Smoke And Mirrors

 

 

Jim Naughtie has run the BBC rule over the Labour and Conservative leaders to see how they measure up.

Any guesses?

Here’s the Miliband run down…..though not running him down in the slightest.  It takes 4 minutes before Naughtie can find anything critical to say of Miliband and then it’s only to ask if he is a bit indecisive…the answer of course being absolutely not…it’s a sign of intellect and considered thought.  The only other critical word that Naughtie could come up with was ‘defensive’…but then again is that critical or was it intended to give the impression of Miliband being under unwarranted and unfair pressure from attacks on him by his opponents?

The first part of the piece was in fact not really about Miliband but about his family and background…adding, as Naughtie might have said, ’emotional colour’ to the story, value added sympathy for Miliband.  We heard of him being steeped in the leftwing politics of his family which almost had the flavour of a crusade…and we had a clip of Ralph Miliband attacking the vested interests of politicians, the military and big business….so trying to link father and son’s ideologies despite Miliband trying to distance himself from that in his attack on the Daily Mail.

Naughtie suggests that this might seem like a sort of privileged background but, Naughtie tells us, Miliband had to read up on the politics, argue his position and trade ideas…going to Oxford University as his father wanted….so a good, obedient boy doing his duty to his father….and one who is up for a political argument….has Naughtie moulded that to fit in with Miliband’s claim that he is up for the fight?

All the people brought on to discuss Miliband praise him or at least have nothing negative to say…Damien McBride suggests that Miliband was a fish out of water in the Brown camp….alluding to Miliband claiming to be a new kind of politician?  We know of course, because the BBC tells us, that we all hate the ‘old politics’, so Miliband must be a breath of fresh air!

We hear that Miliband is not a fan of the ‘dark arts’ of politics or the Media gladhanding…neither is he a fan of shortermism in politics….and indeed yes, he’s a different kind of politician..one that wants to think about the world.

Tessa Jowell, a supporter of David Miliband, didn’t say why she didn’t support Ed but told us that David only wishes Ed well…so that’s alright then, despite all the backstabbing the love’s still there…David forgives, so should you.

Jowell later tells us that Miliband is resilient, calm under fire and has his own brand of authority and that people see through the attacks on his personality.

Naughtie says the polls might suggest otherwise but the reply is that his stance on some subjects has caught people’s imagination…the attacks on Murdoch and the Mail and the price freeze on energy for instance.

Naughtie asks if the Public will decide where to place their vote based on ideas and not the man.

Despite that Naughtie then goes on to ask, considering that politics is a tough business, has Miliband got what it takes?

The answer naturally enough was yes, Miliband is absolutely tough enough!

 

All in all an easy going, sympathetic assessment of Miliband with little of note to say in a critical vein…nothing about Syria or the Unions or the total lack of credibility of his major policy announcements from the energy price freeze to pre-distribution or his latest idea to cap the profits of private companies working for the NHS….an impossible task….just ask those who seek to tax Amazon and Co….and nothing about the serious ructions in the Labour Party about his leadership, and no mention that Europe is just as contentious inside Labour as inside the Tory Party.

 

 

David Cameron had in contrast a much rougher ride from Naughtie (08:44) who derided Cameron, his upbringing, his personality and his policies, and the people who came on to discuss Cameron were mostly lukewarm, damning in their faint praise or hostile to him whilst Miliband’s were all on-board and on-message.

Naughtie began by saying that the ‘some might say’ overprivileged Cameron was a pragmatist and not an ideologue…but it wasn’t a good pragmitism..it was based upon Cameron’s lack of believe in anything.  This set the scene for the rest of the piece in which Naughtie constructed the case against Cameron to prove Naughtie’s initial claim.

Naughtie asks Andrew Mitchell ‘Of whom is [Cameron] a son?’

Mitchell suggests MacMillan as a possibility…Naughtie claims that many in the Tory party would regard MacMillan as a man who believed in nothing and just wanted to keep the show on the road…remarkable that Naughtie has that to hand….perhaps he already knew ‘MacMillan’ might be the reply to his question about Cameron being the ‘son of’…and had his putdown ready as he asks ‘Is that Cameron’s essence?’

We are told by Naughtie that Cameron harks back to the era of MacMillan who was a man of the ‘regiment, the gentleman’s club and the grouse moor but who liked his politics stripped of ideology.’ Another put down and an allusion to Cameron’s alleged distance from real life.

The Tory Party is divided we are told….and reluctant to support a man who will not fight a battle of beliefs.

Naughtie asks if Cameron cares about what his backbenchers think…we hear not.  Naughtie has his cue and takes that not caring about what the backbenchers might think to Cameron not caring about anything and says that ‘not caring’ is a badge politicians don’t like to wear but it is inescapable that Cameron likes to glide above the fight…..Naughtie then claiming Cameron doesn’t care…..suggesting an aloof aristo out of touch with the world and the people….hmmm…a Labour message.

We hear that it is inevitable that Cameron carries the stamp of his Etonian school days and that his critics see him as a Flashman character…cue helpful clip of what the BBC believes is such an attitude.

We then hear, after being told that Cameron likes to dodge a fight about his ideals, that he is too aggressive and relishes a fight.

Then it’s rapidly on to his management style or lack of…apparently Downing Street is not a perfectly tuned machine, it’s run on instinct and depends on last minute decisions rather than considered and measured thought….more short term reactionism than long term planning.

Naughtie happily accepts that description and then claims that such a way of running things has consequences…such as the apparently disastrous NHS reforms that Downing Street didn’t seem to be in charge of…Cameron is not a good manager and didn’t realise what was going in…really? or is that just a BBC fantasy?

Cameron, we are told, is distant, ramshackle and lazy in his approach to government.

Naughtie slams him with a sly comment that ‘no one doubts his cleverness’ and goes on to describe the Tory Party as completely split and unmanageable….no mention of Labour’s own internal squabbles in Miliband’s hagiography which are just as serious.

Naughtie then goes back to his original contention, now ‘proved’, that Cameron is more a pragmatist than a man with any beliefs.

 

Pretty damning for Cameron whilst Miliband gets away without a mark on him.  Miliband is thoughtful, longterm, and has an ideology that he believes in and will fight for…Cameron is a failure as prime minister, a charlatan just looking to stay in power and willing to do and say anything and adopt any short term policy to do so.  Business as usual from the BBC.