A Broadcast? In colour? Gosh…
Apologies for my near total abscence for the past couple of days. And now, I bring you a proclamation from the Green Party Centre for Popular Enlightenment, Propaganda and Agitation (My name for it, not theirs…):
The contrast with the other London broadcasts, and old Green broadcasts, for that matter, is illuminating. On the first; aside from Ken’s, this appears to have been the only vaguely positively inclined broadcast. Paddick and Boris’ centred largely on the fear of crime, and how we were all going to die. I mean, one looked like a scene for CSI, and the other was in black and white…
And, unlike Ken’s, this was more about the party and their policies than the individual candidate.
Would I be unfair to suggest the other parties’ broadcasts reflected the tone and content of their campaigns?
As for the old Green broadcasts; the contrast between these and this is rather strong. I can’t find any to hand, but in the past, they’ve essentially spent four minutes predicting imminent environmental apocalypse, floods, starvation, and everyone dying painfully. This, on the other hand, is at least far more colourful, and tries to talk positively about specific policies. I suspect it says something about the direction the party is taking…
I watched it on the TV this evening. I agree that it was very positive. I think it worked having members of the public providing their views of London, then showing why the Greens would be the best things that happened to London since the Routemaster was designed. It was simple, yet far more informative than the waffle that the others produced: raw policy, but with explanations of why. I think it would be hard to be unimpressed with the broadcast itself. Many would, of course, disagree strongly with the policy.
As I have said elsewhere, I think it is a shame that the Greens insist on retaining that redundant name: they ought to find a new name and go for it. Their policies are very tolerable, and their candidate is more engaged than the rest of the bunch appear to be. I hope they do well in the London Assembly elections.
I think most of London would be more inclined to vote Green if they thought others would. I hope that I never use my vote thinking about how others will vote - which is why I am disappointed with the flagrant pimping of second preference votes.