London's first Mr. (rather than Lord) Mayor, sometimes affectionately known as 'Red Ken' (and sometimes not), Ken Livingstone could never be accused of subtlety.Personally, I think politics could use a few more plain-speaking people. You may not always agree with a loudmouth, but at least you know he's being sincere.
Alas, Londoners no longer have Red Ken to kick around; at the last election they chose instead to lead them that paragon of buffoonery, Boris Johnson.
(This should go well...)
*
share on: facebook
2 comments:
Haha, paragon of buffoonery.
Living in Tyne & Wear, we're so far removed from the myth of life in London, it's unreal.
So when I moved to Holland and got BBC1's London programming on TV, I was stunned at both Ken and Boris' style on the evening news each night in the run-up to the Mayoral election. They definitely favour the 'deflect and attack' approach rather than speaking straight, and I suppose it lessened (if possible) the value of the whole debacle to a point where it didn't matter who got in.
They obviously both have eyes on the PM spot, and let's face it, we've got a clown without make-up in there at the moment anyway.
Shame you couldn't make it last week, Michael. But if my boss likes one thing, it's familiarity...
Unfortunately, anyone who speaks plainly in politics tends to get slapped down pretty quick, so they learn real fast to stick to glib 'talking points' and 'sound bites' and just keep repeating themselves and turning the questions back on their interlocutor, answering questions with questions, etc. I bet even Jeremy Paxman would do it if he were to run, and he's the first to call them out for doing it.
Yeah, too bad about missing it but work work work... I have to accommodate all their schedule changes, but no one will shift a thing for me. Hope you liked what you saw of Vancouver. It was really nice weather while you were here.
Post a Comment