I heard excerpts of this interview on BBC PM early this morning — and wanted to watch it. I’m glad I did.
Good to see the ‘despondency message’ (“Why vote? It doesn’t matter”) Brand has promoted being challenged.
Miliband’s points – making change through politicians can be hard work, slower than you want, and subject to well-funded and powerful opposition (including from the media) were, no doubt tailored to this audience, but I wouldn’t call them inauthentic – would you? It’s not easy – for the citizens or the politicians. And change takes time.
See what you think. (Is Miliband right about media moguls like Rupert Murdoch being “much less powerful than he used to be”? Hmm. Maybe.)
You may also be interested in this earlier post which featured the infamous(?), wonderful, lively, Jeremy Paxman interview with Russell Brand — which was the context for the interview above:
Orchestrating smear campaigns against your rivals is seen as dodgy in business, so what about politics?
– P
PS I know some of my friends won’t be impressed. That’s OK.
Rolling on the floor laughing, I listened to that interview, and was shocked by Oxford graduate Red Ed’s Mockney accent.
I lived for over a decade in London, so I appreciate the significance of accent in Britain. I entered “Ed Mockney accent” into google, and sure enough, I wasn’t the only one who noticed this…
Here’s a couple of example articles discussing it:
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/04/the-cultural-significance-of-ed-milibands-mockney-accent/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/11573271/Has-Ed-Miliband-changed-his-accent-to-get-elected.html
Rgds,
*p*
Haha. Yes, politicians eh? Tragic. P
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/may/08/russell-brand-stages-climbdown-over-support-for-ed-miliband-labour-comedian
Pretty insipid stuff from the extreme left?
Rgds,
*p*
” At great potential cost to his integrity, Brand surprised his fans and commentators by backing Miliband and urging the electorate to vote for Labour, in all seats but Brighton Pavilion, where the Green’s Caroline Lucas was seeking re-election.”
Ha! Really? I hadn’t absorbed that.
Well, good to see Russell Brand worked out how little impact he had. Still, I enjoyed the interview. Thanks for posting the follow-up.
And poormastery …you’re citing The Guardian now??? Wonderful.
-P
PS: I really do think you misuse the label “extreme left”, eh?
Actually, I think that the election in Britain is incredibly relevant from a NZ perspective.
Red Ed is a bit of a goose, but I don’t think that he is the main reason Labour lost the election so surprisingly and painfully as they did.
Of more importance in determining the election result was that there seemed to be a widespread belief that the Tories have shown economic competence, and secured a measure of stability for Britain, over the past five years.
I suspect that voters were turned off voting for Labour in Britain because of fear of future economic mismanagement, resulting from the extreme left economic policies of Labour’s likely coalition partner, the Scottish Nationalist Party.
This makes Ponygate a potentially dangerous issue for the NZ Labour Party, if they believe they can sleep walk to victory on the back of this incident. I personally doubt that Labour will win the next election because of Ponygate. Rather, in my opinion, the next election will be determined by whether voters are convinced that Labour is competent to run the economy. “It’s the economy, stupid”, as Clinton’s political advisor once said.
My take would be that they Labour are capable of running the economy, but the extreme leftie Greens are not. Further, I suspect many other voters share my concerns about the Greens’ fundamentalism.
I believe Labour should explicitly, catagorically and unequivocally rule out going into coalition with the Greens, after the next election. Winston First, the Maori Party et al could all be possible coalition parties for Labour.
If Labour do not do this, and instead rely on Ponygate et al to get them victory in the next election, I suspect that they will be disappointed.
It will be terrible for democracy in NZ if Labour do not put forward a credible alternative four elections in a row. Hopefully, next election they will finally do so, and be rewarded for this.
Rgds,
*p*
Yeah, dunno. There’s no doubt the “Tories are better managers of the economy” trope gets well-used. It may be something to do with who the Tories’ constituency is.
I think you’re right that an Opposition has to look as credible/more credible in that regard, and that the UK government didn’t look exhausted or out of ideas.
Re your comment, “It will be terrible for democracy if Labour do not put forward a credible alternative four elections in a row…”
Hmmm dunno, but interesting.
Democracy is what it is. People (voters) do what they do, respond as they do to the choices they’re presented with. Sorry, that sounds a bit meaningless… what I mean is, the pendulum swing isn’t a pre-ordained thing, is it?
As for the ponytail thing, well, awkward, but not fatal, surely?
– P
I like the Guardian. The Scruton doctrine says:
‘Leftwing people find it very hard to get on with rightwing people, because they believe that they are evil. Whereas I have no problem getting on with leftwing people, because I simply believe that they are mistaken’
Ha.
Rgds,
*p*
Of course, even the [extreme] lefties aren’t always mistaken…
For example, here’s the Guardian’s George Monbiot, making complete sense, on the subject of farm welfare. It can happen.
https://vimeo.com/116297032
Rgds,
*p*