mail?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240659/Conservative-party-retreat-mixed-wards-promise.html
290 ‘Funny he didn’t mention his communications allowance…..’
jsfl, diito all the friendly publicity from the various unions.
On reflection, I think that Claude Le Mignon would be preferable.
280: Lurker Terry @ 11:13
I covered this point yesterday for Stars and Stripes and I am very disappointed I have to to do it again so soon.
You are confusing weather with climate. Although the Northern hemisphere appears to be going through a very cold spell this is actual proof that Global Warming is real, and caused by man. It maybe cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey but the climate is warmer than ever before.
Now, I hope you have not lit a fire or turned your central heaing on, because both of those activities will increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and actually make the whole situation even worse. It is the duty of everyone in these warmer times to use less energy than ever before, otherwise polar bears will drown.
297. You have the ES, the Mail - you just need a link from the Mirror for the “fool house”.
297 And that appears on page where?
129 - Oh Conhome are interested after all because new selection rules will apply.
re the weather reports asked for - looks like snow has spread down from Nottingham and arrived here in Loughborough. Not heavy… yet…
272. i live in the constituency, and the tories have been very high profile indeed with advertising/flyers etc. in the last couple of months. i do find it a touch surprising though that they obviously consider the seat to be so very close (it is complicated of course by being a true 3 way, not 2 way marginal). my feeling is if the Tories don’t win Hampstead and Kilburn any majority is likely to be pretty small (say 30-40 absolute max) and i’m surprised they are spending so much here this far out from the election.
i’d be interested to know what’s happening in other marginals in terms of conservative visability/advertising, as this slightly suggests to me they are fairly nervous about the overall GE result.
Merci buckops. Some excellent suggestions there. I think I am going to go with “de Quoinelles” as suggested by bono publico at 265. Posh but a tiny bit effeminate. Parfait. And sounds like some gay bit of food you eat in upscale restaurants.
We had some excellent quoinelles! And quoin is, I believe, cognate with some naughty words for country matters.
Thankyou.
I’d offer to put your name in the book by way of gratitude but its gonna be hard having a character called “bono publico”.
I should add the French guy is gonna die in chapter six, when he is literally ripped apart by a lobotomised Cambodian.
293 Quiet in court Nabavi - your case is still pending !!
294 Tabbers. Guilty of “Severe, Gross and Deliberate Lack Of BarChartism in Successive Parliamentary By-Elections”
259. He’s decided to spend GBP 100 billion on a huge network of bunkers to be built under No 10 Downing Street, to be paid for from the cancellation of the Defence budget. Only if he is saved from annihilation, will Britain have a future. The Propaganda Ministry is moving in to help stop the Conservative advance.
Insanity Stalks The Brown Bunker.
From Mr Slaughter!
“I also think the way they promote Conservative candidates with glossy literature and videos is alien to the amateur traditions of British politics.”
Funniest quote of the day.
297
Coldstone
Funny you want to criticise the Tories for having excessive spending plans.. and when they cut them to save money, you criticise them for cutting.
May I suggest it’s a split personality?
300.
Well either you or Lord Monckton are wrong.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/04/christopher-monckton-of-brenchley-replies-to-readers/
“By 2020, the climate scare will be all over bar the shouting, and no one will be cutting CO2 emissions any more.”
309
Errr I don’t think I made a comment, I merely pointed out to sean that the news coverage wasn’t all favourable to the Conservatives.
As for a split personality well don’t we all, I said don’t we all.
297 - What Labour will be doing, from yesterday it is clear the Labour are the ‘Nasty Party’ with no ideas who do nothing. Their start to the campagn re-enforces the view that nothing has changed since McBride smear-gate.
305
It might be the local association have their own funds. Lots of wealthy people in Hampstead, maybe the candidate is spending personal dosh.
Although I am sure many of you will disagree but if the Conservatives do win with a slim majority at the next election, I will not be surprised if they only serve one term. You all point out that the election may essentially be seen as a referendum on Brown, but that is exactly what will give Labour hope for the next election after this one. Once Brown is gone Labour have an opportunity to bring in someone to lead the party into new wilderness and territory that can finally take off this horrible New Labour mask. The stark difference between now and 1997 is that in 1997 the election was not a referendum on Major, but more of a referendum on the Conservatives. It was the party as a collective that people were disgruntled with. It was the sleaze, the scandals and collective mess that the party was. I really feel that the hatred for Labour is nothing in comparison to the hatred people have for Brown alone.
Once again, I don’t expect people to agree but I do feel this will not be the end of the world for Labour and they may very easily bounce back at the next given opportunity.
309 - you can actually hear the foot-stamping in each and every word.
300. Yes and when the glaciers start to lay down more ice and winter lasts that tad colder and longer; it will still be global warming?
My arse!
309 Missed that!
Perhaps Labour could adapt it for their campaign.
Labour - We’re Amateurs
Of course for it to work properly it will need to be scrawled on old newspaper sheets (in the vain of Sarah Brown) in felt tip pen thrust through people’s letter boxes.
286: coldstone @ 11:17
“I despise sentimentality, its time to remove the flag from the military. Purchasing equipment and the skills that go with it is a business, no different from any other.
Now go off and have a good cry, in some quiet corner.”
You really don’t have a clue, do you? Bigotry founded on ignorance with a tendency to assume motives in others that don’t exist.
301
Oh! will the WSJ do?
http://blogs.wsj.com/iainmartin/2010/01/05/tories-in-a-total-tangle-on-tax/?mod=rss_WSJBlog
‘Once Brown is gone Labour have an opportunity to bring in someone to lead the party into new wilderness’
Hard to argue with that….
Andrew Slaughter was one of those MPs who saw his constituency disappear in the boundary review (like Balls). Of the seats round his way, he chose Hammersmith, thinking it would be a walkover.
Then the tories selected Shaun Bailey, stuck it on the marginal list and started a slick campaign. Slaughter hasn’t been happy for a while now.
309 Next he’ll accuse the Conservatives of trying to poison voters’ minds with shapes and colours.
319
You really don’t have a clue, do you? Bigotry founded on ignorance with a tendency to assume motives in others that don’t exist.
Now stop trying to flatter me, its too late now.
Can I come to MalcolmGs defence, and say owning a BMW and having a personalised number plate isn’t a sign of Cockness.
The fact I have an X5 with the plate HAB 113 has nothing to do with the fact.
296. You have the same problem as your namesake. I am not “slagging off” Gurkhas. Again, read the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8439870.stm and having done so, please clarify exactly how Ms Lumley has “helped” these people.
I do hope to hear very soon indeed that Lumley has taken steps to alleviate the disaster she has caused. as soon as she has established an emergency fund I will be among the first to contribute to it.
320. Nothing in a foriegn language ? The Mozambique Daily Gazette perhaps ?
This should be the story of the day
Fears that Britain may be heading for its first sovereign debt crisis since the 1970s hit a new intensity after Pimco, the world’s biggest bond house, declared that it is starting to sell off its holdings of gilts.
The American investment group said it will be a net seller of UK Government bonds this year, at the very point when the Bank of England brings its £200bn programme of purchases to and end and the Treasury attempts to raise unprecedented sums through the capital markets.
The move is doubly embarrassing for the Government because the head of Pimco’s European investment team is Andrew Balls, brother of Schools Secretary Ed Balls, who is mastering the Government’s re-election strategy. The move will be seen as a financial vote of no-confidence in the Government’s handling of the economy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6933232/Pimco-move-to-sell-gilts-raises-spectre-of-a-UK-sovereign-debt-crisis.html
I still believe that the coming GE will be a game changer in British politics whichever party wins.
