Friday, March 09, 2007
A real raw political memory
After the coalition-what-coalition uproars from Harrogate, a sobering reflection on the realities of public presentation from Steven Tall. I strongly agree with his comments, and also on his reflections on how political reporting has changed over the years.
I can recall a time when TV covered all three annual ‘Party Events’ in depth, and did so by broadcasting much of the debates live, not cutting off after the main speakers so that journalists could give interpretations of the ‘mood of the conference’. This meant that un-sanitised contributions from the floor sometimes made an impact outside the hall. I was watching coverage (for some reason) of a Tory event forty or more years ago and what one speaker said still colours my political gut feelings today.
It was a debate on world economics policy and an almost cartoonish colonel blimp character literally thumped the dias and bellowed “Damn the Others! Full steam ahead!”
That for me defined Tory thinking, and still does, and I know that when and if the question of inter-party co-operation arises I will need to deal with the deep gut revulsion I still feel at that memory.
Small things can have long term influences, and add up.
I can recall a time when TV covered all three annual ‘Party Events’ in depth, and did so by broadcasting much of the debates live, not cutting off after the main speakers so that journalists could give interpretations of the ‘mood of the conference’. This meant that un-sanitised contributions from the floor sometimes made an impact outside the hall. I was watching coverage (for some reason) of a Tory event forty or more years ago and what one speaker said still colours my political gut feelings today.
It was a debate on world economics policy and an almost cartoonish colonel blimp character literally thumped the dias and bellowed “Damn the Others! Full steam ahead!”
That for me defined Tory thinking, and still does, and I know that when and if the question of inter-party co-operation arises I will need to deal with the deep gut revulsion I still feel at that memory.
Small things can have long term influences, and add up.
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