Friday, December 07, 2007
Hazlenut spread and our 'candidates differences'
There are –it is claimed- clear differences, it seems between Nutella (the hazelnut-based spread) as sold in Germany compared to that sold in France. This (subtitled) Youtube offering has an explanation..
… and in my Friday afternoon doziness the clip looks a little like a critique of Internal Party Elections…
Mind you as one commentator objects , “La nutella italiana è la migliore!!” But in this contest there is no third party even though it is originally an Italian product.
It may not even be the candidates, sorry products, that differ rather the use made of them Germans keep Nutella in the fridge, French on the kitchen shelf.
… and in my Friday afternoon doziness the clip looks a little like a critique of Internal Party Elections…
Mind you as one commentator objects , “La nutella italiana è la migliore!!” But in this contest there is no third party even though it is originally an Italian product.
It may not even be the candidates, sorry products, that differ rather the use made of them Germans keep Nutella in the fridge, French on the kitchen shelf.
Labels: leadership, satire
Comments:
Post a Comment
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Watching both candidates
Two candidates it is then - and clearly both have strong and compelling (and strongly Liberal) cases to make.
It will be easier for me to keep in touch with what Chris Huhne is saying as I have decided to support him, and signed on for e-mail updates on his campaign. If I was a Nick Clegg supporter I could still get those updates as Chris' website offers the option of just signing on to get more information as it arises without making a declaration of support. However as far as I can see Nick's website only offers the option of signing on as a supporter. This would be untrue for me in the context of this election, so I have not done so.
No doubt LibDemblogs aggregated will help me keep in touch with Nick's campaign.
And I intend to look very carefully at what each of them says and perhaps comment from time to time. One is going to be leader of this party and I want him to be the strongest possible leader he can be, whoever he is. I am hoping that an honest and rigorous debate will strengthen both of them and make each better able to contribute to our work whatever the role they assume after the count.
It will be easier for me to keep in touch with what Chris Huhne is saying as I have decided to support him, and signed on for e-mail updates on his campaign. If I was a Nick Clegg supporter I could still get those updates as Chris' website offers the option of just signing on to get more information as it arises without making a declaration of support. However as far as I can see Nick's website only offers the option of signing on as a supporter. This would be untrue for me in the context of this election, so I have not done so.
No doubt LibDemblogs aggregated will help me keep in touch with Nick's campaign.
And I intend to look very carefully at what each of them says and perhaps comment from time to time. One is going to be leader of this party and I want him to be the strongest possible leader he can be, whoever he is. I am hoping that an honest and rigorous debate will strengthen both of them and make each better able to contribute to our work whatever the role they assume after the count.
Labels: leadership
Comments:
Post a Comment
Saturday, October 27, 2007
A difference on defence?
Rugby hustings... and at last a couple of subjects that seem to differ between the candidates.
As coat-trailed in the David Steel endorsement, Chris Huhne raised the question of 'Trident Renewal' in the context of the huge demands on the armed forces, their equipment, the tasks we ask of them and the welfare of our service people. His statement that we have to question whether spending billions on Trident is the best way to spend our defence money provoked the only round of applause for either candidate in the middle of their set speeches.
Nick Clegg (who spoke first) did not mention any defence related matters and was not (as far as I heard) asked about this during the question period.
Other matters I'll maybe comment on later.
As coat-trailed in the David Steel endorsement, Chris Huhne raised the question of 'Trident Renewal' in the context of the huge demands on the armed forces, their equipment, the tasks we ask of them and the welfare of our service people. His statement that we have to question whether spending billions on Trident is the best way to spend our defence money provoked the only round of applause for either candidate in the middle of their set speeches.
Nick Clegg (who spoke first) did not mention any defence related matters and was not (as far as I heard) asked about this during the question period.
Other matters I'll maybe comment on later.
Labels: hustings, leadership, Trident
Comments:
Post a Comment
Friday, October 19, 2007
Trivia by any other name
For those who don’t make politics a central interest in their lives, decisions about who to support in elections (or even to notice who is who) can turn on quite odd little things. Marketing isn’t everything but still…
One disadvantage we had under Ming was that there were two Scottish names in the mix. Outside of Scotland, ‘Cameron’ and ‘Campbell’ look about the same in a headline. In Scotland of course the names come with red hot historical tags attached which jump off the page.
I suspect many people in England – and Wales - had to stop and think ‘is this the Tory guy or the Libdem?’ when confronted by a CEEFAX headline saying ‘Campbell attacks Brown’s dithering’. Or rather they didn’t stop and think and just assumed it was The Tory unless specifically prodded otherwise.
Now we have emerging a line-up of (apparently) two potential leaders with very short and recognisable headline-friendly names. Both ‘Clegg’ and ‘Huhne’ will fit nicely into big type and at 5 letters give room for more words in the rest of the message on Ceefax.
Chris of course may suffer a little from having a slightly foreign-sounding name while Nick has the marginal (?) advantage of an archetypical Northern handle. Interesting therefore that Nick is playing up the ‘Northern Real World’ line with his campaign launch. Of course with his mother being Dutch by origin we can confidently expect some Tories to claim he is really an interloper operating under a flag of convenience.
Incidentally if UK Law was on the same lines as Dutch Law Nick would officially be ‘an Immigrant’ here as ‘immigrants’ in the Nederlands (Allochtoon) are defined as being people with one parent born outside the country regardless of where they themselves were born.
One disadvantage we had under Ming was that there were two Scottish names in the mix. Outside of Scotland, ‘Cameron’ and ‘Campbell’ look about the same in a headline. In Scotland of course the names come with red hot historical tags attached which jump off the page.
I suspect many people in England – and Wales - had to stop and think ‘is this the Tory guy or the Libdem?’ when confronted by a CEEFAX headline saying ‘Campbell attacks Brown’s dithering’. Or rather they didn’t stop and think and just assumed it was The Tory unless specifically prodded otherwise.
Now we have emerging a line-up of (apparently) two potential leaders with very short and recognisable headline-friendly names. Both ‘Clegg’ and ‘Huhne’ will fit nicely into big type and at 5 letters give room for more words in the rest of the message on Ceefax.
Chris of course may suffer a little from having a slightly foreign-sounding name while Nick has the marginal (?) advantage of an archetypical Northern handle. Interesting therefore that Nick is playing up the ‘Northern Real World’ line with his campaign launch. Of course with his mother being Dutch by origin we can confidently expect some Tories to claim he is really an interloper operating under a flag of convenience.
Incidentally if UK Law was on the same lines as Dutch Law Nick would officially be ‘an Immigrant’ here as ‘immigrants’ in the Nederlands (Allochtoon) are defined as being people with one parent born outside the country regardless of where they themselves were born.
Labels: Clegg, Huhne, leadership
Comments:
Post a Comment
