“Want to hear the most ridiculous beginning to a political interview that you’ve possibly ever heard?” So starts a clip from BBC Surrey’s breakfast show featuring an interview with Conservative Cllr Peter Martin, the person in charge of education at Surrey County Council.
You can listen to the clip here.
(Remember to listen all the way through to hear how Peter Martin takes a leaf out of Ed Miliband’s interview book.)
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4 Comments
Isn’t localism wonderful? It’s how people like that get into positions of power.
Yes, Chris – localism’s definitely what’s to blame for that kind of interview technique. Not, say, the kind of media and PR training that gives us Miliband and Osborne’s robotic, repetitive delivery (linked below). It’s called ‘message discipline’.
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/10/27/watch-osborne-the-robot-repeats-himself-4-times/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13971770
Chris – quite the opposite. This is the kind of councillor that gets elected because of the combination of centralisation and an uncompetitive electoral system. He got elected on a low turnout in a safe Tory seat onto a council with a large Tory majority. If people believed that their local councils had serious power over local services they would probably take a bit more care in who they elected.
This is Surrey we’re talking about. Even after this nonsense I’ll bet they’ll still elect anyone – good or bad – who wears a blue rosette.
But hey, let’s enjoy the priceless clip. Thanks to Mark Pack for giving us something – and someone – to laugh at. Lucky that schools can take the academy route, eh?