The disgusting cynicism of Labour’s sympathy strategy
First we had this:
Ed Balls reveals his struggle with secret stammer (23rd January 2010) – Schools Secretary Ed Balls spoke last night for the first time about his lifelong struggle to overcome a stammer. He revealed that he faced a daily battle to deliver his words and had to memorise all his speeches because he could not read a script. The speech impediment has caused him to freeze when speaking and give a halting delivery to hide the stammer. …He was constantly mocked at his boys’ private school, and says that he was not given any therapy. “Being in the school play was never for me. I was in the debating society because that was I wanted to do, but it was so hard to get going. You find ways to deal with it. You coupe, but it never goes away. It’s always there, like an iceberg. No one sees what’s under the surface.”
And now we have this:
Gordon Brown weeps on TV as he talks about death of Jennifer (7th February 2010) - Gordon Brown wept in public this weekend when he talked of the death of his daughter Jennifer and spoke of facing up to the possible premature death of his son Fraser, who has cystic fibrosis – and his hope a cure will be found. Mr Brown’s wife Sarah, who was present, also sobbed in an extraordinary display of emotion when the Prime Minister was interviewed by Piers Morgan for a TV programme. The candid exchanges, which took place over two-and-a-half hours in front of a live studio audience, are to be broadcast on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories on ITV next Sunday. Mr Brown told how it was he, and not his wife, who was first to realise that Jennifer was not going to survive. She died in 2002, at just ten days old, after suffering a brain haemorrhage. He also spoke of his agony at the knowledge that his three-year-old son Fraser may have a ‘poor life expectancy’. A member of the audience said: ‘It was remarkable to hear Mr Brown talk like that. ‘He said he was the one who could tell Jennifer wasn’t going to make it and he described how he held her tiny little hand until the very end. ‘He was asked if he was angry about his son’s illness and said, “We sometimes ask, why us? But we try not to be bitter.”‘ Another member of the audience said: ‘It was so moving, some us were close to tears as well. It was hard not to be.’
Now, I would never suggest that either of these two men’s difficulties are worthy of ridicule or jokes because they are clearly not. To go through political life with such burdens is never easy. However, I just can’t help but feel that the timing of these extremely personal revelations is too convenient for my liking. It’s not like these two individuals have just appeared in politics and want the voters to get to know them better. They have both been around for years and years, and also happen to be on the verge of losing an election. Why did they choose now to go all Oprah Winfrey on us? Hmmm? I mean, the same interview could have been conducted by Brown at any point since 2002 but he waits until this moment to strike, while Ed Balls could have been honest and up front about his stammer years ago to save himself considerable political embarassment but he choose to wait until now as well.
How sad that, even in their most private and sensitive moments, Labour are still a bunch of cynical bastards who will manipulate anyone or anything to suit their own purposes.
Witanagemot Blogs
And the public will fall for it, that’s why they do it.
We are beset by charlatons and idiots.
More relevant if they felt able to admit to a lifelong compulsion to bully, lie and dissemble.
Nothing in this surprises me. Not one bit.
Compare it to Cameron’s handling of the death of his son.
Balls says “No one sees what’s under the surface.” No need to, it is simply more Balls.
Labour have always tried to appeal to emotion rather than thought, it is so much easier to manipulate. Proves the bankruptcy of all their grand schemes, in every sense.
Expect more stories about how Gordon’s scottish accent was always derided and laughed at, which makes his campaign to dismember and destroy England so much more excusable.
The actual truth is that advertisers used to favour scottish accents, and many call centres were located north of the border because a scottish accent “inspired trust” – wonder if that is still true ?
Alan Douglas
… and we await Lord Fondlebum of Boy’s agony at realising he was “not as other men” ….
Harriet Harman’s distress at discovering her disadvantaged education in a PRIVATE school. Or her shock at realising she suffers from penis envy
Jack Straw’s grafted-on understanding that he really does have no brain
Alan Johnson’s shock to learn he was delivered by private courier
I can’t go on – no idea which nonentities form the rest of the “none of the above” members of the cabinet. Help me out here !
Alan Douglas
Wise words.
Look, (as Brown would say) I imagine (that’s all I can do) there can be little that’s quite as bad as the death of a child. But there are lots of things that happen to all of us that are almost as bad. Last years both my parents died within six weeks of each other. But most of us get on with things. What we don’t do is opportunistically, just before a general election when we know our lack of humanity will be examined, cynically perform our ‘private and sensitive moments’ in front of a studio audience on Piers Morgan’s (Piers bloody Morgan if you like!)show.
It’s important to remember that Brown will be following onto Morgan’s mawkish publicity show (for that’s what it is) such inspirational luminaries as Katie Price, Matt Goss, Susan Boyle, Sharon Osbourne, Danni Minogue and Jade Goody.
