XPost: uk.politics.misc, uk.politics.electoral, alt.politics.british   
   XPost: uk.politics.parliament, uk.media   
   From: banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk   
      
   The presentational strategy with regard to the New Labour leadership has   
   been the opposite of what it was for the Tories under John Major.   
      
   Whereas it was de rigueur for the chattering classes to talk about   
   'Portillo and the leadership', it is now seen as unacceptable to   
   speculate on who the next Labour leader might be.   
      
   They've presented Blair - who is probably held in greater CONTEMPT than   
   any other prime minister since Chamberlain, although it's true that he's   
   not as HATED as Thatcher was - as STRONG, the UNCHALLENGED LEADER, whose   
   'appointment' of his CHOSEN SUCCESSOR a decade ago must still stand.   
      
   They're all actors and errand-boys anyway, of course, but what a load of   
   shit this is! Don't call it 'informed commentary' - call it marketing   
   bullshit.   
      
   It illustrates just how CENTRALISED and TIGHT the control over the UK   
   media actually is.   
      
   Even when the 'Tory Blair'...no let me rephrase...even when the Tory   
   Party's Blair, namely David Cameron [1], has been praised to the skies   
   as the 'young hope', and reports are saying that the Tories would win an   
   election against Brown, there STILL isn't any 'speculation' that maybe   
   someone else 'should' lead the Labour party who isn't Brown!   
      
   The 'commentators' obviously don't take their own lies seriously!   
      
   Of course, I reiterate that it's all just a show. Elections are fake.   
   Democracy is shite. Indeed with only a small amount of propaganda, I am   
   quite sure that it would be easy to get mug punters to vote for   
   anyone...and anyway, postal voting takes things in the direction of   
   'making sure', just like with the 'secret vote-counting machines' in   
   America...   
      
   I'm making a point instead about how what is obviously   
   self-contradictory shit can be widely accepted as 'truth' if it's   
   repeated often enough.   
      
      
      
      
   (1) I was wrong to believe that he wouldn't win. I should have known   
   better, after his conference speech was pumped up. I realise now that   
   the 'cocaine past' shit was very probably put out to help him.   
      
   --   
   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)