Team GB
Over the weekend we discovered the latest polls between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Despite David Cameron’s Obama-esque approach to his campaign and the recent hoax against Gordon Brown’s violent conduct, the Labour Party are in strong position to stay in power after the next general election.
Whilst all this controversy is not the best for our economy as one expects future instability if a hung parliament is drawn, it does create a bit of excitement in the months leading up to the elections – for once. As a result of these latest polls, the Pound Sterling has been drop-kicked in the gentleman’s area to 1.5 against the Dollar and has reduced confidence in the UK economy causing potential foreign investment, a factor our GDP relies greatly on, to think twice before signing their cheque headed towards our nation.
This is all just a small blip in what has been a very strange few years in British politics. No-one voted in Mr Brown and was seen as an anti-Blair figure which everyone thought “Great, anyone but Blair” but now are craving that Blair style and grace in leadership. People have scrawled and ripped Mr Brown to shreds and a simple before and after photograph of the Prime Minister is evidence enough of how stressful a job it is being the leader of this nation. Yet he has pulled through, with his effortless charm and his pervious smile, if the elections were tomorrow, Labour would remain in power.
Mr Brown is that man who is blamed for everything in an instant and isn’t quite sure what happened. One moment he is the hero of removing Mr Blair and is now at fault for almost everything that is wrong in this country. What Mr Brown has shown though and one thing a great leader should show is perseverance of whatever is thrown at him. He still stands in front of that mic at PMQs and takes all the childish, fiendish banter from his fellow MPs and leads our nation forward. He lead us out of recession faster that most EU countries who are evidently suffering still, worse that of America’s flaws in the economy and yet no-one thanks him for bailing out Northern Rock or RBS who are already making profit in some departments.
I am not saying Mr Brown is the best leader this nation has had, Mr Blair is. What I am saying is that he sure isn’t the worst and sure will not be worse than others in terms of his resilience, his personality and his honour. Whenever the elections may be, I hope you show up and vote at minimum but I also hope that you vote for the person you think is best suited for the job and not the man who you think is better looking, a better public speaker, or a man from a more elitist background. So my prayers are with you Team GB that you continue to set an example for the rest of us.
Well Mohammed, I have to say that i think that you are entirely wrong. Firstly, you are very wrong in saying that Gordon Brown is not the worst leader that this fine country has ever had, because he is. For the reason being that when Tony Blair left office Gordon Brown was waiting in the wings, which is fair enough, but he has never conducted an election and is therefore in his position purely because of a pact made by two men in a swanky London restaurant over one too many glasses of whiskey (of course, as Brown and Blair both enjoyed the spirt from their home turf) in 1997. So if you believe in democracy, you should not believe in Gordon Brown.
Secondly, it was clear to everyone that when given the chance Gordon turned down the chance to hold an early election in his first term it was because he was clinging to the post, which he had been waiting 10 years for and because we all knew what the outcome would be. And that outcome will be the same come the May general election. The fact that under his leadership we have suffered the worst economic crisis for several decades also goes to show that he was not even a good Chancellor in his time, but was in fact just handed a flourishing economy by the Conservatives in 1997 and all he had to do was keep it afloat. Also, I am going to vote for the person I find best looking because charisma can go a long way. Just look at Obama, America has turned on him but his charismatic stature is what is keeping him afloat.
Sincerely Your Greatest Fan,
Georgina Charles
Dear Mo and Georgie,
I found both of your views on the importance of charisma to be overly extreme and found the need to spend some of my free time and very limited political knowledge explaining why (obviously).
Mo, I get the impression that you feel (or at least heavily implied) that charisma has nothing to do whatsoever with being Prime Minister. This would be true if the Prime Minister were locked away in a room all day, confined to his/her desk. However, there is an overwhelming social aspect involved in this kind of role – one which would no doubt be performed at a much higher level were the individual considered ‘charismatic’. Look at it this way – in voting you are selecting someone who you feel is best for the job in an internal sense, but who will be representing YOUR country on the world stage. Do you really want some socially unintelligent, unattractive gimp to be associated with your country – and (subconsciously) by extention, yourself? The classic example of Mr. Bush would be perfect, were it not that he was probably incompetant on every level. Just how shallow people are is greatly underestimated – I very much doubt someone looking like Susan Boyle could successfully win an election unless they had a solution to everyone’s problems. This is not due to some malicious, conscious hatred for unattractive people – you can’t choose your subconscious associations and they will always influence the way you think about someone whether you want them to or not. That being said – I actually feel that Mr. Brown is reasonably charismatic (in my opinion moreso than Mr. Cameron who – purely because he looks as he does – I would very much like to punch) – the whole Scottish thing makes him seem hard as hell.
Georgie, your closing statement ‘his charismatic stature is what is keeping him afloat’ seems atrocious! Being politically hapless and then being allowed to make it all ok with little more than a wink and a smile is infinitely more unforgivable than doing nothing inherantly wrong but looking a bit weird in general. In fact, I think that in some cases it would be better for a sub-average politician to also be completely unskilled socially – at least it would remove the option of masking their mistakes using low-level persuasion and trickery.
That is all.
Opinions aren’t the same as facts; simples.
The occurrence of an economic crisis under Mr Brown’s time does not mean it was his fault. The sub-prime mortgage market and lending money to people who had no chance of paying it back is what mainly caused the recession. The country is in debt and probably always will be. I am sure many of you have seen the numerous billboard adverts dotted around central London, all showing opposing parties to be a disgrace when it comes to spending and how debt it increasing. It’s no surprise is it, really? Spending is increasing and income from tax isn’t meeting it. Everyone wants improvements to this country but no one wants to pay for it. Yes tax bands can be tweaked and spending can be monitored more closely but in the long run it will have no effect. No matter what party or leader comes into power, national debt is here to stay.
There will never be a leader that a whole nation adores and respects. The fact that we have several political parties is evidence that people have different views on how the country should be run. If your party is not in power you generally will not be happy at current affairs. That’s not to say if your party is in power you are guaranteed happiness.
No one said life would be fair.