Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
It's not so much the rate as the pretense. My impression (also difficult to judge from the other side of this distance) is that while American politicians attempt to exude righteous outrage and holier-than-thou stances on everything, UK politicians are allowed/encouraged to get very directly nasty with one another. We have talking heads and pundits who can get bitchy, but for the most part it's a very choreographed dance on both sides.
We're a six-hour opera grinding through the motions, while you are a 30-second MMA fight where everyone's going to bleed.
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Election campaigning can become pretty unpleasant and personal in the UK.
A couple of weeks ago Michael Fallon, Conservative Defence Minister in the outgoing coalition government, accused Ed Miliband of ‘knifing his brother David in the back’.
David M was a capable, and well regarded, Foreign Secretary in Tony Blair’s government and both brothers offered themselves as candidates for leadership of the Labour Party in 2010.
There might have been a kernel of truth in the remark but there was a general feeling that Mr Fallon had gone too far and nothing more was heard from him after that.
It was quite breathtaking to hear Nick Clegg and David Cameron flinging copious quantities of mud at one another in the campaigning when both men had worked closely in the coalition government for five years.
I pondered over the likelihood of a similar result to last time and the two of them having to work with one another again. I think it’s called ‘creative tension’.
Anyway, barring unforeseen circumstances, it’s all over for another five years. Pausing only to consult my copy of Old Carruthers’ Almanack, I see that the new government will either be an outstanding success or fall flat on its face.
Remember you heard it here first.
By the way. This notice appeared outside a church in Edinburgh that was being used as a polling station.
It isn't clear which the anxious voter should do first.