More and more people want a different sort of politics and perhaps a new party to go with it.
The Tories still have to many wet and flabby types, and still haven’t got a philosophy fit for the 21st century.
Labour want to control every manifestation of our being as well as making us dependent on the state tit.
**** Richard Nabavi - PotY. Cracked Chamber Pot - Verdict In ****
The Star Chamber of the Grand and Most Noble Order of the Cracked Chamber Pot hereby finds Richard Nabavi PotY …. unworthy of the award of the above dignity.
We find the above named PBer has failed miserably to achieve the utterly low standard required for the award of this prized accolade. He is however warned as to his future conduct and the Court reminds the said Richard Nabavi to dust off the blue tint specs from time to time
Case dismissed.
Mother Nature couldn’t have pulled a better stunt if she’d paid the CRU herself
Cold/snow records being broken all over the globe plus days of relentless freezing just to rub it in a bit more.
The shape-shifting from global warming to climate change isn’t go to matter much now that an awful lot of people are snowed in/dying of cold because they can’t afford to turn the heating on.
Hopefully we’ve dodged the bullet and few politicians will fancy campaigning on this one.
327
Not in a foriegn language, I’ll look for something in a foreign one though.
I’d offer to put your name in the book by way of gratitude but its gonna be hard having a character called “bono publico”.
ne pas donner la pensée
Met Office announces ‘extreme’ weather warning - West as far as Somerset/East to West Sussex.
10-30cms of snow late afternoon/tonight. Sounds like a good idea to leave early if you’re relying on the main routes to get home.
325 - sufficient but not necessary
331. I predict a rebranding in 2010 - I expect it to be called “climate damage” by year end.
BTW - isn’t it today that Labour annouce their support for “Meat free Mondays” ? - more killjoy policies from miserable McBroon.
332. I see you’ve already checked “Pedantry Weekly”
WRT Peter Ainsworth, it’s pretty poor form, IMO, to delay announcing his retirement just long enough to deprive his association of the chance to carry out a proper selection procedure.
“Cold/snow records being broken all over the globe plus days of relentless freezing just to rub it in a bit more.”
From what I understand of the climate change hypothesis, extreme weather variations would be consistent with its occurance. I think the “ooh, it’s cold, therefore there’s no climate change” is just as silly as “ooh, it’s hot, therefore there is”.
311 TGoHF. Odd fellow that Monckton. Clearly drives a personalised BMW ?!?
337
It’s a good thing for you I don’t know what that means.
330 What the hell did Richard Nabavi do, to raise your ire so, Jack?
Wait till seant sees this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/04/warren-beatty-sexual-conquests
On ‘yer marks get set.
330 - Jack W, you’d make a very poor Judge.
328.
“head of Pimco’s European investment team is Andrew Balls, brother of Schools Secretary Ed ”
With that job title he sounds like a toff ?
315.
Interesting argument there. The only thing I would say against that is that, generally, opposition parties don’t win elections so much as governing parties lose elections. In this case, it would be quite easy for the Tories to say after 5 years “yes, we’ve had to increase your taxes, but that was because of the mess the Labour party left us with”
Whether the above statement is true or not doesn’t really matter. As long as people can be convinced it is true, it would be hard to vote out a party that hasn’t done too much wrong as people tend to want to vote a government out rather than vote an opposition party in.
342 - Denied Yellow Sub the POTY crown?
Iceland is holding a referendum over whether the UK will be compensated or not.
I wonder what the result will be??
340 - nice coronet, though.
Good to see that the Met Office has mastered this weather/climate distinction. Its home page says in the title bar “Met Office - Weather and Climate Change.”
No statement yet from Lumley.
339. True. But saying “oooh it’s bloody freezing, and so was last winter, and the last two summers have been washouts, and by the way global temperatures have not got any warner for a decade, have they?” is indeed a coherent way of questioning the consensus on “global warming”.
It is not getting any warmer; arguably right now it is getting colder. And no one in the climate change lobby predicted this, whatever they say after the event.
It would be interesting Mike could get Angus Reid to ask the question:
How often do you get political news from the following sources:
BBC TV
ITV
Sky
Radio
A newspaper
Online
Friends
As Reid is online itself the sample will overstate that element, but it’d be interesting in toher ways, wouldn’t it?
David Herdson’s point that the election so far has shown signs of turning into a referendum on the Tories is probably the most important observation on the thread - if true, it’s the best news Labour could have, since currently a referendum on any party will get the answer “no”.
30: Easterross, the financial and organisational support that I got from the central party in 1997 was zero. It was seen as a non-winnable seat. Fortunately, the Tories saw it as a non-losable seat so they didn’t spend any central money either.
305: michael s: the Tory effort in local seats is enormously variable, and seems to depend very much on the candidate and local organisation; Ashcroft money rewards energetic commitment, which magnifies the variation. There are several seats where the Tories are doing billboards ads and wrapping their newsletters in the local paper every month. My own opponent set up an email list of supporters but then sent nothing to it for 8 months until Christmas Eve; she’s put out one leaflet since June; an invitation to her for an article by a local newspaper has simply been ignored. But she’s been extremely busy with her day job (a barrister); I get the impression that some candidates are doing campaigning pretty much full-time.
339 That’s what they changed it to once observable weather events didn’t coincide with ‘warming’ - hence the need to fiddle the figures instead.
If the science was sound, there’d be no need to.
Here’s something from a chap who was Dir of the National Hurricane Centre so guess he’s an extreme weather event expert.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/03/dr-neil-frank-on-climategate-you-should-be-steamed/
346. Yes, thats very true. I also worry that once Britain hopes back into bed with the Tories then it will take a long time for them to hate them again. Maybe people from now on might just take the attitude of “oh well, we’re probably better off with them for good from now on.”
I guess we shall see though!
On Topic – “Does outdoor advertising make a difference” can this be answered by looking at how much different advertising costs, billboards, newspapers, online etc and whichever is the most expensive (print media I guess) equates to being the most effective? Adverts on this site often catch my eye and I often click on them. If Labour really have no money and “can’t return fire” maybe they could send spindoctors and policywonks out wearing sandwich boards.
I have read that “no money to return fire” story quite different than most posting to this site, ie I don’t take it seriously – it seemed to be coming from Labour and Blunkett in particular, so I saw it as tin rattling (with The Times quite happy to play along, strangely) “time to cough up now unions” or “lefties everywhere, we don’t have money to fight back, put your hand into your pocket for us now.”
What is it called when a beer glass goes round the pub for a tip for the stripper?
Oh and it seems Labour Queen Twitter Tw@ doesn’t like it rough:
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Bristol-MP-attacks-bully-boy-Twitter-campaign-started-Tories/article-1673921-detail/article.html
Is this going to be the tenor of the Labour campaign?
It’s not fair
I’m being bullied
Whine, whine, whinge, whinge, whinge which all translates too:
Labour’s losing, Labour’s losing, Labour’s losing
Have they really got so little fight left?
