Thursday, October 22, 2009

Political messages

I have said this before on this blog & I will say it again – my political predictions are rubbish.

But now that Westminster – politicians & commentariat – seem convinced that David Cameron is already prime minister apparent (Andrew Marr came near to a Nick Robinson like slip of the tongue on Start the Week on Monday) I feel I should repeat that this feels more like 1992 than 1997 to me – though more dangerous.

Yes – people are fed up with the present lot & scratchy with Gordon Brown. But – iff he has saved the economy, perhaps it is better to stick with nurse.

The hottest idea in Conservative circles is not knowing things … The emphasis is on not knowing, on doubt, on scepticism, on caution“ wrote Daniel Finklestein recently.

Yes – but. That may be no way to win an election when people are feeling very uncertain. It risks the total disaster of people voting for those who either seem to offer some kind of certainty (however bizarre & obnoxious) or who simply offer voters the chance to deliver a loud raspberry: What have any of you lot ever done for us? Answer me that.

And, particularly in these circumstances, it does little good for existing politicians to foam at the mouth over the idea that a party which has already been used to deliver that kind of electoral message deserves no further hearing, particularly on the hallowed airwaves of the BBC.