Take someone like Iain Dale, primo communicator, has stood for a seat, written political tomes (including a rather fabulous red book), has a wide political network, is a grown-up and all round top bloke.
Young Adam has no political track record. He may look quite nice to some who like that kind of thing. Joking apart... what other intellectual job and responsibility requires such lacking credentials?
There are many far more impressive potential candidates who have proved themselves in other walks of life.
Who would I trust more with subtle political nuance? Iain or Adam?
This episode is shallow, tasteless and worst of all, prevents people from taking the party seriously.
ps. in his desperate clamour, he's attracting more flak. Not showing signs of smart thinking. My advice: DO something political then step up.
May 31, 2006 at 11:00 AM
Anonymous
said...
"I think when you're born, your soul is split into two and given to your perfect partner. When you see each other you'll be with each other forever."
You heard it here first. Genius.
May 31, 2006 at 11:27 AM
Anonymous
said...
I wouldn't vote for the preening tosser and I've got Tory written through me like Blackpool Rock.
May 31, 2006 at 11:51 AM
Anonymous
said...
It has long been said that Politics is Show Business for ugly people, so I guess that Rickitt is out to prove that wrong. It is though a truly sad day for British politics in general when being physically attractive is seen as the most important of a candidates possible attributes, or even the only one.
Ah, but Mr Dale, for all his many virtues, would not pass muster in a boy band, would he?
May 31, 2006 at 12:23 PM
Anonymous
said...
So Oldsarum, confirmation that DC's drive for the "Dim Doreen" vote is working.
That's great as far as it goes, but unless he comes up with some decent policies and a team capable of putting them into practice the country's going to get another bunch of incompetent tossers led by a grinning power freak with nice teeth.
Well, I wouldn't kick him out of bed for dropping crisps.... but vote for him? Hell, why not - Parliament isn't exactly over-populated with top totty, a bit of pec-flashing and baby oil never hurt anyone.
Guido: "Guido is admittedly judging Adam on the basis of his single Question Time appearance"
He was spectacularly awful on Question Time - like a clueless twelve-year old desperate to mix it with the adults.
Maybe he is clever, but if he can't hold his own on Question Time then he's hardly 'A' list material. There are plenty of other useless candidates out there who couldn't pass muster on QT either, but that's what the 'Z' list is for... surely the 'A' list, if one is needed, ought to be the best of the best, no0t the most favoured of the favoured.
May 31, 2006 at 12:33 PM
Anonymous
said...
Re: ""I think when you're born, your soul is split into two and given to your perfect partner. When you see each other you'll be with each other forever."
You heard it here first. Genius."
I recall a certain Mr Plato said something similar, two and a half millennia ago
May 31, 2006 at 12:35 PM
Anonymous
said...
And didn't Iain Dale go down to a crushing 10,000 majority defeat in Norfolk North at the last election, managing to turn a marginal seat into a safe seat for the Lib Dems? He can't be that good.
May 31, 2006 at 12:37 PM
Anonymous
said...
The best use of Ricketts would be in a key marginal where he might attract the totty-vote. He is 99% window-dressing and 1% political acumen, so what's the point of wasting him at Folkestone? I've nothing against the A-list in principle, but they should be used as cannon-fodder. Let Ricketts stand in somewhere like Rugby, the down-market half of the soon-to-be-separated Rugby and Kenilworth. A few Saturday night appearances on the north Warwickshire dance floor would put Labour on the defensive.
May 31, 2006 at 12:40 PM
Anonymous
said...
There was a lot of re-hashed and old news about the A list in the "dead-tree press" today - this story was in the local press and ConHome three days ago, for one example.
May 31, 2006 at 12:47 PM
Anonymous
said...
Given the Tory leader's youthful indiscretions, I'm baffled as to why it's not called the Class A List really.
How about some decent female totty on the A-List? Women and gay men have their totty but not straight blokes.
May 31, 2006 at 3:42 PM
Anonymous
said...
HAhahahahahahAAAAhahahaha hhahahahahahaAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAHHHH!!!!....aaah...urgh...sorry just uncontrollable laughter at Dodge...the eternal nerd...complaining about lack of women on the A list...aaaahahahahahahahahahahahah
especially looking like THAT!!!!
Really...you couldnt make it up...
May 31, 2006 at 6:43 PM
Anonymous
said...
But...but...have you seen Bedtime for Bonzo? It is indeed perfectly fair to judge Ronald Reagan's abilities and acumen by his work therein.
Anyone seeking to suppord Adam because he's so gosh-darn smart won't be helped by bringing up Ronald Reagan, proof positive that brains are not required for high public office.
Bedtime for Bonzo was a good movie, not great but good. I really don't see the relationship between playing in a bad movie and intelligence. The critics of Reagan were just looking for critic.
And Reagan had brains, Adam shall have to show it some how.
