Strong and Stable
Political sound bites have now been all pervasive in elections. They have been around for decades now, but have become the preferred method of political communication. I personally quite like them, if they are short and pithy then they can be quite effective and can cut through to the electorate. For example, Tony Blair, a man who refined the soundbite very well, with 'Education, Education, Education' and his best 'Tough on Crime, tough on the causes of crime'. Massively helped him convert the opinions of the electorate to vote Labour.
What I do dislike is the vacuous, meaningless ones. Theresa May has been using one a lot this election. This pointless, waste of money election. It is 'Strong, and stable'. The issues I have are thus;
The conservative government have neither been strong, nor stable. It is therefore meaningless, and also vastly misleading.
Brexit has ripped the country in half and unleashed a great torrent of abusive politics. This is not stable government. David Cameron prior to the last election in 2015 entreated us to vote conservative to avoid the chaos of an Ed Miliband government. Cameron then proceeded to call an unnecessary referendum to try and solve an internal conservative party issue, and to remove the threat of UKIP. He spectacularly failed in this regard. His timing of the referendum was to start with awful. At the height of a mass exodus of refugees from Syria and Libya played directly into the barely unconcealed xenophobia of the UKIP party led by the especially odious Nigel Farage, who could portray the UK as on the verge of being swamped by immigrants.
Cameron gambled the economic future of this country on a unnecessary referendum. He lost. History will judge him badly.
The strong aspect of the phrase is also a misnomer as you can see just by following the campaign of the Tories. They introduce a new and radical tax, quickly labelled 'The Dementia Tax'. Within hours the PM has to grovel into making a massive U turn. Please bear in mind that no party has ever U turned on a manifesto policy prior to being elected. It never happens. Theresa may made it happen due to pressure from the media. This is hardly strong leadership. This of course presupposes that you are actually ensuring policies you agree with are being put into your manifesto. (Not wholly a Tory problem. Jeremy Corbyn has some huge policy disagreements with his manifesto; Trident, being the obvious example). However, a little gentle pressure and May has unravelled her policy and shot her own campaign in the foot. Before this the government showing strong leadership had reversed a massive plank in their budget within 24 hours. Again due to media pressure. The strong leadership May speaks of is an illusion. She governs to the media response. If you believe something is right in politics then you have to push it through. Otherwise you reveal a weakness and that is continually probed and smashed open. It becomes the opposite. It becomes a weakness.
The most recent example of strong leadership is Theresa May unwillingness to participate in a leaders debate on TV. This to me is the most inexcusable action of the campaign. Not that I watched it, there is no point as I know who I will vote for. This television events are rarely anything other than ceremony. The people who watch them in a majority have already decided their voting intention.
But as Prime Minister, you should be there. You should be made to be there, by law, if necessary. Again, her mantra of strong leadership is collapsed under reality. The reality being this; Theresa May is a very average politician, devoid of charisma and warmth. Her time at the home office revealed that her method of leadership was micro managed control and not releasing information out of the department. As a minister it may well be an effective strategy of presenting a competent image. However, being PM is a different matter and she is so obviously struggling.
David Cameron for all his faults (many) had a charisma that made him able to bluff and side step through interviews and television interviews. May's elephant dancing through them make Cameron look like a ballerina in comparison. Not taking part in the leaders debate makes her look weak. Putting Amber Rudd, the home secretary forward, 2 days after the death of her father makes her look uncaring. The other by-product is that she has now given a huge, high profile appearance to an ambitious cabinet member who rightly used the event to portray herself as Prime Ministerial. It has been a shocking lapse in judgement on May's part. Once the news starts filtering out that Rudd stood there 2 days after her fathers death, then May's reputation will suffer once more.
She has had an appalling election campaign. May has taken an insanely lead over the labour party and managed to take enormous great chunks out of this lead. When you make Jeremy Corbyn look Prime ministerial then you aren't performing well enough. The danger for May after she wins the election (and she will, not through her campaigning, but by a combination of an appalling average opposition and a massive anti-Corbyn bloc of voters) is that she has highlighted her faults to such a large degree that I am already convinced that a fair few Tory MP's are looking at a far weakened PM who could be replaced, especially if Brexit negotiations go as badly as I would expect them too.
