24 Hour Trash T.V. and the Election in General

While the last few days has been quite exciting, finally we might actually get policies and plans rather than the news channels all vying for the best angle from which to view the tops of cars, a bunch of bored looking staff texting, or the roof of Buckingham Palace.

The rather predictable 24 hours news coverage ticked most of the boxes of ‘why live news is crap’ (see Brooker et al). One Sky commentator / presenter gave us a fantastic description of ‘corgis looking at David Cameron’ to provide an endless stream of verbal diarrhoea while nothing happened, apart from a helicopter shot of Buck House for what seemed like an age, presumably to assure us it was still standing.

Occasionally live news did come up with the goods, rare nuggets of gold in a river of dross. Adam 'Raging Boul'ton (play on words courtesy of Grauniad subs) losing it against Alistair Campbell was a highlight.

Cameron the ex PR man made it to number 10. Probably the right end to a campaign which Simon Cowell (made millions on exploiting lots of talentless eejits and further millions exploiting a select few very talented people – one of whom appeared to be mentally unstable) gave his ‘humble’ opinion on who people should vote for from the front page of The Sun.

Surely this was the nadir of the press coverage of the campaign - or was it the ‘Obamarisation’ of Cameron the next day (view / read here), brilliantly juxtaposing the first black president of the U.S.A, elected on the promise of fundamentally changing the healthcare of millions of poor citizens with an Eton educated Tory promising cuts.

Meanwhile, left wing press were in disarray, and not just because big hitters from the Murdoch group seemed willing to come over for some argy-bargy. A brave man would take on Rebekah Brooks (nee Wade).

Unsure what to make of the Clegg effect, which turned out to be just that - Clegg has done well, but the party less so - The Guardian’s pull out ‘tactical voting’ poster was a joke (the in depth guide is here), and the oft repeated list of ‘seats not to vote Tory in’ with which the Mirror led with had no discernable effect, certainly not in Kent which went blue through and through.

In general, the press seemed to have the reasoned argument of a Shepway political flyer.

Could this be the proof that papers follow opinion and don’t lead it? Not really. Personally, as with most of these things, it's probably a mix.

Fair play and good luck to the coalition. Perhaps the ‘extremes’ of UK mainstream politics might temper the most odious aspects of each party, although this is like saying MacDonald’s represents the cutting edge of dining.

In their pact with the devil in the deep blue sea (back of the net*) surely there is a cast-iron guarantee of a referendum on electoral reform with a ‘guarantee’ of support to push it through the Lords if the referendum returns a ‘yes’. That might be worth selling a Lib Dem soul for, but I haven’t checked the details yet and perhaps it isn’t. If not, surely the Lib Dems have sold themselves down the river, ripe for a crushing defeat at the next election which, despite the rhetoric and apparent guarantee date, might well come in the next few months.

Perhaps this really will usher in a new politics of compromise, discussion and decency - let's hope so.

I’m not holding my breath.

*apologies for the AP reference