June 1, 2006 at 1:03 AM
Anonymous
said...
Perhaps by playing opposite a monkey and having scenes stolen from him?
Reagan was a nice man, a man it was impossible to hate, but he was as dumb as two rocks. He served out the last term of his presidency essentially incapacitated by his wounds and encroaching Alzheimer's, and nobody even noticed. That tells you the standard he set. Right or left, let us not delude ourselves.
June 1, 2006 at 2:26 AM
Anonymous
said...
Let's be charitable for a moment (yeah, I know completely out of character for me - it must be the new medication).
Let us suppose that Mr Ricketts and the other A-listers are indeed the modern equivalents to Churchill, Gladstone, Salisbury and all the other parliamentary "greats".
Sadly all the evidence we have to date is that they are a bunch of pretty drones who punch the correct pc buttons and/or look good when half naked.
Dave had better find a way to demonstrate that his chosen ones are indeed politically astute operators. Fast. Or he's going to get into one hell of a fight with the local associtions.
Just a thought. Normal rabid right-wing loonery will now resume.
RM
June 1, 2006 at 7:06 AM
Anonymous
said...
proof positive that brains are not required for high public office.
Couldn't Rickitt start off running for Governor of California ? population similar to UK before running for President ?
Reagan did after all win elections as a conservative
In fairness to the boy Ricketts, he showed considerable courage when he took part in the Channel 4 programme "The Games" - he was dropped in as a late entry when Goldie suffered a horrendous broken leg during the waterski jumping training and gave his all in a hopeless cause with no real preparation.
No evidence of politics in all that, but it did suggest he would do quite well in a hopeless seat - perhaps he should have been parachuted into Blaneau Gwent as a learning experience.
But anyone who watched The Games will know he looks nothing like the photo Guido's used any more. I don't know if it was a return of his teenage bulimia or what, but he looked dreadful - scrawny, with barely a spare ounce of flesh on him. He was horribly pale, with bog-brush hair, and looked like a 14-year-old bullying victim. Hence what I say about his appearance on the show being courageous - he was out of his depth but never gave up.
Whatever he is now, he's no longer totty.
Personally, as a Lib Dem who wishes hellfire and damnation on the Tory party in general, I have a sneaking respect for him and would like to see him prove himself. I'm not sure that qualifies him for the A-List, but I think the A-List is a damn silly idea anyway.
June 1, 2006 at 11:03 AM
Anonymous
said...
_he looked dreadful - scrawny, with barely a spare ounce of flesh on him. He was horribly pale,_
Indeed, but just before he appeared on 'The Games' he had spent several weeks trekking about in the Andies eating only raw meat on another show recreating the Andies plane crash.
The fact is that people have a prejudice that actors are stupid and hopeless in politics. But are lawyers, PR-managers or planners like economist better in politics?
26 comments:
How about this...
Take someone like Iain Dale, primo communicator, has stood for a seat, written political tomes (including a rather fabulous red book), has a wide political network, is a grown-up and all round top bloke.
Young Adam has no political track record. He may look quite nice to some who like that kind of thing. Joking apart... what other intellectual job and responsibility requires such lacking credentials?
There are many far more impressive potential candidates who have proved themselves in other walks of life.
Who would I trust more with subtle political nuance? Iain or Adam?
This episode is shallow, tasteless and worst of all, prevents people from taking the party seriously.
ps. in his desperate clamour, he's attracting more flak. Not showing signs of smart thinking. My advice: DO something political then step up.
"I think when you're born, your soul is split into two and given to your perfect partner. When you see each other you'll be with each other forever."
You heard it here first. Genius.
I wouldn't vote for the preening tosser and I've got Tory written through me like Blackpool Rock.
It has long been said that Politics is Show Business for ugly people, so I guess that Rickitt is out to prove that wrong. It is though a truly sad day for British politics in general when being physically attractive is seen as the most important of a candidates possible attributes, or even the only one.
Ah, but Mr Dale, for all his many virtues, would not pass muster in a boy band, would he?
So Oldsarum, confirmation that DC's drive for the "Dim Doreen" vote is working.
That's great as far as it goes, but unless he comes up with some decent policies and a team capable of putting them into practice the country's going to get another bunch of incompetent tossers led by a grinning power freak with nice teeth.
RM
Well, I wouldn't kick him out of bed for dropping crisps.... but vote for him? Hell, why not - Parliament isn't exactly over-populated with top totty, a bit of pec-flashing and baby oil never hurt anyone.
Guido: "Guido is admittedly judging Adam on the basis of his single Question Time appearance"
He was spectacularly awful on Question Time - like a clueless twelve-year old desperate to mix it with the adults.
Maybe he is clever, but if he can't hold his own on Question Time then he's hardly 'A' list material. There are plenty of other useless candidates out there who couldn't pass muster on QT either, but that's what the 'Z' list is for... surely the 'A' list, if one is needed, ought to be the best of the best, no0t the most favoured of the favoured.
