I've just read THIS excellent blog by Fraser Nelson on what David Cameron should have said to John Humphrys on the Today programme yesterday about social mobility. I agree with every word. However, the thought did strike me that if Fraser thinks he could do the job better, shouldn't he emulate Michael Gove and turn gamekeeper? Fraser would make a tremendous Tory MP. Go for it!On a wider point, many journalists accuse us bloggers of being frustrated journalists. Perhaps I might return the compliment and pose the question as to whether many political journalists are merely frustrated politicians? Discuss.
21 comments:
Fraser Nelson's not good looking at all. I'm better looking than him. All right, I've gone a bit bald, but you wouldn't say I'm fat.
not that Fraser Nelson's fat. Or bald, come to that. No, I mean, it's difficult isn't it/
If any one missed anti-Grammar school Camerron's actual words they were on the lines of:
Simpson: "So would you advocate a system like they have decided on in Brighton, whereby pupils are allocated schools by lottery"
(Eton educated) Cameroon said : "No I think that would be very unfair"
do you really think Fraser could not find a better party ;-)
Iain,
You said:
On a wider point, many journalists accuse us bloggers of being frustrated journalists. Perhaps I might return the compliment and pose the question as to whether many political journalists are merely frustrated politicians? Discuss.
I was listening to the noted journalist, Bryan Appleyard, talking about this subject on BBC R4 this (yesterday?)morning.
I've followed his views via his writings on conventional media and via his blog. I've also heard him speak and he does make a lot of sense - on all sorts of topics.
Sadly, people with his intelligence and humanity are so rarely drawn into mainstream politics.
Isn't it a reflection on current UK politics that it cannot draw on a pool of the brightest and the best?
Simpson, or was it Humphries?
Why do I listen to Today anyway?
Mo
Fraser Nelson's piece was excellenet if only Cameron had the bottle.
Why would Fraser Nelson want to serve under David Cameron ? The article illustrates why he could not.
I listened with toes curling to Cameron/Radio 4 interview. Weak, ambivalent and evasive.
Fraser Nelson is on target but needs to add the following comment.
Govt can throw cash at schools and teachers but until it understands that a large part of the problem is the parents, no real progress can be made. Failure at school is often caused by benefit dependent, zero aspiration parents who dont give a toss. Sadly those parents who do are in a minority and hence cannot influence matters. ITS THE PARENTS STUPID.
Most (political) journalists, bloggers and barroom bores etc are frustrated would-be-but-can't-really-be-bothered-with-all-the-necessary-effort politicians imho. Go on, you discuss...
How many political journalists were candidates at the 2005 General Election, Iain?
Failure at school is often caused by benefit dependent, zero aspiration parents who dont give a toss
and parents who are more interested in their SUV and credit-financed affluence than in books, reading, discipline or learning.....and decant their spoiled middle-class brats onto an unsuspecting schoolteacher
ooh, isn't Fraser Nelson soo pretty! I think I'm not the only one who loves him! Shame he can't write.
Observer: "and decant their spoiled middle-class brats onto an unsuspecting schoolteacher"
So, ownership of an SUV equalls membership of the 'middle class', then?
Middle class 'brats' are all 'spoiled'? How, precisely?
Any schoolteacher who is 'unsuspecting' is clearly in the wrong job, or needs a great deal of retraining.
If you are looking for 'books, reading, discipline or learning' you can find that in abundance at some schools, but they tend to be those schools where the 'middle class' send their children - given any 'choice', that is.
Blogging to me is for the impatient. You can do an apprenticeship, go to college and work your way up through the ranks, starting the obituary columns. That's how to become a journlaist (in the old days). Bloggers just click onto blogspot and get started within minutes.
Blogging is often done by people who put other careers first, and who feel continual frustration at the way things are, and not being able to do anything about it. If you write to national media expressing opinion, they rarely print the letter.
A blogger can express facts or opinions - or take a flyer on a theory. You can just follow your instincts. A journalist has the time and the resources to check out a story, but cannot stray far away from what most others are writing. A blogger can write from a completely different viewpoint than the mainstream.
I have a friend who writes for a national left leaning intellectualish paper, and he continually expresses frustration at the tight guidelines he is kept within.
He'd be a great blogger, but needs the money!
Definition of a journalist - a potential blogger who didn't have enough money, and had to sacrifice independence of mind for salary.
Fraser is a gay icon - is he gay, too? Cameron's a prat!
Two ring stories in a row. Excellent. But Michael Gove? Isn't he Katey Apprentice's long lost brother? A real headlight freezer of a bunny that one. Michael not Katey.
asked actually rather than said: Is he in any way related to that great sailor boy who stands aloft that great phallus in Trafalgar Square and with whom he shares his surname? All the nice boys love a sailor or so I'm told.
Political journalists are merely frustrated politicians? Discuss
Well, the obvious example of someone who successfully made the switch is Alastair Campbell, but some would argue he was never much of a journalist in the first place.
I think Fraser's News of the World column is truly outstanding. And the title is very witty.
doesn't sound like a modern conservative policy to me. Cameron will never go for all that choice and social mobility, better to keep us plebs in our places to be patronised by ex eton types.
Though I have a vague memory when choice was almost a mandatory policy for a proper conservative, but I wasd much younger then and I must jhave mis understood.
Me Nelson would not fit in with the left wing social democratic party that currently wears green / bue / or whatever the guardianista think is the coolest colour
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