Leading article: Political journey
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
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Those presentational geniuses of Downing Street have come up with another fabulous wheeze to improve the image of the Prime Minister: take the Cabinet on the road. The first top-level ministerial meeting after the summer holidays will be in the West Midlands. One presumes that the roadshow will not, thereafter, be stopping in Crewe, Henley or Glasgow East, but with this Government's Midas touch it would be silly to discount the prospect.
The idea of mobile Cabinet meetings is not actually new. The patrician French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing held meetings outside Paris between 1974 and 1976. But that probably owed more to the desire of French ministers to dine in Lyon, rather than a wish to mingle with the paysans. And none of it did M. Giscard any good at the ballot box.
Still, going on the road will give Mr Brown a chance to throw disloyal Cabinet ministers under the wheels of the Government convoy. David Miliband might be advised to make sure he buckles his seat belt come September.
Why not take the whole lot of them to Mars and give us all a well earned break.
Posted by Cromwell | 07.08.08, 16:41 GMT
John Davies' post is really spot on - we have all twigged on to the antics of those snouts in the trough who claim to represent us.
The problem is not simply policy specifics, but the generality of complete incompetence from Ministers, MPs and key civil servants, whose endless attempts to reinvent the wheel almost always result in expensive failure. How many costly failed 'intiatives' can one remember since 1997?? Policies won't save ZanuLabour now, only a Cameron meltdown will. It seems sometimes that Brown and his boys have abandoned any pretence at Governing and are simply reacting by making new initiatives/policies/pronouncements as the fit takes them. Government by U-turn?
Posted by Tony Hurst | 05.08.08, 20:13 GMT
I'm amazed that they continue to trot out the "listening and learning" line.
Surely the issue is decisions taken at the cabinet meeting rather than the location of the meeting. Is a decision taken in Sutton Coldfield more important than one taken in Blackpool? Would Blackpudlians support a decision taken there rather than in Newbury? Having a cabinet roadshow is just nonsense - another wizard wheeze as absurd and pointless as usual.
If they would only listen to the local elections, Crewe, Glasgow East, and every poll of the last few months, the sound of the message is deafening: WE DON'T CARE WHO YOU ELECT AS LEADER - WE WOULD LIKE A GENERAL ELECTION - NOW"!!
I'm further amazed to say I agree with Prezza - he compared Brown to the captain on the Titanic. Presumably this means that the captain would be so busy 'listening and learning' that all was well and that he was the man to bring the ship through the ice field that he failed to hear the iceberg warning from the crows nest.
Posted by Tim | 05.08.08, 15:49 GMT
The Medieval Kings of England used to progress round the Country to subdue rebellion and try to hold on to their power by bribing their subjects. Some things just don't change, do they?
Posted by atropos | 05.08.08, 12:49 GMT
So, as well as watching the wheels fall off metaphorically, we could actually see it happen! Brilliant... where's my camera?
Posted by molesworth 1 | 05.08.08, 12:00 GMT
John Prescott had the beginning of the answer. They should all meet offshore on a Ship.( Do they still have the Prison ones?). They would have the authenticity of being all at sea, and yes the parallels drawn by the ex Dept. PM would provide vivid imagery for an enthusiastic electorate!
Posted by R Newton | 05.08.08, 11:40 GMT
Oh no! Not another silly stunt! Our masters haven’t caught on. They urgently need to learn that spin, charisma, manipulation, personality, “message delivery” and all the rest of that bundle no longer work. Counting Blair’s Tory predecessors, who introduced these methods, (remember Saatchi & Saatchi selling Mrs T?) we have had over three decades of it. We are wise to it. The “target audience” (i.e us) is more sophisticated. It doesn’t work any more.
What counts now is policy. If Brown would only use the time left to him to bring in some decent policies, it would not merely be his salvation, it would be ours too. End the hugely expensive, illegal war. Stop the widening gap between rich and poor. Restrict surveillance by petty officials having nothing to do with national security. Reduce petty interference in our lives. Cancel ID cards (useless, expensive, another IT fiasco in the making) End the looting of the public sector by privatisations, PFIs and vastly overpaid consultants.
Posted by John Davies | 05.08.08, 10:42 GMT
It will be as stage-managed as "meeting the public" was in 2005. Hand-picked loyalists masquerading as bone fide members of the elctorate - no dissent allowed, planted questions and a man out of sight with a notice saying "Clap now." They simply dare not risk any genuine contact with real people - they might get murdered!
Posted by Prestonian | 05.08.08, 10:20 GMT
-and when do the ordinary public get the chance to make their views known to this travesty of a government ?
Posted by Simon Ville | 05.08.08, 01:34 GMT