Ministry of Propaganda

Ministry of Propaganda - 09/Oct/2003: "What is it with those politicians?"

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What is it with those politicians?

PapaScott complains that there isn't enough about European politics in European blogs, picking up on thoughts by Adam Curry.

OK then, let's give it a try. While I can't vote here (well, at least not in general elections) I still follow UK politics quite closely. Even if I can't change who decides how the taxes I pay are spent, I can still be interested, can't I?

The only problem with that is that the closer I follow it, the more some of it turns me off. We had the party conferences of the three main parties in the UK over the last three weeks. After that I'm not so sure any more if I still wanted to vote. Admittedly I haven't heard the full speaches, but what I hear on the radio is enough for me (BBC Radio 4 had extensive coverage of all the conferences).

And what did I hear? Politicians slagging off the other parties. Mainly. At least that's what I picked up. Some vague policies and a lot of telling what the other parties get wrong. Combined with the usual resignation requests.

Let's take Ian Duncan Smith's speech (Full speech/key points): Labour get this wrong, Labour get that wrong. Tony Blair should do the honourable thing and resign. And Labour get something else wrong. Not to forget that the LibDems are useless. But the Conservatives will win the next election because they have the right policies.

Yes, very nice. But not good enough for me. I don't care what you think the other parties are doing wrong, I can figure that out myself. I want to know what you are offering instead. But what do I mostly get? Vague policy statements, frequently conflicting with each other. We will reduce taxes and increase pensions, something along those lines.

And that's not only British politics, my memories from German politics and election campaigns are very similar. A lot of what I read about politics and campaigns in the US is very similar as well.

And then they are surprised when people are turned off by politics? Or politicians to be precise?

End of entry

Entry trivia

When writing this entry the weather was: partly cloudy, still fairly mild

When writing this entry I was listening to: BBC Radio Five Live

During the last hour before I wrote this entry I visited this website: Scotblog

End of entry trivia

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