356 - Interesting suggestion, East Brimstone. I note that Paddy Power have 500/1 that Gordon Brown will be “Walking along Oxford St with a Golf Sale sign” on 1 July:
http://www.paddypower.com/bet/novelty-betting/other-politics/uk-politics/What%2Dwill%2DGordon%2DBrown%2Dbe%2Ddoing%2Don%2DJuly%2D1st%2D2010%3F-1699957.html?force_racing_css=Y
341/343 Weatheredcock/Scream. Both guilty of a difficiency of irony !! …. Take the prisioners down !!
353. I shouldn’t get too excited Nick. An election that comes at the end of a third consecutive term for a government with a list of disappointments and disasters longer than Warren Beatty’s little black book is always going to be a referendum on that government.
There will be days when the focus is on the Tories, but unless Cameron does something truly bizarre, this election is about Brown and Labour.
Should I give this lot five more years or not? That’s the question voters will finally ask themselves, in the booths, in May or June. Not “do I like Michael Gove’s education policies”
Small point that may help to explain why the Met Office has shifted from being a body created to give forecasts for shipping to a political lobby - the guy in charge was head of WWF and was a lead voice on AGW there.
I supported the WWF/RSPCA for several years - and then they morphed into political organisations - they are unrecognisable from what they were only a decade or so ago. A great pity. Thankfully, the RNLI have retained their integrity.
Are Scottish people happier with health under the SNP than the English people are for their health policies under liebore?
At least the SNP are trying and admit it is hard. Without all the brown spin stuff that clogs up thinking in central London.
Perhaps if they ask nicely salmond will start an SNP (English region) party and then the english will finally have a competent party to vote for.
I said this is a sarcastic thought, but the more I think about it the more sensible it is becoming. Start with an English northern region party with a specific option to join Scotland; Berwick and perhaps others would jump at the chance.
359 - My tongue was in the vicinity of my cheek, sadly for me.
361
I withdrew my donations to Amnesty for the same reason. They morphed into a political advocacy organisation of the left, when I was donating to support prisoners of conscience.
301 - I understand all that. Global Warming is like the Delhic Oracle. Whatever happens it proves their prophecies correct:
Hot weather = Global Warming
Warm weather = Getting hotter = Global Warming
Cool weather = warmer than it should be = Global Warming
Cold weather = something is up with the climate, must be Global Warming.
Freezing, really cold weather = the final proof of Global warming because it could not have happened without, um, Global Warming
Droughts = Global Warming
Heavy rain and floods = Global Warming
Hurricanes = Global warming of course
No hurricanes = Natural variation to be expected in a time of global warming.
More ice at the south pole = Global Warming
Less ice at the north pole = Global warming
I understand it all properly now. But the major problem is all the CO2 being breathed out by those windbags in Parliament. Now if only we could put a stop to that.
255.Off topic, latest best prices on the month of the election:
January: 150/1 (Victor Chandler)
February: 66/1 (BetFred)
March: 7/2 (BetFred)
April: 12/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral)
May: 4/11 (Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Coral, BetFred)
June: 12/1 (Ladbrokes)
The severe weather we are likely face for the next two weeks at least would I think rule out most of the possible February dates as activists will struggle to take to the streets for the start of any campaign. Aside from higher domestic fuel bills from the cold spell another interesting stat is petrol prices. Another 2p or so rise in a March budget would be very unpopular given the rise in September and in the recent VAT increases. High domestic and road fuel prices = highly disgruntled electorate. For that reason March cannot be ruled out as not all would have received their winter quarter bills and the budget is yet to come.
364. This is a large and growing problem; you could add several other household names to the list of groups that has been captured by left wing political activists for their own purposes. And they still call themselves ‘charities’.
It’s classic entryism - the names of the once respectable groups captured gives the views emanating from them extra weight and access to funds…
357 She’s complaining that Tories are fundraising for a Tory candidate?
Labour have gone collectively insane, haven’t they.
359 Irony? I’d long thought your iron had dried up long ago. After all you are 107, or is it 108.
109?
110?
Gordon’s ongoing quest for a sprinkling of stardust from Obama has hit yet another obstacle. Firstly he was forced live on Marr to admit that he hadn’t spoken directly to Obama about the Christmas Day bombing attempt and now it seems Simon Lewis, Brown’s error-strewn official spokesman has sparked a serious falling out and public admonishment from the White House.
“A White House source” used an interesting choice of words to describe “a mistake” by Lewis to suggest that a file on the knicker-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been passed to the US sometime “in 2008“. However Lewis has just had to retract his words and stated there was no suggestion that this had ever happened. Alan Johnson has been forced to schedule an emergency statement at 15.30. Sky News’s Joey Jones said he took no pleasure in describing it as “an awful briefing“. Another serious blunder by Brown’s slapdash spokesman, the Lobby have completely lost respect for Brown’s mouthpiece. A lobby hack who would prefer to anonymous say “it was an utter fecking car-crash”.
http://order-order.com/2010/01/05/prime-ministers-spokesman-simon-lewis-blunders-again/
362. If Scotland does gain independence, I’m all for a further referendum in North East England with the aim of moving the border south from the Tweed to the Tees. The only escape from perpetual Tory rule.
Plus the Toon might have a chance of winning the SPL!
334 bono publico
Sean could always fit “pubic bone” in - that’s pretty close.:-)
Rather a worrying report - there’s now a gas usage alert - the spokesman from the National Grid doesn’t exactly sound convincing when he says that we won’t run out in 8 days time [the current volume of reserves we have].
311: The Ghost of Harry Flashman @ 11:34
“Well either you or Lord Monckton are wrong.”
The ramblings of this English “Mi’lor” with his pseudo mathematics are nothing more than a heretical attempt by member of the aristocracy to protect the vested interests of himself and his plutocratic family whilst the workers and peasants of the third world pay the price, not to mention polar bears, who will be drowning in ever greater numbers.
To see the march of progress it is only necessary to look at the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph, a newspaper that at last appears to have seen the light and moved away from it slavish obedience to the forces of reaction. There you will find an article that sets out Dr. Brown’s latest effort to combat the evils of global warming. Yes, restaurants and takeaway shops will, at long last, be forced to provide health warnings! This will, as the article points out, be a contribution to the Government’s campaign to prevent global warming getting any worse.
New labels on food will show its carbon footprint!
We will all be encourgaed to eat locally grown seasonal fruit and vegetables!
A slop bucket in every kitchen!
Comrades, these are the measures that will reverse the impact of the revisionist Chinese building a new coal-fired power station every week. Forward to the future under our glorious and beloved leader Dr. Brown.
358 Much as I hate writing the Labour party manifesto Gord should get on that quick to the tune of £356m, swallow his pride and solve this year’s deficit in one stroke.
On topic: the claim “I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS” could probably be made by Labour too. So here is a thought experiment: what if Labour produced this identical poster but with Gord photograph and wording changed to say “This is no time for a novice. I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS.”?
340 - Weather not climate is a valid point if we are talking about local floods, droughts or cold snaps. But when an entire hemisphere of the Globe is cold at the same time then it is ridiculous to see Global Warming.
There is really cold weather all over Europe, North America and China. Even in India and Bangladesh people have died of the cold. Now we have the internet nobody can claim that although we are cold here it must be unseasonably warmer elsewhere so that the average is up. The average is quite obviously down.
This is exactly what the sunspot people forecast and exactly the opposite of the noise that has come out of the man-made Global Warming machine for the past few years.
345 TSE
Jack models himself on Lord Braxfield who invented a crime of “unconscious sedition”
[335] Record snow here in Tallinn- over a metre- heaviest fall since 1924 apparently. People just get on with it- though roads are tricky and a few schools in central Estonia closed when it went below -20. Place is full of Ruskies over for their Christmas hols.
