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It will be a hard night for Blair on May 5
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Apr 04, 2005 08:45pm |
| Logged |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Media | - |
| News Date | Tuesday, April 5, 2005 02:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Last week BBC Two’s Newsnight brought me over from America to examine the mood of the voters. I studied at Oxford during the 1987 election and was a political commentator during the 1997 and 2001 elections, and never have I seen voters so disgruntled as now. In the past, only a small segment of the population has complained about having to choose the lesser of three evils. This time they all seem to be, and they are not happy about it.
And it gets worse, much worse. Our 30 swing voters were given “people meters” — small, handheld dials that they turned up or down to register their second-by-second reaction to speeches, news clips or party political broadcasts. Up is good. Down is bad.
We showed them the first few moments of the recent White House press conference where President Bush and Mr Blair stood side-by-side and talked about “a clear way forward” in Iraq. The dials plummeted. Never in 17 years of moderating people-meter sessions have I seen an audience react so negatively even before the first word had been spoken. Every dial fell.
I can see it now: Lib Dem posters plastered throughout traditional Labour constituencies of a smiling Tony Blair looking wistfully at a smirking George W. Bush over a simple four-word slogan: “Need we say more?” Trust me, it would work.
The only solace Labour can take is in Mr Blair’s overwhelming advantage over the other party leaders in their relative ability to handle a terrorist attack or an international crisis, and the confidence they have in Gordon Brown should he ever become Prime Minister. If Labour is smart, Mr Brown will be the public face of the campaign. |
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