I have been giving a good deal of thought to the conundrum I first raised a few days ago about the relationship between a party and its leader. To be credible there has to be some sense of integrity between them. Thatcher and the Tory party of the 80s, Blair and New Labour.....but somehow it doesn't quite work the same way for Cameron. The Tory party would be much more comfortable with someone like Ming - not in terms of politics clearly, but certainly in terms of image. And so, what resonates with people is the discordance between party and leader - as demonstrated in recent polls showing that the public see the Tory party as being far to the right of their leader.
And for us, a party with a natural appeal to young people, a free thinking, forward looking radical party, we appear to have a contradiction with the persona of Ming. Now I don't necessarily think this is insurmountable, I have always been one to embrace contradictions - as a teenager I was a bit of a hippy but liked to dress in two-tone just to confuse people (apologies to those of you under 50 who don't know what I am on about)! And sometimes contradictions can actually help convey a more powerful message. But it is an issue. It has nothing to do with his age (think Nelson Mandela - has anyone ever mentioned his age as being a problem?) for me, far more to do with image. Now there are lots of far cleverer people than me working for the party, it should not be beyond them to develop a strategy for promoting Ming that deals with these contradictions. Duncan Borrowman pointed out (by the way Duncan - is there a transcript of the Saturday night Speech?) that he has seen Ming being inspiring and passionate and radical - it just needs to extend beyond the relative safety of the Bedfordshire countryside...........
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There are lots of far cleverer people than me working for the party, it should not be beyond them to develop a strategy for promoting Ming.
They’re clever, but not that clever.
. . . has seen Ming being inspiring and passionate and radical – it just needs to extend beyond the relative safety of the Bedfordshire countryside.
Sounds a bit like one of those nature programmes. [Cue David Attenborough whisper] “The Ming, seen here in his usual pinstripe suit, is a docile and dozy creature, who can barely stay awake for five minutes. But now, a hitherto unknown side to the Ming has been dramatically revealed. In this unique and amazing night time footage, seen here for the first time, the Ming is being inspiring, passionate and, well, really rather radical. Why the Ming never displays these habits in broad daylight must, for now, remain a mystery . . .”
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