Strong and Stable.
What I do dislike is the vacuous, meaningless ones. Theresa May has been using one a lot this election. This pointless, waste of money election. It is 'Strong, and stable'. The issues I have are thus;
The conservative government have neither been strong, nor stable. It is therefore meaningless, and also vastly misleading.
Brexit has ripped the country in half and unleashed a great torrent of abusive politics. This is not stable government. David Cameron prior to the last election in 2015 entreated us to vote conservative to avoid the chaos of an Ed Miliband government. Cameron then proceeded to call an unnecessary referendum to try and solve an internal conservative party issue, and to remove the threat of UKIP. He spectacularly failed in this regard. His timing of the referendum was to start with awful. At the height of a mass exodus of refugees from Syria and Libya played directly into the barely unconcealed xenophobia of the UKIP party led by the especially odious Nigel Farage, who could portray the UK as on the verge of being swamped by immigrants.
Cameron gambled the economic future of this country on a unnecessary referendum. He lost. History will judge him badly.
The strong aspect of the phrase is also a misnomer as you can see just by following the campaign of the Tories. They introduce a new and radical tax, quickly labelled 'The Dementia Tax'. Within hours the PM has to grovel into making a massive U turn. Please bear in mind that no party has ever U turned on a manifesto policy prior to being elected. It never happens. Theresa may made it happen due to pressure from the media. This is hardly strong leadership. This of course presupposes that you are actually ensuring policies you agree with are being put into your manifesto. (Not wholly a Tory problem. Jeremy Corbyn has some huge policy disagreements with his manifesto; Trident, being the obvious example). However, a little gentle pressure and May has unravelled her policy and shot her own campaign in the foot. Before this the government showing strong leadership had reversed a massive plank in their budget within 24 hours. Again due to media pressure. The strong leadership May speaks of is an illusion. She governs to the media response. If you believe something is right in politics then you have to push it through. Otherwise you reveal a weakness and that is continually probed and smashed open. It becomes the opposite. It becomes a weakness.
The most recent example of strong leadership is Theresa May unwillingness to participate in a leaders debate on TV. This to me is the most inexcusable action of the campaign. Not that I watched it, there is no point as I know who I will vote for. This television events are rarely anything other than ceremony. The people who watch them in a majority have already decided their voting intention.
But as Prime Minister, you should be there. You should be made to be there, by law, if necessary. Again, her mantra of strong leadership is collapsed under reality. The reality being this; Theresa May is a very average politician, devoid of charisma and warmth. Her time at the home office revealed that her method of leadership was micro managed control and not releasing information out of the department. As a minister it may well be an effective strategy of presenting a competent image. However, being PM is a different matter and she is so obviously struggling.
David Cameron for all his faults (many) had a charisma that made him able to bluff and side step through interviews and television interviews. May's elephant dancing through them make Cameron look like a ballerina in comparison. Not taking part in the leaders debate makes her look weak. Putting Amber Rudd, the home secretary forward, 2 days after the death of her father makes her look uncaring. The other by-product is that she has now given a huge, high profile appearance to an ambitious cabinet member who rightly used the event to portray herself as Prime Ministerial. It has been a shocking lapse in judgement on May's part. Once the news starts filtering out that Rudd stood there 2 days after her fathers death, then May's reputation will suffer once more.
She has had an appalling election campaign. May has taken an insanely lead over the labour party and managed to take enormous great chunks out of this lead. When you make Jeremy Corbyn look Prime ministerial then you aren't performing well enough. The danger for May after she wins the election (and she will, not through her campaigning, but by a combination of an appalling average opposition and a massive anti-Corbyn bloc of voters) is that she has highlighted her faults to such a large degree that I am already convinced that a fair few Tory MP's are looking at a far weakened PM who could be replaced, especially if Brexit negotiations go as badly as I would expect them too.
Strong and Stable.
Comments