Far be it from me to join the Obamamania that seems to be sweeping every corner of the earth except the US particularly Brazil where not 4, not 5 but 6 politicians have taken it upon themselves to rename themselve's Barack Obama. (an odd and perhaps not the most novel way of boosting your search rankings and general popularity) but hey if it's working for them well good luck to them...
But all this madness did get me to thinking that perhaps we should do a similar thing in the UK. No not rename our Gordon Brown and the rest of the cabinet Barrack - I don't think their sports skills would quite match up to his for a start...
However instead perhaps we should send open invitations to unsuccessful presidential nominees (the good ones anyway) to take up roles in Westminster. I'm sure Barrack would love a nice cosy constituency perhaps in the south hams, perhaps Al Gore wouldn't mind running Glasgow South and hey if they like it - what's stopping them getting their full citizenship and running the country!
However seriously, behind all the razzmatazz which I feel we like to cynically snigger at - what the Americans are good at producing is leaders and politicians that inspire and cause debate - clearly I dont agree with Sarah Palin's view on a number of issues especially the Bush doctrine, what ever that is...but what she has done is brought another dimension of debate to the election and has made more interested in what she has to say - more so than our own party conferences taking place at the moment in the UK - instead our party conferences tend to be bogged down with headlines more often than not dominated by infighting or cross party squabbling than anything of real significance.
Policies are important (and clearly the huge scale of an American election has an effect) but there needs to be an added dynamism to our politics - I may not have always agreed with Tony Blair (and was too young to witness Maggie in action) but there was generally an ounce of interest in what decisions they were making which I feel is wholly absent today.
We need people that inspire people - current coverage of UK politics often feels like the skies of August this year - relentlessly grey and disappointing.
So good luck to Barracks everywhere from Illinois to Rio and hey if it doesn't work out then there's always a backbench seat in the South Hams a waiting....
2 comments:
I agree with your points, but it is worth bearing in mind that you get all the nonsense reportage around UK politics because you are in the UK. From out here in Australia, suddenly it doesn't seem like there is as much in-fighting in British politics because the distance makes it irrelevant to report.
I wonder whether US politics benefit from the same editing process by the time it reaches London or us folks here in Sydney.
It would be interesting to hear a Brit in America's perspective on what they are seeing out there, for comparison.
Hey Emily
I agree that I guess distance gives you a greater perspective - seeing the wood through the trees etc...
Perhaps I'll change my homepage to an Aussie news network for the length of the Labour party conference as an experiment - any you can suggest?
Post a Comment