OGH- I stand corrected. Perhaps he may have a political nose, but his meeting with Deripaska was a flirtation with catastophe.
Back o/T the more I look at this poster- especially the airbrushing, which is awful- the less I think it works at any level. “We can’t go on like this” is a bit dog whistle- and if this is to be the model for a long term campaign, people will soon get sick of the sight of it.
The basic problem is that the Tories do not convey any sense that they understand just how difficult it is going to be to nail the public sector- they seem to think that they can just decree things and they will happen.
Sterling- weak as it is- is still on the edge of a cliff and Cameron by downplaying rises in interest rates is “taking a big step forward”.
We have had a “phoney recession” in 2009. In 2010 and 2011 the outlook is for cuts in government expenditure, tax rises, increases in unemployment and increases in interest rates. These will need to happen whoever wins, and if interest rates do not rise in response to the surge of inflation, then the currency will weaken sharply and inflation will rise significantly anway. On the other hand, a rate rise now will finally take away the major prop of the housing market and cause a significant fall in house prices- not good as voters prepare to make their verdict. Stagflation looks to be the outlook- and without a massive restructuring of the public sector to reduce the tax burden in the long term, then the crisis will only worsen. I just don’t beleive that DC or indeed any politician in the Uk has got the balls to deal with the scale of what is wrong.
You will not be too surprised to learn that I have sold my London flat and have moved my investment portfolio entirely out of GBP.
RE the Warren Beatty article and his prowess, I guess its easy when the bloke is twat of the highest order and counts fcuking himself to the total.
I think Axl Rose in France 92′ sums its up rather well
“This song is dedicated to a man who likes to play games,
a man who lives his life playing games
premeditated games
a man who’s life is so empty that thats all he can do is play fucking games
a man who is a parasite, who lives his life sucking of the life forces of other people and their energy
an old man who likes to live vacariously through young people and suck up all their life cos he has none of his own
Id like to dedicate this song to a cheap punk named Warren Beatty.
A man who has a family and a baby, but he’s got to spend his time fucking around with other people cos he doesn’t know what to do with his own life
a man who uses you and uses me, and uses the media in order to fulfill his fuckin parasitic needs
Well listen home fuck, if you think madonna kicked your arse, im bettin my money on annete you stupid fucking arsehole, this is a song called double talking jive motherfucker!”
371 - well, as a Scot, and a unionist, I’m naturally not in favour of Scottish seccesion.
On the other hand, as an expat Lowlander who lives in the SE and works in the City, if the opportunity to lose everything north of, say, Harrogate, came along, I’d be mightily tempted.
Quick poll - where would other people put the ‘get rid of everything North of this’ line?
I wonder who will be the first major politician in a western country to break cover, and dare to question the Orthodoxies of Global Warming.
The silence of the consensus is now stifling. The public are sullen and suspicious and, I think, would reward some straight talk.
There could be serious political capital available, for anyone with the cullions to do it. Of course it could also be politically suicidal, if next year we all die of thirst or something.
Therefore the man or woman to do it would probably have to be near the end of their career - i.e. senior and respected, and without much to lose. A kind of Ken Clarke figure, but better known globally.
Bill Clinton? Hm. Isn’t he just a teensy bit jealous of Al Gore getting all that attention?
373. Plato -
Story here:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/National-Grid-Gas-Shortage-Warning-As-Demand-Surges-By-30-In-The-Winter-Cold-Snap/Article/201001115514457?f=rss
380 - Around the M25.
353 NPMP
David Herdson’s point that the election so far has shown signs of turning into a referendum on the Tories is probably the most important observation on the thread
I half agree with you here Nick. What would make my agreement whole is linking David’s comment to Mike Smithson’s retort to Cicero stating that “Osborne has a far better strategic brain than just about anybody else.”
The “referendum on the Tories” is not an accident nor will it be the only or even main feature of the General Election. It is merely the media focus that George Osborne has engineered for this stage of the campaign.
The battle on the deficit with the loss of Labour’s credibility on the spending vs. cuts debate was Osborne’s successful Autumn campaign. He concluded with his £7 billion first stab at austerity speech at the Tory conference.
He has now moved the field of battle to Tory ’spending’: a vision of the paybacks that he says will come from his austerity programme. So the focus now moves from Labour to the Tories: from the penalties of profligacy to the prizes of restraint .
How can this benefit Labour? If you attack Tory spending - like Darling did yesterday - the ball will just be hit back into your own court with added power. “What are your spending plans then?” will be the cry. If you attack the Tories on a promised ‘decade of austerity’, Dave and George will just show the policy goodies being piled high on his all you can eat table.
You are dancing to Osborne’s tune and he controls the spotlight. This is not ballet but bear baiting.
I’d lose everything from the top of East Finchley to Lancaster. I’d keep the Lakes and the Borders. Dump all of urban Scotland (except maybe the Victorian bits of Glasgow and central Edinburgh), lose Argyle, in fact lose most of rural Scotland too, but keep the Highlands and Islands, they are lovely.
329 - It could be news, but my experience of Pimco and Bill Gross in particular (apart from a general expectation that every counterparty they speak to shall treat them like royalty) is that they spend a large proportion of their time telling everyone loudly what they think is going to happen, just after they have positioned themselves for said eventuality.
After the various research settlements, if someone working at a bank did that, they’d end up in prison.
Invariably, some other money follows suit, and the statement itself ends up being a bit performative.
Lee
380. Er, no - it is get rid of everything SOUTH of the line!
Sorry if posted before No 10 seem to have upset the One.
http://order-order.com/2010/01/05/prime-ministers-spokesman-simon-lewis-blunders-again/
381 - “I wonder who will be the first major politician in a western country to break cover, and dare to question the Orthodoxies of Global Warming.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott
(From the wiki entry: ‘Abbott told the audience that the concept of climate change was “absolute crap”.’)
381. Chirac?
374 - Yes, it is the duty of all western governments to stop the danger of poor people dying from heat by making sure that lots of them die of cold, just like in the good old days.
Everybody shivering or waiting in an overcrowded casualty department with a broken bone from slipping on the ice has to remember: Cold good, warmth bad.
And even better you can vote Labour, Tory or Libdem and be absolutely assured that the horrible warmth will be resisted no matter how much it costs so that we get as much as possible of all this marvelous cold.
329 - It could be news, but my experience of Pimco and Bill Gross in particular (apart from a general expectation that every counterparty they speak to shall treat them like royalty) is that they spend a large proportion of their time telling everyone loudly what they think is going to happen, just after they have positioned themselves for said eventuality.
After the various research settlements, if someone working at a bank did that, they’d end up in prison.
It would be wrong to assume that Pimco’s size is because of their sucess (although they do use their size to their advantage, by telling everyone what they have done, for instance).
Invariably, some other money follows suit, and the statement itself ends up being a bit performative.
Lee
The ad could be simplified to :
“I’m an even bigger liar than Bliar!”
Which part of fairyland is he going to cut the deficit in if he doesn’t swipe at the NHS?
332 - Its the curse of Jonah McDoom.
Once Brown jumped on the eco-bandwagon as an excuse to line his (and the exchequer’s pockets), it was bound to fail.
In his “50 days to save the world” we have seen the science behind AGW/MMCC/whatever reduced to data fiddling, intimidation of non-conformists, dodgy-dealing at Nopenhagen, world-wide deep freeze, snow records, snow deaths, the cold killing the elderly in greater numbers, etc, etc.
