Clark Hogan-Taylor

Is the Conservatives’ narrative too ambitious?

13th April 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this

The Tories' manifesto was unveiled today. You can read it here. For goodness sake don't go for the high resolution one as it will probably crash your browser. At a whopping 77 megabytes / 130 pages, I refuse to believe that anyone, not even its author, has read it all the way through. But you don't need to, because, unlike Labour, the Tories have a narrative. Like all good narratives...

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Labour’s manifesto met by headscratching and crowdsourcing

12th April 2010 | 3 comments | 1 person likes this

Labour launched their manifesto today. There's no point in me repeating much of what's already been said, but I would recommend these analyses: Guido Fawkes, Nick Robinson, Adam Boulton. Also, have a look at the real thing, especially the video, which is... er, well, let me hand over to Sky's Glen Oglaza for a moment.
I am trying to be less partisan on this blog for various reasons, but today presents...

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Twitter claims its first scalp of the election

9th April 2010 | 1 comments | 3 people like this

It was always going to happen. Today Stuart MacLennan, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for Moray (it's in Scotland), was sacked because of tweets he posted before he was selected. Quite brilliantly he is quoted as saying in the past, ""Iain Dale reckons the biggest gaffes will likely be made by candidates on Twitter - what are the odds it'll be me?"
Obviously you'll be wondering what he said, so if you're...

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Tax and defend

8th April 2010 | 1 comments | 1 person likes this

It is becoming increasingly clear, should we need reminding, that the great British public don't necessarily respond well to the truth. The truth, for example, that our national debt must be brought under control and that necessarily entails some form of (further) burden on them, whether through tax rises or cuts in public services. However, as the Tories found out to their cost, albeit perhaps temporary, talking about the age...

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Have BBC bosses mislaid their manifesto?

2nd March 2010 | 3 comments | 1 person likes this

Let's get one thing straight before I launch into something that is inevitably going to be quite diatribey. I am not a BBC-loving lefty who thinks you can't touch the national institutions that made this country great, etc. I am a Tory-voting borderline market fundamentalist who, in principle, would not agree with the idea of distorting the entertainment market by demanding money from people in order to ensure a company...

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The toughest challenge of my life

15th February 2010 | 2 comments | 2 people like this

I had to tell the cleaner not to bother coming in this morning. Nobody should have to face the consequences of me having to watch 'Piers Morgan's Life Stories' other than myself. Altruism aside, I'm fairly sure some kind of human rights breach would have taken place the moment I asked her to deal with the broken glass/blood/toilet 'problem'.
For those of you who, like me, were unable to find ITV in...

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Politics of Parody Redux

11th February 2010 | 1 comments | 1 person likes this

As expected, Labour have launched their own poster. I use 'launched' loosely as it only exists online because, as mentioned previously, they have no money. But their problems go further than that. Here are some off the cuff reasons as to why Labour's poster is, simply, rubbish.
1. While their mockery of the Tories' first poster was entirely valid, they have learnt nothing from it. The Cameron NHS poster was very...

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The wobbly politics of the far left

25th January 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

A wobbly table appeared outside King’s college last week. Behind it was a woman and front of it was a man. The man was shouting things whilst holding a megaphone by his side. The table wobbled as he shouted, leaflets fell. Everyone walked by, bemused or unaffected. I was not one of them though, because, as usual, their sign caught my eye. “BASH THE FAR RIGHT BNP”, it suggested. It...

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The politics of parody

25th January 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

The same argument comes round every time there is an impending general election. The posters, slogans and well rehearsed soundbites are all revealed, and the loudest voices generally condemn them all as naff, shallow, ineffective or worse, counter-effective. They are evidence of an absence of real policy, substance and furthermore, why are they spending all this money on aggressive brand-politics when the country is flat-broke (that argument’s newer than the...

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MacAskill’s misconception of justice

24th August 2009 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this

So Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has been released and the world is busy dividing itself over the rights and wrongs of this decision. Considering the serious weight of this topic the debate was being conducted rather respectfully I thought, until Peter Mandelson upset everyone by appearing on the television, immediately lowering the tone by opening his mouth. There will never be a greater chance for poetic irony than Mandy going in...

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