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Indecision Internationale 2010: The "Doctor Who" General Election
If you've never heard of Doctor Who — the forty-seven year running TV series on the BBC — stop now, find another article, there's probably one with Glenn Beck looking silly on it.Okay? Well, if you're still here, I'm assuming that you are familiar with the show about time-traveling alien The Doctor in a blue box obsessed with Earth and sticking his oar in around the universe, often pursuing or pursued by the metal-cased Dalek race. In Britain, it's pretty much the top rated show going and in the US the new season just broke audience records over at BBC America.
It's so popular in Britain that it seems to have merged with the General Election campaign. The Radio Times, the UK equivalent of the TV times, ran three separate covers the other week, each with a different coloured Dalek matching the three main parties on the front with Westminster in the background, with the headline "Vote Dalek."
Tags: Conservative Party (UK), David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Indecision Internationale, Labour Party (UK), Television, United Kingdom -
Jon Stewart Covers The UK's Bigotgate
On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart and John Oliver discussed the latest story to come out of the British election. I don't know about you, but I still haven't decided which candidate to back. I just can't get a clear take on their positions on the issues most important to UK voters, like blood pudding reform and lifting the ban on chimney sweeps in the military.
The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.
For quick summaries of recent episodes, be sure to visit Intel's Daily Show in :60 Seconds page.
Tags: England, Gordon Brown, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Labour Party (UK), Nick Clegg, The Daily Show, United Kingdom, Video -
Indecision Internationale 2010: The Top Five Ways to Lose a General Election in the U.K.
There's nothing quite like making a gaffe in an election campaign. The off-the-cuff, not thoroughly-thought-through comment that gets picked up by the press and then swirls around the media impervious to all efforts to be put back in the box. But how can you make the best gaffes to guarantee the best headlines? Here are a few examples to follow…
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5. Declare War Before You're Even Prime Minister
David Cameron — leader of the Opposition — expressed in leadership debates a desire to retain an independent nuclear arsenal because, "We don't know what is going to happen with Iran, we can't be certain of the future in China?" Because yes, that's what you want to do in an election campaign, suggest that you may want to go to war with a big emerging superpower that happens to have a hundred more warheads than you? The story of David and Goliath usually goes the other way in real life.
Tags: Conservative Party (UK), David Cameron, Facebook, Gordon Brown, Indecision Internationale, Internet, Labour Party (UK), LGBT, Liberal Democrat Party (UK), Nick Clegg, Racism, Twitter, United Kingdom -
Indecision Internationale 2010: Taking a Dump on Nick Clegg
Last week I mentioned that as a result of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's storming performance on the live televised Leader's Debate (if only as a result of him not being leader of the Conservatives or the Labour Party) that the knives would be out for him.And with the second leadership debate on air tonight in the UK, that prediction had proved correct.
Most of the main newspapers in Britain are conservative ones — and conservative in the way that make Fox News look like Air America. And, today, all the front pages of all these newspapers, selling millions of copies across the country, have been going to war with Nick Clegg. Waking up to them, his wife might as well have tipped his breakfast in bed over his head (including the scalding coffee) as hand him the papers.
Old warhorse, The Daily Mail led with a front page splash "Clegg Nazi Slur on Britain" and referred to an eight-year-old newspaper article it had unearthed in which Clegg talked of Britain, saying: "A misplaced sense of superiority, sustained by delusions of grandeur and a tenacious obsession with the last war, is much harder to shake off. We need to be put back in our place." That, however, wasn't good enough for The Mail. It unloaded two further barrels into the Clegg camapign, first alleging that Clegg had accepted payments from donors for his own personal bank account to pay towards a researcher, and then that Hilary Stephenson — Mr Clegg's campaigns and elections director — was responsible for encouraging expenses scams.
Tags: Conservative Party (UK), Gordon Brown, Indecision Internationale, Labour Party (UK), LGBT, Liberal Democrat Party (UK), Nick Clegg, United Kingdom -
Jon Stewart Schools the UK on Elections
Evidently there's an election going on in England right now and they're trying to import some tactics from the US. But as Jon Stewart pointed out on last night's Daily Show, the Brits have a long way to go if they want to truly capture the pure uncut shamelessness of American politics. Still, the British have made a lot of progress (with a long "O" sound) since the days not long ago when all elections were decided solely by monocle size.
The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.
For quick summaries of recent episodes, be sure to visit Intel's Daily Show in :60 Seconds page.
Tags: Conservative Party (UK), England, Gordon Brown, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Labour Party (UK), Liberal Democrat Party (UK), The Daily Show, United Kingdom, Video