I feel sorry for the Tories - the golden goose of increased revenue from fuel duties/levies has just died in the cold as well.
387 - sure. That’s how we’ll spin it to the natives. They’re not too bright.
Can’t post any more for a while. I’m going outside and I might be some time.
392. Apols for the repost, looked like it had crashed.
Senator Inhofe? Lord Monckton? Or do you mean Presidents and PMs?
This really does not bode well at all. Selling off guilts is a serious blow to this government.They had it coming of course and it seems this idiot in No 10 was the only one refusing to face reality. Guess Darling after yesterdays admission will have to raise VAT as they always planned to do despite Labour, Brown and Balls stating the opposite and accusing others of doing so.
“Pimco move to sell gilts raises spectre of a UK sovereign debt crisis” “Fears that Britain may be heading for its first sovereign debt crisis since the 1970s hit a new intensity after Pimco, the world’s biggest bond house, declared that it is starting to sell off its holdings of gilts.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6933232/Pimco-move-to-sell-gilts-raises-spectre-of-a-UK-sovereign-debt-crisis.html
393 - NHS spending does not constitute 100% of the national budget. Therefore it is quite easy to reduce the deficit without cutting the NHS.
Some reasons for Tory campaigning in labour seats:
1) Forces cabinet minister to campaign locally rather than tour with the battlebus
2) Demoralizes said cabinet minister who then forces election spend in own seat rather than more worthwhile spending in a marginal
3) Supports own candidates / improves local organization
4) Might just end up winning a few (e.g. Normanton)
379
Cicero
“We have had a “phoney recession” in 2009.”
You are joking?
367 - AFAIK Amnesty isn’t a charity, runnymede. But I agree that the tendency of some charities to divert money from the stated direct objectives (e.g. helping individual victims of oppression) to campaigning for governments to do stuff should be discouraged by the Charity Commissioners. There’s an element of self-indulgence and self-interest - a charity can get more headlines from denouncing a government (and thereby potentially get more contributors) and it’s also more fun than the hard grind of helping individuals.
There’s nothing wrong with political campaigning, of course, but it shouldn’t be tax-deductible “charity” work.
Seth - you may be right that it’s all a masterplan, but it hasn’t given that impression so far. Early days and we’ll see!
378. Robert MacQueen - Lord Braxfield, not a judge you would want Jack W. to be tried by.
“He was notoriously unsympathetic and once responded to the defence´s plea that Jesus Christ, like his client, had been a reformer with the rebuke “Muckle he made o´ that. He was hangit.”
“Hang a thief when he´s young, and he´ll no steal when he´s auld.”
401
That is particularly important in the case of Ed Balls, as he is so important to Gordon. Campaign in M&O, even if you don’t think you can win and that will force Balls to campaign locally, not tour holding Gordon’s hand.
391 Not sure which way your irony is going but I think you have fallen into the football supporter’s fallacy: that is the mistaken belief that “supporting” one team rather than another raises the probability of that team winning its matches. It doesn’t.
326. TSE, nice to see someone else with taste.
The global warming is falling very heavily here in Liverpool, I may not be able to get into work tomorow… or home tonight.
Maybe this is the sort of thing that should be on a huge great board as No 10 are now accused of, well lets be fair and just say ‘being very economical with the actuale’
Who’d have thunk it Huh?
“White House accuses Downing Street of making ‘a mistake’ over intelligence claim.
The White House has accused Downing Street of making “a mistake” over allegations that Britain told American intelligence agents more than a year ago that the Detroit bomber had links to extremists.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6934672/White-House-accuses-Downing-Street-of-making-a-mistake-over-intelligence-claim.html
Oh dear dear me it really is all turning to dust for the saviour of the world. No more photo ops now with Omaha
Hopefully the SUN Newspaper will have a headline like
Brown goes Barking!
378 - Oldnat, i thought Jack W, would be a judge like this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1558629/Cleaner-cleared-of-stealing-judges-sex-video.html
404 dr spyn
It was my comment. I understood Jack was an old pal of Braxfield’s!
I also liked Braxfield’s “Ye’re a vera clever chiel, man, but ye wad be nane the waur o’ a hanging”.
405 - “that will force Balls to campaign locally”
What selflessness that would be - to hamper his own chances for the good of his party nationally.
387- agreed, freedom for Rheged!
402 — given this mornings news about Labour finances point 2 is very relevant. A tad un British I might add but I just console myself with thinking what would Labour do if the roles were reversed.
413
414 - So you want to seceed from Brigantia already?
Conservative MP Peter Ainsworth is standing down at the GE. The timing is interesting, apparently standing down after December 31st means that CCHQ can impose a shortlist on the the constituency.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/2010/01/peter-ainsworth-to-step-down-as-mp-for-surrey-east.html
@412:
Was Braxfield illiterate? Most of those aren’t words, they’re just sounds.
NPMP 403 ?
Charities matching your search …
Your search for ‘Amnesty’ has found 3 charities which are shown below.
Click on the link provided to view a charity’s details or click New Search to try again.
Registered Number Charity Name
294279 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL BRITISH SECTION CHARITABLE TRUST Removed
294230 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CHARITY LIMITED Registered
1051681 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UK SECTION CHARITABLE TRUST Registered
Your comments please
380. Animal, Yes please, living in Scotland i would love to stop subsidising people south of the watford gap, unfortunately the loving caring unionists will do their best to try and make sure it does not happen, they know the real truth about who is subsidised.
410. How long before some wag puts Sarah Brown up for sale on e-Bay
Old boiler - one previous owner?
I’ll get me coat…..
419 - He was Scottish, so yes, illiterate
389-Except when he said it the MSM thought he’d gone gaga.
BBC happily reporting record cold temperatures across the northern hemisphere (funnily enough, here it is unseasonably warm, +10c yesterday, but more happily off the media circus routes) without saying anything about global warming. Had there been a record mild winter, how many science “experts” (qualification: you can be a trained lawyer but just have to believe in AGW; being a scientist helps but not strictly necessary) would have been rolled out to tell us to do our bit to save the planet, mainly by paying more taxes. Although I did hear somwhere some nonsense about not eating some sort of food. Needless to say it was not something vegans eat as that is totally carbon friendly.
Happily have not seen that Lumumba bloke either demannng more monn from the evil white man so he can buy a few more Mercs. Guess he’s jet setting somewhere sipping carbon friendly champers on his way to meet another mug with more money than sense but a social “conscience”.
Heard Brown on TV
“Nothing that the Conservatives say adds up, and that’s what the election is going to be about,” he said.
Such comments aren’t rare (in either direction), but I wonder if such black and white electioneering is likely to be successful. It’s a core vote appeal, but hardly likely to be persuasive to those Lab/Con floaters in England, I’d have thought. By definition, they don’t think the Toris are ALL bad - or they wouldn’t be floaters.
422.jsfl January 5th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I have the perfect picture on one of my blogs!!!
I am not going to post it here as Sarah is being very cheeky in it!
Dont want to get anyone fired at work! Why do the British have problems with nudity 
Oldnat - what was the context of the unconscious sedition charge? Was it used during a crackdown on Revolutionary Societies after 1790 or does it predate the War with Revolutionary France?
Now that No.10 has been ticked off by the White House, I trust Coldstone will be posting links to the story on various news websites?
