Monday, May 2, 2011

Taggart actors are so easily distracted

What a peculiar hotch-potch of a Party Election Broadcast from Labour. It's as if they can't quite bring themselves to let go of their old (ie. pre-Easter Monday) campaign message of "now the Tories are back", but at the same time also want to cram in the 'new' message of "oooh, isn't independence scary?". What they ended up with was effectively "now the Tories are back at Westminster, isn't independence from Westminster scary?", which I'm not sure is going to entirely resonate.

Incidentally, I gather that the husky voice warning us that the SNP were being "distracted" by their "crazy obsession with independence" may well have belonged to none other than Taggart actor John Michie. Which is a tad ironic, given that the same Mr Michie found himself so distracted by his own crazy obsession with...er, Scottish independence, that he went on This Week just days before the 2007 Scottish Parliament election to tell Andrew Neil all about it. If memory serves me right, he felt that independence would unleash a "new entrepreneurial spirit" in Scotland.

Labour certainly know how to pick 'em.

Which brings me to Richard Wilson's monologue at the end. I trust this means we'll hear no more complaints from Labour about celebrity endorsements for the SNP from non-Scottish residents such as Sean Connery and Alan Cumming. After all, if we heed Wilson's advice and elect Iain "the Snarl" Gray as our national leader on Thursday, I somehow don't think the One Foot in the Grave star will be here to enjoy the 'benefits' personally. And if he says otherwise, I don't be-lieeeeeeve it.

5 comments:

  1. i would have thought labour would like an independent scotland.then they would not have to bother about tory government being elected every few years

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  2. Ah, they must all have been told that the new buzz word to describe independence is “crazy”.

    I was at a hustings tonight and the Labour man (or rather one of the Labour men) managed to say it 3 or 4 times in one answer. I’m not altogether sure what the other one said at all.

    I’m not certain that it’s a good idea. Crazy can mean good, hot, fabulous...... But if people take it the way that Labour means it to be taken, it’s a wee bit insulting to all of us. Unionists and nationalists alike.

    People may not want to run their own affairs. People may be against independence and feel that we’re better off with England. People may genuinely feel “British”. But ‘crazy’ seems to suggest that we simply COULDN’T do it; that within a few weeks Alex would be back begging Cameron to use his vast experience to help us out;

    It seems to suggest that we are stupider than Icelanders or Danes, or Norwegians or Luxembourgers.

    Another misjudgement?

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  3. Anyway, just for information (you may or may not be interested: feel free to take this post down if you are not), the hustings was at Dundee and was run by the Courier’s Political Editor. It covered both East and West constituencies. One of the Tories couldn’t make it because he was ill; the other put up a valiant fight, was articulate and once or twice amusing, but broke no ice with the Dundee audience.

    One of the Labour guys was articulate and once or twice talked a good deal of sense (by departing from the party line), the other was reading from a script, badly, and when he had to depart from it, he was completely, and embarrassingly, lost.

    One of the Liberals was really abrupt and, at one point, sounded like he‘d lost his temper; the other surprised us by telling us that she was a court solicitor because she seemed uncomfortable with speaking in public, nervous and unsure. Most of what she said was trite nonsense...aspirations for things that every party would aspire to. It was a waste of time her saying them.

    It won’t be a surprise that I thought the SNP fielded the best team. Both have the advantage of being the sitting members, Joe Fitzpatrick, who was quite stirring in his enthusiasm for Dundee and for Scotland. Shona Robison, Minister for Public Health and Sport was firm, clear, confident, and took the wind out of some sails by being totally upfront and straight about issues.

    More politicians should try that.

    Anyway, what’s this crazy stuff about independence?

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  4. Thanks for the report, Tris - Robison and Fitzpatrick are great assets for the SNP.

    I saw on the news last night that the Liberal Democrats have started banging on about independence now - it seems the only people obsessed with the topic are the SNP's opponents!

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  5. James: I think that either they do not understand the meaning of the word "referendum", or they are being a little opportunistic.

    Or in Labour's case...both.

    Excellent poll from STV tonight.

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