Friday, May 09, 2008

Still too busy to blog

But not quite too busy to comment. On Danny Finkelstein’s look at the latest shift in opinion polls. (I reference another recent column of his, which can be found here.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Being politically shy is amusing but the polite computer study goes against most of what I've come across?

Cameron is playing the, "I don't know why the public would want another unelected leader" bit now, I didn't see that one coming. Yesterday the idea of those silly carbon cards was scrapped, which is good. I could speculate what that means, but I'm bad at that and my dribbling on about Miliband isn't healthy.

Brown needs to do something charming fast, with that silly Cherie memoir, he's just going to appear more awkward.

Tom Freeman said...

"Brown needs to do something charming fast"

I feel an Onion piece coming on... Brown Turns Up At Public's House With Dozen Red Roses But Fumbles Them And Cuts Public's Finger On Thorn

Anyway, Cherie's the only person in the Labour Party with a weirder smile than Gordon's.

You got a bit of a Miliband crush, eh? There must be a Facebook group for people like you!

Anonymous said...

It’s not as much as a crush...how dare you demean my fantasies?! Kidding…

I think strategically, he is in a far better position than others. Some Labour Mps-- Purnell, Burnham, Harman-- have had non-issues stick to them, Miliband has his flaws but he manages to sidestep them quite a bit. Even the EU question hasn’t taken away most of his luster (which needs work). As far as bringing a new message to the public and engaging them, I think he makes honest attempts to do that; which I respect. He’s in a position to refine his message and sadly, play up some identity politics that would favor him. Such things would be beneficial when going up against David Cameron. (To beat Cameron, I think a talented ‘youth’ could pay off; someone of Cameron’s age.) The only thing I worry about is the press coming out in favor of him; he simply isn’t that good right now.

Ultimately, I just hope strong parties and leaders are present in the next election, in order to give the electorate a fair, varied choice; one that they deserve. (That isn’t a knock at Brown, he may very well turn it around for all I know.)

As far as Cherie goes, I think I’m more easy on her. I’ve read a few excerpts of her book and it’s comparable to an adolescent’s diary, I think she’s going for that though? I still don’t hate her and I find people seeking such powers as increasingly bizarre figures, so I take pity on their spouses. It’s callous of me to say, but I think the miscarriage story will mitigate some of the old opinions about her and the press surrounding her book. Then again, maybe that's fair? She's not the devil incarnate.