Re: ""I think when you're born, your soul is split into two and given to your perfect partner. When you see each other you'll be with each other forever."
You heard it here first. Genius."
I recall a certain Mr Plato said something similar, two and a half millennia ago
And didn't Iain Dale go down to a crushing 10,000 majority defeat in Norfolk North at the last election, managing to turn a marginal seat into a safe seat for the Lib Dems? He can't be that good.
The best use of Ricketts would be in a key marginal where he might attract the totty-vote. He is 99% window-dressing and 1% political acumen, so what's the point of wasting him at Folkestone? I've nothing against the A-list in principle, but they should be used as cannon-fodder. Let Ricketts stand in somewhere like Rugby, the down-market half of the soon-to-be-separated Rugby and Kenilworth. A few Saturday night appearances on the north Warwickshire dance floor would put Labour on the defensive.
There was a lot of re-hashed and old news about the A list in the "dead-tree press" today - this story was in the local press and ConHome three days ago, for one example.
Given the Tory leader's youthful indiscretions, I'm baffled as to why it's not called the Class A List really.
Since when has it been a requirement that Tory MPs be 'smart' (in either sense)?
Adam will remain window dressing until he tells people what he stands for. Until then perhaps he should apply for a Brighton or Manchester seat.
How about some decent female totty on the A-List? Women and gay men have their totty but not straight blokes.
HAhahahahahahAAAAhahahaha hhahahahahahaAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAHHHH!!!!....aaah...urgh...sorry just uncontrollable laughter at Dodge...the eternal nerd...complaining about lack of women on the A list...aaaahahahahahahahahahahahah
especially looking like THAT!!!!
Really...you couldnt make it up...
But...but...have you seen Bedtime for Bonzo? It is indeed perfectly fair to judge Ronald Reagan's abilities and acumen by his work therein.
Anyone seeking to suppord Adam because he's so gosh-darn smart won't be helped by bringing up Ronald Reagan, proof positive that brains are not required for high public office.
Lol...
Bedtime for Bonzo was a good movie, not great but good. I really don't see the relationship between playing in a bad movie and intelligence. The critics of Reagan were just looking for critic.
And Reagan had brains, Adam shall have to show it some how.
Perhaps by playing opposite a monkey and having scenes stolen from him?
Reagan was a nice man, a man it was impossible to hate, but he was as dumb as two rocks. He served out the last term of his presidency essentially incapacitated by his wounds and encroaching Alzheimer's, and nobody even noticed. That tells you the standard he set. Right or left, let us not delude ourselves.
Let's be charitable for a moment (yeah, I know completely out of character for me - it must be the new medication).
Let us suppose that Mr Ricketts and the other A-listers are indeed the modern equivalents to Churchill, Gladstone, Salisbury and all the other parliamentary "greats".
Sadly all the evidence we have to date is that they are a bunch of pretty drones who punch the correct pc buttons and/or look good when half naked.
Dave had better find a way to demonstrate that his chosen ones are indeed politically astute operators. Fast. Or he's going to get into one hell of a fight with the local associtions.
Just a thought. Normal rabid right-wing loonery will now resume.
RM
proof positive that brains are not required for high public office.
Couldn't Rickitt start off running for Governor of California ? population similar to UK before running for President ?
Reagan did after all win elections as a conservative
In fairness to the boy Ricketts, he showed considerable courage when he took part in the Channel 4 programme "The Games" - he was dropped in as a late entry when Goldie suffered a horrendous broken leg during the waterski jumping training and gave his all in a hopeless cause with no real preparation.
No evidence of politics in all that, but it did suggest he would do quite well in a hopeless seat - perhaps he should have been parachuted into Blaneau Gwent as a learning experience.
But anyone who watched The Games will know he looks nothing like the photo Guido's used any more. I don't know if it was a return of his teenage bulimia or what, but he looked dreadful - scrawny, with barely a spare ounce of flesh on him. He was horribly pale, with bog-brush hair, and looked like a 14-year-old bullying victim. Hence what I say about his appearance on the show being courageous - he was out of his depth but never gave up.
Whatever he is now, he's no longer totty.
Personally, as a Lib Dem who wishes hellfire and damnation on the Tory party in general, I have a sneaking respect for him and would like to see him prove himself. I'm not sure that qualifies him for the A-List, but I think the A-List is a damn silly idea anyway.
_he looked dreadful - scrawny, with barely a spare ounce of flesh on him. He was horribly pale,_
Indeed, but just before he appeared on 'The Games' he had spent several weeks trekking about in the Andies eating only raw meat on another show recreating the Andies plane crash.
The fact is that people have a prejudice that actors are stupid and hopeless in politics. But are lawyers, PR-managers or planners like economist better in politics?