425. oldnat January 5th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
GORDON BROWN IS WRONG AND EXTREME.
424 - “Except when he said it the MSM thought he’d gone gaga”
That’s part of his charm I’m sure.
“Iceland’s president has announced plans to hold a referendum on the payment of compensation resulting from the collapse of the country’s banks.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8441312.stm
I think they might vote no.
@426:
Was it the Sarah Brown ‘knob jacket’ incident?
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZI9ZC-oL5KQ/RxeGNzUdK6I/AAAAAAAAB0M/zwGYjgICLCo/s1600-h/sarahbrown.JPG
427 - Here is the context
In 1788 he became Lord Justice Clerk, the leading judge in Scotland. Explicitly taking the view that “Government in this country is made up of the landed interest, which alone has a right to be represented” he took an active role in the suppression of the Friends of the People Society in the trials and sentences passed on Thomas Muir and others.
To accomplish this he “invented a crime of unconscious sedition” A famous quote of his in this respect was “Let them bring me prisoners, and I will find them law”
410 - Well there’s one old boiler in Barking that needs recycling
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/margaret_hodge/barking
Folk talk about the politicsof an early or prolonged election but ironically Labour thinking they are smart doing what they did yesterday is going to slit there own throats IMO:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/gilt/default.stm
425. Brown running on people’s sums not adding up is a bit like the BNP running on opponents being too harsh on immigrants.
432. Martin Coxall January 5th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
My picture is post lagershed !
413. Just like Chris Patten in 1992!
403. Well I wasn’t really thinking of Amnesty, Nick - though I note a) that they have sought charitable status in the past and continue to do so and b) they do indeed have a charitable arm which supposedly deals with their ‘non-controversial’ activities.
Otherwise, it appears we are in rare agreement.
431. re: Iceland
Good. It’s horrendous what we’re doing to them. Check out the comments on http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/iceland-ditches-bank-compensation-deal-1858349.html
440- So because they can’t pay, British taxpayers have to pay instead. Yeah that’s fair.
Haven’t noticed any comments on Rachel Sylvester’s column in Times about Mandy v Balls and the resulting incoherency of Labour’s campaigning. There is one quote that sums up the Dark Lord nicely (as I’m sure he intended)
“At breakfast in a stately home a couple of months ago a small child asked him why he continued to back the Prime Minister. “That’s the only toy I have to play with,” he replied archly.”
Mandelson as one of Plato’s Bengal cats with Gordon the Mouse
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rachel_sylvester/article6975876.ece
433. If Muir was involved with groups with names like Society of The Friends of The People, even a rogue like Braxfield would misuse the direct translation of Marat’s L’Ami du peuple to highlight the seditious activies.
I’m surprised that the charge of unconscious sedition hasn’t enjoyed a recent revival in Britain. It does have very Orwellian tones.
438. The Oncoming Storm January 5th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
I always wonder how different the post 1992 landscape would have been if say the Tories had won Bath plut another 5 or 10 seats.
I actually think it would have made a move against Major more likely as it would have been worth taking over as they might have had two, three, four or more years in NO10. Some dozy pillocks talked Major out of resigning after September 1992. That contrasts to now with Brown, which would not be worth anyone ousting him unless they were in trouble in their seat and even then it might work against them as they would become a high value target.
417- yes the arrogant people of Brigantia have surpressed our rights for too long, in Brigantia power is vested in the state while in Rheged it is vested in the people and Rheged has subsidised Brigantia too long.
Whatever the opinion polls show it is very clear that an overwhelming majority of Rhegedi citizens desire independence and I do wish that posters from Brigantia would stop expressing opinions about Rhegedi politics. It exposes nothing but their arrogance and ignorance.
Anyone who criticises the leader of the Rhegedi National Party is both ignroant and arrogant, and will regret their foolish words. Our leader (Urien Trout) will soon write to Gordon Brown offering him one last chance to delegate real law making powers, if he refuses, it will be a clear sign of his ignorance of Rhegedi affairs.
We will soon form part of an arc of affluence with our brothers in Elmet, Kernow and Dumnonia.
just now started to snow here in somerset. Great.
444 - one day, when I publish my memoirs, titled “Chris Patten: my part in his downfall”
440 Iceland was more than happy to take deposits from UK investors, and reap the subsequent benefits during the good times.
I hope the snow has slackened by the time it gets to London. I really can’t be fecked using public transport tonight and having to stay in the office until the Tube starts again
447. Tabman January 5th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
441. God no! Mr Darling’s ’socialism for unlucky investors’ bailout is really to blame. He made a bad decision and is now demanding that several generations of as-yet-unborn Icelanders pay for it.
I do hope shadsy or some other enterprising bookie puts up a market on the Iceland referendum.
449. David Roe January 5th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
I find snow amusing - You see folk struggling to drive past up the hill and then a couple of minutes later they drive the other way!
What they dont realise is they are trapped, you can drive into the road but cannot get out! 
432 HAHAHAA - missed that one - what a fashion faux pas!
OMG forecast for -20C in Highlands
449 David don’t bank on it. London could get an almighty dumping
I remember all those LibDems in Bath jeering and chanting to drown out Patten’s concession speech. Very undemocratic lack of support of free speech and showed no magnanimity in victory.
451 - Yes, in an ideal world no one would have their money returned from a failed investment. But given that is not going to happen who should foot the bill?
454. She’s not the first person to have an image of the leader on her attire
http://www.fmft.net/President%20Robert%20Mugabe.jpg
457 - MIND WIPE NEEDED!!!!
Maybe Mandy has fallen out of love with Gordo?
Mandelson: Labour will lose election if it relies on core vote
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23791309-mandelson-labour-will-lose-election-if-it-pins-hopes-on-core-vote.do
Is it getting all rather fraught I wonder?
It’s very cold here too - I loved that comment by the chinese guy yesterday that the cold weather is due to global warming…
The wheels seem to be coming off the AGW wagon…
449 David - forecast this evening / tonight from Somerset to Brighton - 6-12″ falling and continuing tomorrow until 11am.
459 - Sorry David, looks like my comment has been deleted.
457 Oh it’s a forbidden word is it? I posted the other day to say that lib dems should avoid the expression “love bombing” - wondered what had happened to it.
441. Icesave was offering interest rates way above the norm for a reason. If people choose to risk their money on high risk investments like that (and that is putting the situation mildly as in reality it was fishy as hell) if it goes belly up it should be a case of tough. Buyer beware. If it looks too good to be true it is etc. etc.
Neither the Icelandic taxpayer nor ours should have bailed out the investors in my view. They should have lost their money simple as that.
433 TSE sorry but you are wrong. The Lord Justice Clerk is Scotland’s 2nd top judge. His boss is known as the Lord President for civil matters and Lord Justice General for criminal ones.
Iceland should refuse. Then Sarkozy should invite the Icelandics to Paris and offer to sort out the issue if Iceland agree to join the EU, Euro and of course, remember the help of the French.
UK screwed both ways. Unless we block Iceland’s accession, which would go against our policy of EU expansion and screw us that way.
Well done Darling.
278 As Richard points out it was mainly an invention. People selected the bits they wanted to, to find an inconsistency. The fact that the BBC seems to share a frothing but narrow interest in the story with the Guardian is very revealing.
I wonder after all their noise yesterday, if the BBC have the sense to look up and see they were rather out of step with everyone except the Guardian.
