Thursday, September 13, 2007

Laughing at the French

IAIN DALE IS AWAY - SHANE GREER IS STANDING IN

Now don't get me wrong, I have a lot of French friends (not sure why) and they're all great individuals. But that's the point, as individuals they're great, as a collective on the other hand they're... well, less than great. A bit like the LibDems I suppose. Hmm.

Anyway I was sent this video yesterday and thought I would share:



Fair point really.

Edit: It would seem this post has provoked some people in the comments. Naturally some comments aren’t worth taking the time to respond to. But I think Ezra made a really interesting point:

“I hate videos like this, politics for idiots.”

I have to admit my gut reaction to things like this echos Ezra’s. However upon reflection I tend to revaluate my response. There is something, at least conceptually, good about videos like this (whether or not you agree with their message) – they make politics accessible.

Yes this video in this post is crude in its delivery, yes it plays on stereotypes and panders to prejudices – and in so far as that’s the case I don’t like it – but at a more basic level this video, and others like it, recognise that not everybody has the level of interest in politics shared by people like us who read political blogs on a daily basis. It recognises that most people have neither the time nor inclination to read a 200 word policy document on x, y, or z.

People are busy, they have 1001 other things to think about, but that doesn’t mean politics isn’t important to them. And for those who wish to communicate a political message they have to present that message in a way that’s accessible to widest number of people without losing the core of a given argument. In this case it’s tax, the message: lower tax keeps the American economy stronger and ensuring that America is more competitive. You may not agree with the message, but it is accessible – much more so than an obtuse economic report on the comparative advantages of a lower tax regime in a globalised market.

Does that lower the level of debate? Perhaps. But politics should not be the preserve of an elite (no doubt a self-defined one).

And for the record the thing about the French as a collective was a JOKE; I like France.

Anyway, I must run on… I have a paper round after all!



23 comments:

Anonymous said...

"IAIN DALE IS AWAY - SHANE GREER IS STANDING IN", but what is he standing in? By the standard of the video and of this blog, it seems to be something nasty. Rather a one-eyed view by the Yanks, I think.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Iain. You've managed to find someone to stand in for you who's even more petty, bigoted, humourless and trivial than you are. A true feat.

Hurry back.

Anonymous said...

Shane Greer: schoolyard tosser.

Elevate your level of debate, for christ's sake.

Anonymous said...

God this is weak.

Anonymous said...

did you know the french have just lost a home game for the first time in 8 years
it was SCOTLAND wot done it and Scotland now head a table with World cup finalists France and Italy trailing

now for the politics shane
Gordon Brown is intimating in Scottish Press that he was watching scotland ..but rememebr teh anglophilic overtures he was making ... you should be asking if gordon has turned his coat on England ??

Anonymous said...

I have a lot of Tory friends (not really).

Anonymous said...

Haven't you got a paper round to be doing, you snotty little oik?

Anonymous said...

I hate videos like this, politics for idiots.

Anonymous said...

as a collective on the other hand they're... well, less than great.

You're so, so wrong Shane. As a collective they have shown time and time again that they are the best when it comes to waving white flags.

Anonymous said...

How much did that cost to make - 50p? I've seen more professional home videos. Wasn't even funny, I was waiting for France to wrestle the girl to the ground and sit on her while Germany won the race.

In any case, rather more evidence that the great lardy fat-buckets would be wearing American vests I think, than French...

Anonymous said...

Ah lovely - a bit of Tory witless spite directed at our nearest neighbours. Is it envy of their laid-back life style, their weather and their innate stylishness which make some uptight little Englanders despise the French?

Are you sure you have any real friends of any nationality?

Guy C said...

No. Not a fair point. Is this what passes for serious "political commentary, analysis and gossip" when Iain's away? A pathetic, xenophobic, low-budget piece of right wing US propaganda. Do you even have an elementary understanding of politics, or are you just here to make sneering, schoolboy remarks?

Anonymous said...

Shane - I accept your points, but I can't believe that many people will be taken in by this. It's not the most sophisticated symbolism is it?

Shane Greer said...

Ezra, I agree. But I think the point stands. All too often political debate is framed in terms that fail to engage large portions of the electorate. In so far as videos such as this, on a conceptual level at least, enable engagement then I am in favour of them.

Anonymous said...

You should post after 5pm Shane, when all the Labour trolls have gone home to their hovels.

Guthrum said...

Just because we are busy, have real jobs and are creating real wealth, does not mean we have to be spoken down to by jerks who cannot do anything other that produce and reproduce junk like this

Guy C said...

ah, I failed to realize shane, you were actually making an acute point about the elitist nature of modern political discourse. And there was me thinking you were just being infantile and petty...

Anonymous said...

eric the fish writes: "Ah lovely -a bit of Tory witless spite directed at our nearest neighbours."

Did you think the accent of the narrator was English? Did you think the subject of the video was the English tax system rather than, say, oh, the EU? Did you understand that the reason the girl was wearing a T shirt with the Stars and Stripes on it was because she was American?

"Is it envy of their laid-back life style, their weather and their innate stylishness which make some uptight little Englanders despise the French?"

Uh ... the commercial was made by Americans about American competition. I have never heard Americans referred to as "Little Englanders" before and must admit it is a novel usage.

In any event, what musty old cupboard do you people go to to pull out the dusty, motheaten phrase "Little Englanders"? It's from around the 1920s, isn't it? Ninety or so years ago - long before everyone and his brother had a holiday home in France, Spain, Greece or Portugal? And long before people were taking cheap weekend breaks in Prague and Budapest?

When I lived in France, the few other English people I knew spoke French and mixed around with French people, not each other in particular. The 500,000 English people who own homes in France seem to love it.

Eric The Fish - Be honest. Have you ever been to France or any other country on the Continent? You seem to be filled with hatred and malice.

Graeme Archer said...

Dreadful video. Not for the crude francophobia (though certainly for that as well) but for the sheer bloody hypocrisy of a US video complaining about French protectionism. Remind me about the steel industry again?

Rich Tee said...

I liked it. I have to agree though that the Americans can't really lecture others on protectionism.

Anonymous said...

Shane says: "Does that lower the level of debate? Perhaps. But politics should not be the preserve of an elite (no doubt a self-defined one)."

But this is not politics, is it? It's a misleading and stupid bit of xenophobic propaganda.

Anonymous said...

As Alan Partridge would say, 'un-believable'. I don't like Iain Dale's politics at all, but at least he can write in full sentences and do up his own shoelaces. Bugger 'accessibility', Shane, this is patronising, deceitful tripe - and your attempts to defend it are cretinous.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Graeme. Let's hear it again. Steel tariffs. Steel tariffs.

STEEL TARIFFS,