The best prime ministers we never had
Via Google:
- John Smith
- Tony Benn
- Rab Butler
- Denis Healey
- Roy Jenkins
- Hugh Gaitskell
- Chris Patten
- Michael Heseltine
- David Owen
- Neil Kinnock
Archive for Politics
Do you know your PIN number at all?
With the advent of the UK Chip and PIN programme, I am variously interested, puzzled and irked at how I am requested to input my number. It appears to be policy in my local Sainsbury’s for checkout operatives to ask, “Do you know your PIN number at all?”
1. The N in PIN stands for number - so I am being asked if I know my Personal Identification Number number. That doesn’t make much sense.
2. Do I know it at all? It is surely only of use if I know it in its entirety.
There are other acronym-word redundancies that annoy me. ‘ATM machine’ is a common one. ‘NCP car park’ is another, although this is probably acceptable as NCP is a company name.
Tony Blair introduced me to another last night. On ‘Ask Tony Blair with Jonathan Dimbleby’ he talked about “WMD weapons.”
I hadn’t heard that phrase before and he probably doesn’t normally use it; he just seemed really weary after the shock and awe of the audience’s questions on Iraq.
Lib Dem Flag
This is a flag I designed for the Liberal Democrats in a moment of creativity some time ago. Oh, the levels that this works on…
The Broadcast Ban
Politics in Northern Ireland and broadcasting law are not topics that I purport to know a great deal about. However, I have recently had a number of conversations about the 1988 Broadcast Ban. Last night I serendipitously caught an interesting BBC4 programme about this very issue.
In 1988 Margaret Thatcher famously said that British broadcasters provided “the oxygen of publicity for terrorists,” so banned the voices of the Sinn Fein (and other undesirable organisations) leadership on all broadcast media. Pictures of Sinn Fein members could be shown, but their words could not be heard. We could see them speaking but we had to read their words as subtitles, or listen to actors’ voices.
Some actors were consumate professionals and tried to lipsynch, conveying the nuances of Gerry Adams’ furry Belfast accent for example; others spoke deliberately out of synch to highlight the absurdity of the restrictions.
The situation was satirised on The Day Today, with Chris Morris interviewing a Sinn Fein spokesman (played by Steve Coogan) “who under broadcasting restrictions must inhale helium to subtract credibility from his statements.” I doubt Chris Morris felt threatened when he was told, “Your tone is antagonistic and you’re making me angry!” by someone sounding like a duck. A very funny sketch.
Get Political
I was surprised to observe today that a group of Year 10 students only recognised two of the above politicians (and one of them not even British). More about this later. Now, though, a few useful links:
About My Vote: If you don’t do politics, there’s not much you do do.
They Work For You: Your local MP does indeed work for you. Find out what they have said in Parliament, what their voting record is, and their outside interests.
Europe Counts: The Official 2004 European Elections Website. Voting takes place on the 10th June 2004. How does this vote affect your life?
Downing Street Says: Every day the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as ‘the lobby’ for a topical chat, or ‘briefing’. Find out what she says here.
I wonder how much more recognition Michael Howard would get if he were one of the Marx Brothers:
Politics Weblogs
Some of the political weblogs I read:
Liberal Democrat Watch: In politics, being ridiculous is more damaging than being extreme.
Tory Trouble: Plumbing the depths of the Conservative Party.
Boris Watch: Keeping an eye on Boris Johnson, the shadow minister for the arts.
Tom Watson MP: Labour MP for West Bromwich East. I entered his “flag for the Liberal Democrats” competition: see my entry here.
I’ll add some more of my favourites shortly.
DISCLAIMER: I do not endorse the content or opinions of any of these sites. I am of no political persuasion, although during my youth I was a paid-up member of the Liberal Democrats for a year.
He is not Prime Minister Blair
Tony Blair holds the office of prime minister, but his title is not “Prime Minister Blair”.
Since Blair’s speech to the US Congress, I have heard this solecism repeated frequently and it really gets my goat. Please could radio and television presenters differentiate between job titles and personal titles?
And why does President Bush continually refer to Blair as Prime Minister Blair? Hasn’t the prime minister ever corrected him?