From the Tories point of view, if the beeb are going to do a Guardian/Boris, the more obvious, the better. They made a pr@t of themselves over the Deripaska affair, which wasn’t very long ago and were targeted by other parts of the press as a result.
If we gets lots of this, we will probably see some sort of renewd spat between the Beeb and the Murdoch press.
466 - Sorry, my knowledge on the Scottish law is very limited.
1st, 2nd? It’s the taking part that counts
467. Of course the Icelanders should refuse to pay, and they should stay out of the EU as well.
465. michael s.
Someone on here who talks sense. If I could find you I’d kiss you!
Q1 GDP figures are not going to be very good are they? Especially is this cold spell lasts 2/3 weeks.
They should be due out on about the 20th April……
Looks like Coyle leaving Burnley.
Weird weird decision IMHO.
He hasn’t really got a lot to gain, has he?
R5 reporting that your boiler may need to be 25-30yrs old to be eligible ?!?!!? Crikey.
The good news is that it doesn’t need to work if you’re over 60.
Who is going to have a boiler that doesn’t work in mid-winter? Who thinks up this stuff FFS?
Brown has made a mistake in getting so publically into the current focus on Yemen. Again, what can only be described as an attempt to associate with Obama will probably end up resulting in a pie in the face.
In his usual version of ‘want to look important-have a meeting’ (Brown likes to have conferences) he is leaving himself open to some embarassing story related to some pronouncement he’s made to make himself look important.
473: burnley, bolton…all much of a muchness really.
462. Plato
According to the Met (yes I know) there is a ‘moderate risk’ of severe weather (heavy snow) across the South East for the next 5 days…..
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/se/se_forecast_warnings.html
473 - Makes you wonder, just how poor is Scottish football, if he turned down the Celtic job in the summer.
462 - Mmmm, maybe Tube is best option.
At least I’ll get to the gym.
who won the tipster of the year by the way? Was it twin towers, morus or URW?
F1: for those *really* interested in the rule changes, there are some nice technical pics here:
http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/
If you’re not super-interested it’s probably not worth looking at, but I’ll be sure to mention some of it during my January rule change pb2 post, you lucky people, you.
478. there’s little need to ‘wonder’ about that
476 - Don’t forget Blackburn
I’ve achieved a first today, I’ve had a comment deleted.
460 ‘I love you, but I can destroy you’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3130259/Peter-Mandelsons-rift-with-Gordon-Brown-In-quotes.html
According to reports here yesterday Mandy has turned his attentions towards Mili.
478 TSE in financial terms SCottish football is very poor. In football terms Scottish football is just crap!
478. I believe the tv money for winning the SPL is around 10% of that for finishing bottom of the SPL.
Hence why Bolton can pay more and give him a bigger transfer budget.
However his chance of European football is zero with either Bolton or Burnley.
477. Have you seen the synoptic chart for Saturday with a Low over Northern Italy and High pressure over Scandanavia. If you imagine the roations and movement of travel of the pressure systems. If the Low pressure sends out fronts like in 1991 you will have probably another 12″ of snow anywhere from the borders down to the channel coast and the risk may well increase toward the south!
485 - Duck, incoming haggis heading your way..!
Sorry 486 should read “bottom of the EPL”
465
The problem is: the FSA approved the Icelandic banks - just a year before they went belly up. They thought the UK deposits woudl stabilise the banks.
(Seriously).
If the UK investors were not compensated, they could sue the FSA : and based on the evidence in public, probably win..
Great work by the FSA: again.
Sometimes billboard or yard sign-type advertising has funny consequences. For instance, the residual roadside ads in New Jersey equating Jon Corzine with Barack Obama, which you still see here and there, take on a whole new significance these days.
oh dear,Gordon’s done it again -CHUMP.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5683963/oh-dear-gordons-done-it-again.thtml#comments
490. Yes, it’s easy to see why Labour loves the FSA so much - they have so much in common.
England are letting the Cape Town match get away from them.
SA 176/1 2nd Inn
492 - Wonder if Toenails et al. will be splashing it all over the news bulletins? I won’t hold me breath.
jsfl - thanks for the link.
494. It was yesterday when they lost it - a pitiful total on this pitch
I’m going to make a high risk post - might Owen Coyle simply be wanting to improve the chances that he’s managing a Premier League club next season?
498 - I’m going to miss your posts Antifrank
499, why? Is one of you leaving?
Ainsworth making a statement in HoC just now.
500 - Posts like 498 upset OGH, and can lead to revocation of posting rights.
502, ah. You’ll have to forgive me, been a bit sleepy ever since I came in from clearing the drive.
495,Oracle,I see radio 5 live did they mornings phone in on the torie’s marriage tax policy,me thinks some one trying to box the tories in on this policy.
498
Who is Owen Coyle?
For f***’s sake. I just go to see the Ainsworth statement and if it’s worth watching, but BBC Parliament redirects to Democracy Live and I can’t see where to go for live House of Commons.
503 - That’s what servants are for.
504 - Was it with Victoria Airhead by any chance?
505 - The current manager of Burnley, and soon to be manager of Bolton
Sorry MD it’s recorded - just click the HoC link on Democracy Live
508 Worse - Smuggy Campbell
On another topic i am just about to board a flight back to the UK from the far east.
What are my chances of landing at Heathrow early morning as i have just heard a rumour here in Bangkok of heavy overnight snow.
Is that correct?
511 - Yes, that’s correct, and lots of heavy daytime snow too
509: I guess Bolton is marginally better than Burnley, but it a bit like saying Carling is better than Fosters on a measure of good beer.
512 Sorry yes - looks iffy all round Berks/Hants and as far East as West Sussex - upto 12″ forecast.
I’ll just get me coat…
515 - Blimey, and I thought I was playing with fire.
511 timmo
16 inches (40 cm) of snow expected in area between now and 11.00 am tomorrow. Expect hold in circling postition over Heathrow until fuel depletes.
We’ll be there to catch you.
513, ah. You silly goose.
507, alas, the enormo-haddock have yet to be equipped with suitable means of working on snow and ice.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100021341/lord-mandelson-and-his-puppet-prime-minister/
515 - It’s more like two bald men fighting over a comb.
465: ‘Neither the Icelandic taxpayer nor ours should have bailed out the investors in my view. They should have lost their money simple as that.’
Quite right. I have no sympathy for those British carpet baggers. Remember, that bailout took place at the height of the ‘Keynesian’ fad when chucking money about left, right and centre to keep the feckless in flat-screen TVs was the order of the day. A decade or more of New Labour has created a Britain inhabited by adult children - incapable of taking responsibility and mollycoddled by the state! This country needs to grow up.
520. Poor Peter - Hard Times eh?!!!
227- Sean T - Regarding French name
It all depends if you want to give him a Southern French sounding name. If so think of one with the end in -ac. + an oldie sounding first name
For example, Ambroise Roncenac or Pierre-Antoine Lanzac
521 - Is that the sort of toy, Ann Summers would sell?
509
Thanks.
I now know why I was unaware of him.
508, nicky campbell, he also interviewed nick clegg,who again attacked the tories,this time on they marriage tax policy.
Iain dale has something from nick cleggs interview with nicky campbell
http://www.iaindale.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the bad news all.
Looks like fun.
Hope the buses run for Boris sake.