I suppose we must be grateful for the fact that, as yet, Brown and Sarah haven’t done an ‘OK’ or ‘Hello’ spread.
Some grannies will fall for it but I suspect that the whole charade will not play especially well with a public disenchanted with all things parliamentary, and to whom bad things happen also.
…now there’s Campbell on Marr “taking a moment.”
Sick bag please!
Judging by the comments in the ‘Daily Mail’ article, they’re not falling for it…
@Talwin – “I suppose we must be grateful for the fact that, as yet, Brown and Sarah haven’t done an ‘OK’ or ‘Hello’ spread.”
You might be grateful for that. I’m simply ecstatic that they haven’t done ‘Playboy’ or ‘Playgirl’..!
And yet my tears for my lost nation are ignored.
If Labour, or the Tories, or God forbid, even the LibDems spoke like this:
http://captainranty.blogspot.com/2010/02/constitutional-reform-bill.html
I’d be injuring people in the polling queues in my rush to vote for them.
CR.
Please God that you are right come election day
Anyone else smell an election announcement?
Given the world shattering 0.1% growth, and the very real prospect of a contraction of GDP announced when this quarters stats are released towards the end of April, seems they’ve figured that running on a ‘careful caretakers of the economy’ ticket may actually not be that clever.
Trading off your dead daughter though, that really is the lowest – even if he didn’t explicitly want it said, he would know that his best buddy Moron – hardly known for his scruples – would mine it, and if he had any decency would’ve asked for it to be avoided.
Someone call up Chris Morris, we need a Brass Eye Election Special – he could knock up a montage of Browns Emotional Moments to a a Brown impersonator singing the Human Leagues ‘Human’… Mind you, Campbell’s probably already suggested it for real.
My thoughts exactly LFAT, as I posted:
http://witteringsfromwitney.blogspot.com/2010/02/electioneering-you-decide.html
Cynical I am but were I not, this is blatant ‘electioneering’!
Excellent post – highlighting what many are thinking. We also have Pauline Prezza’s yawn of a story in today’s papers . . .the whole lot of them are attention-grabbing sleaze balls set on maintaing power at all costs. Now we have Brown using his kids as political footballs!
They’ll use whatever means necessary to be re-elected, be it cynically abusing personal tragedy, cosying up to the Libdems on electoral reform or fighting a class war based on hypocrisy.
I blogged about ti earlier.
This needs emphasising. If my memory serves me even reasonably well, after 6-years (sic) old Ivan Cameron’s death, Cameron and his wife withdrew for several days, leaving others to speak for them. Cameron then appeared, and, I think, with some dignity, said a few understated words about himself, his wife and Ivan’s time together; then he thanked the NHS.
Since then, to the public, nothing. And quite right too. And, dare one say it? a suitably statesman-like approach to personal tragedy.
Alastair Campbell’s at is as well. Sunday Mail. Bet it his all his idea.
Scum
You can be an excellent father but bad at everything else.
@Tory Totty Online – Pauline Prezza’s book shortly to be available in ‘Poundland’.
Can’t wait for a parade of those unfortunate enough to have contracted socially transmitted diseases.
DC’s son died last February… call me cynical but had that been Gordon’s or Alistair’s son I suspect long term life support would have been employed until an important date was to be announced….
@Roseleen – OK, you’re cynical; but no more so than anyone who has been exposed to the New Labour machine for 13 years is entitled to be. Not withstanding this, Brown’s disgraceful, stop-at-nothing attempts to stay in power at the expense of the country and those around him take Labour’s own cynicism to new heights.
@Roseleen – You are indeed cynical. The challenge, though, is to find someone in the UK in 2010 who, on the subject of poitics, is not cynical.
13 years of spin have taken a toll.
They certainly have.
I stopped door knocking for the Conservatives nearly 30 years ago….. hell I want to go out this upcoming election and drag every dissenting voter in my constituency to the polling station y their hair! Well maye not – ut you do get my drift!
Look Out Adam Holloway… Roseleen is signing up for duty next week!
I find it fairly depressing. I know of one significant minor party that has been fairly well penetrated by Evangelical Christians using tactics better known as Trotskyite-Entryism. Even assuming that the Conservatives PPCs don’t consist of 50 or 60% similar trojan horses, we can look forward to what?
A blue flavour centrist, paternalist, let us ‘nudge’ you into doing what WE want YOU to do by taxing or criminalising other choices? A red flavour surveillance state where you feel obliged to obey Big Brother’s ‘requests’ while in the glare of the Panopticon? Woo.
Can you tell that while delighted to get shot of Gordon, I’m somewhat concerned about the incoming mob being similarly anti-liberty?