XPost: uk.politics.misc, uk.media, alt.politics.british   
   XPost: uk.media.newspapers   
   From: banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk   
      
   In article <1128020623.101689.256730@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,   
   ib011f9545i@blueyonder.co.uk writes   
      
   >It is wrong to say that politicians you disagree with are stupid.#   
   >They might be evil or dishonest and you might hate their policies but I   
   >don't think you get to be a party leader in the UK if you are really   
   >stupid,except maybe the SNP.   
      
   But if you have that general view, it needs to be tested against   
   specific cases and it might occur that it is found wanting...   
      
   In the past, leaders of the Labour Party tend to have been a lot   
   brighter than leaders of the Tory Party... Churchill once got on the   
   London underground, the Circle Line, and didn't understand about the   
   doors opening and closing, and went round and round... Maybe he was   
   expecting liveried servants to appear?   
      
   As for Alex Salmond of the SNP, he was chief oil economist at the Royal   
   Bank of Scotland. If the rulers let him have something to do with   
   dealing with their money, this suggests he isn't completely stupid.   
      
   Please be fair - I wasn't saying Blair was stupid just because I oppose   
   him. ('Disagree' is not the right word. We do not share aims or places   
   to stand when looking at anything).   
      
   The answer to the question in the title of this thread may well be   
   'no'...   
      
   but, what do you think of the words attributed to Blair by Oliver   
   Burkeman in the article?   
      
   They sound like the words of someone who thinks he's a great advertising   
   executive, or PR guy, because he mixes with people in the industry, but   
   doesn't really have a clue.   
      
   'Old Etonian'/'ultra-posh' means something qualitatively different from   
   'Islington lawyer' and most other identities/roles in the UK. And   
   anyway, 'Islington lawyer' is hardly an identity most people have ever   
   thought about...   
      
   --   
   banana     "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you   
               give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy-bear to   
               Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the   
               rest of your frigid life." (Mick Travis, 'If...', 1968)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)