520 MD thanks for being so understanding
In my defence I am not having a good day - boiler went first thing, though I have got it sussed now, I just had to defrost the outlet pipe with a kettle of hot water. Also I’m supposed to be flying to Brussels tomorrow and things aren’t looking good weather wise at Prestwick Airport, unfortunately all my trips prepaid so I’ll have to take a loss on it. Plus teenage son is testing my patience, but I guess that’s his role in life.
(most French names suggested by PBers,I’m afraid, don’t sound French at all! Claude Le Mignon?????? are we talking about French Candians here?)
525 Chris(from Bethesda)
Jean-Thomas Prozac?
timmo you may be circling the outer marker for hours if the forecast is right of 30% chance of snow at 6am. Liklihood of snow in the six hours before that 20-30%.
528 Clegg effed up on R5 in that interview - the whole bit where he was asked to say something positive about Cameron/Brown was a complete petulant car crash.
HOLY CRAP - just heard that the money Icelanders are being asked to pay is £80bn or £10k per head of population!!!
Apparently 1/4 of the population have signed the petition to say NO!
530, thrash him. There’s only one way to instill good, honest discipline in children, and that’s to hit them with pieces of wood until they realise how important it is to be polite and obedient.
Sorry to hear about the weather’s detrimental effects upon your situation. It’s global warming, you know.
timmo forgot to add temperature at 6am is -6C.
478. TSE, very stupid, the Celtic managers job is way way bigger than Burnley or Bolton, only the big four EPL teams are anywhere near equivalent and do not get as close a focus as you would at Celtic or Rangers.
534 - I thought it was closer to 5bn
I hope they make good use of the Illigal Immigrants at Heathrow - they should chain gang them into clearing Snow!
The Buggers would be begging to be depported by the end of a day shovelling freezing snow.
427 dr spyn
It was for the Thomas Muir trial in 1793 that you quoted. although the charge of sedition that Muir was tried under was imported from English law for the purpose, Braxfield wanted to make sure that a guilty verdict was returned, despite the lack of evidence. He therefore adapted the English law of sedition (which required overt action to be sedition) to a unique concept of “unconscious sedition”, in which you didn’t have to do anything at all, but if someone else might have thought that you meant sedition, you had been unconsciously seditious.
537, Celtic? Is that the nickname of Glasgow United?
515, Fosters is way better than Carling , as is every other beer on the planet.
537. Bigger only in terms of “history” and crowd size. I’d imagine Bolton will pay Coyle more than Mowbray is getting at last seasons runners up.
539 - That is an appalling post Martin, you really need to improve your spelling.
535 - mmm he’s 6′4″ and has about a 5 stone advantage, still doesn’t stop me imagining one.
Witan not if its -6.
It cant snow at that tempreture can it?
Perhaps it will get diverted to somewhere sunny like Manchester…
The forecast snow in England is directly due to Martin Day setting fire to his car, thus hugely increasing his carbon footprint and causing unusual patterns of weather associated with global warming
530. At least you have lovely sunshine at Prestwick , if a bit cold.
From OldNat:
“in which you didn’t have to do anything at all, but if someone else might have thought that you meant sedition, you had been unconsciously seditious.”
Just like England’s current laws on racism. In fact, following on from McPherson, almost identical to the doctrine used by the English Police.
timmo I see Seth as usual beat me to it. Again!
If you want to check the airport weather forecast hour by hour the best site is probably this one as it gives a link to METAR too, although that is not much more informative currently.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=zmw:00000.1.03772&hourly=1&yday=5&weekday=Wednesday
546 - New thread up, and Manchester is not sunny, it’s like the arctic
Iniitally I thought 507 [That’s what servants are for.]refered to 504 not 503. Fits either way.
537 - In terms of gates only these days.
Sadly, the Old Firm are below every team in the (English) Premier League financially now.
And it’s very hard to judge the job an Old Firm boss does being only two teams count. Getting a team like Burnley into the top flight is more impressive when giving out the big jobs than wining a couple of titles up north.
Look at Gordon ‘pile of cack as a manager’ Strachan
172 - I had to laugh at this from the link
The move is doubly embarrassing for the Government because the head of Pimco’s European investment team is Andrew Balls, brother of Schools Secretary Ed Balls, who is mastering the Government’s re-election strategy. The move will be seen as a financial vote of no-confidence in the Government’s handling of the economy.
Wonderful! you cannot make it up!!!
timmo there is a negative temperature dew point, so yes it can.
544 - make all them illegals take a language test, innit?
New Thread
547. Tim B January 5th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
I DID NOT SET FIRE TO MY CAR.
It has cost me thousands of pounds as the insurance did not cover the HP and means i cannot go the self employed route as how do i get to potential customers? It could not have happened at a worse time a few more weeks and the stupid legislation that governs folk going self employed would have worked in my favour.
558 - I know you didn’t - hence the big laugh at the end of my comment….
“If the Tories can get that right then their bigger budgets are likely to give them an edge. The downside is that they can be accused of trying to buy the election.”
A number of points.
1. Apart from the tribal vote, electioneering is about selling ideas. You can only sell the idea if the voter is exposed to it. With cable and satellite TV, it is now very simple to avoid PPBs and news even without turning off the TV. Newspaper readership is way down, and I doubt that the non-tribal vote spends much time on PB.com. In this environment, I would say billboard posters are a very effective way of unavoidably planting your idea into the (sub)consciousness of the voter in a relatively non-intrusive and inoffensive way. Other methods (door to door campaigning, printing and distribution of glossy manifestos and pampleteering) need to be part of the mix too, but require much more active participation of the would-be voter.
2. People are more receptive to ideas if they have been ‘primed’ to the idea beforehand. Thus the conscious and subconscious exposure to the memes on the posters will have some beneficial effect on the effectiveness of the door to door campaigning, and the distributed printed materials.
3. I wouldn’t worry too much about being seen to buy the election. The explanations for the disparity in party spending powers are all unflattering to labour:
- they have bankrupted both their own party and the nation, why should I vote for them?
- the Tories’ memes are attracting more donations, they must be better, I should vote for them
- ad nauseum
Admittedly, I have been tainted by living in the States too long, but the British distaste for success and the successful implied in the very idea of people being turned off by the Tories having more money in their coffers truly baffles me. If I’m going to a brewery, I want the trip to be organised by someone who knows how to organise a piss up.
malcolmg 542. I agree with your dislike of Carling. But I can assure you the US brews many beers that would beat it in the competition for the worst beer in the world title. Sadly, many of these beers are from microbreweries thinking that by adding more and more hops (until it is undrinkable) and other ingredients (eg pine sap) which have no place in beer, they are making a better, more serious beer.
Being a girl,I look at it in a girl sort of way.
The clean,crisp white shirt.No tie.The just got up in the afternoon look,far outweighs the shabby draggled,jowels of Brown.
Brown’s just crawled out of bed fully clothed look does nothing for us gils.
It is the thought of, which one is more likely to have hair on his back? Which is a problem for men I hear.Even worse does nothing about it.
If Cameron did have hair on his back(the problem),he would wax(the solution)
One is thinkable the other is a slob.
Who would you men vote for?
Mrs Doyle(Father Ted)or
Abbey Clancy?
(No offence to either of these girls)
But you get my drift……perception of a person.
“this requires more than money. The message has to be spot on and to resonate”
You miss the point that money matters in this as well. Labour are reportedly unable to afford private polling and focus groups, depriving them of the testing process for those very messages on which they will rely. In contrast, the Tories are awash with focus group and polling reports.
Cash buys the right nuancing as well as the billboard space to put it on.