Party political conference season drew to a close this week with the Tory shindig in Manchester.
And I had to chuckle when the shadow home secretary, in answering a question from a journalist regarding the recruitment of former army chief General Dannatt, dismissed it as a “political gimmick”. He complained that the Government brought in far too many non-politicians for PR purposes.
However, he had misheard the question and it was in fact David Cameron and not Gordon Brown who was looking to recruit General Dannatt. He quickly backtracked later on, of course, saying what great news it was.
It goes to illustrate one of my pet peeves when it comes to politicians. I appreciate the political parties differ in policy and ideology, but why can they not sometimes just admit they agree on something? Why must they ALWAYS argue the point for, let’s face it, the sake of argument.
Sometimes politicians remind me of my young children. You can guarantee that one will wait for the other to say something first, just so he can disagree and fight about it.
Parent: “Do you want to go to the park or beach today?”
Child A: “Park!”
Child B: “Beach!”
Occasionally they will inadvertently agree, due to not fully listening to one another.
Parent: “We’re going swimming today.”
Child A: “Hooray, I like swimming.”
Child B: “Swimming? Fantastic!”
Child A: “What? No, I don’t want to go. Waaah! I hate swimming”
And so it goes. Politicians are little different.
Politician A: “I haven’t a clue what you just said, but I am 100% against it!”
Politician B: “I haven’t a clue what I said either, but if you’re against it, I must be right!”
Politician C: “You’re both wrong!”
And so it goes.
I am sure that if politicians could be a little more honest with each other and actually agree to agree occasionally, the country would be a far more efficient place.
To be fair, there was a rare outbreak of agreement during the Follett Stock hosted question time on Thursday evening, between some of the Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for the Truro and Falmouth ward. At one point Tory hopeful Sarah Newton voiced her agreement to a range of comments from Lib Dem would-be MP Terrye Teverson, before slightly tarnishing the good will with a “you should join the Conservatives” comment.
I’m sure they’ll soon learn, however, and whoever gets to the playground in Westminster will rapidly regress!
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http://charlottemackenzie.com/2009/10/09/truro-question-time/
Nick it was a good event – I thought the questions and discussion picked up well on current concerns of the business community in Truro and Falmouth.
I think we can agree that whenever the election is called it will be an interesting fight between the main Parties – and in this constituency all the more so partly because there is no defending MP.
Hi Nick
I think all politicians, particularly in Cornwall set out with intentions to make a difference to the area they live in. Particularly if they are from that area. Probably some of the problem is the career politicians. I do think that MP’s who have had lives before politics, like Vince Cable for example, have a much more reasoned approach to life and debate. Everyone has good ideas the key is to harness and implement them to make our world a little better. But the public do also have a responsibility to actually read the policy that is on offer from the different parties. At the last General Election 1 out of 4 people voted Liberal Democrat but you don’t see that representation in Parliament because of the unfair current system.
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