Friday, January 11, 2008

Vote for the Countryside Alliance

The Channel 4 Political Awards have yet again surpassed themselves in their objectivity. One of the categories is "most inspiring political personality of the last decade". Only one of the six nominees is remotely appealing to anyone on the right. I'll leave you to decide which one I mean...

1. Tony Blair: Call 09011 27 27 01
2. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness: Call 09011 27 27 02
3. Ken Livingstone: Call 09011 27 27 03
4. Alex Salmond: Call 09011 27 27 04
5. The Countryside Alliance: Call 09011 27 27 05
6. Anti-Iraq war protestors: Call 09011 27 27 06

If you don't fancy wasting 25p on a phone call you can also vote via their website HERE. The vote closes on January 18th.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

When someone I know worked as a Policeman in Londonderry sometime in august 1984 the briefing that he had was to the effect of: `don`t get drawn away from your position as the ira want a peeler`. The information was that someone called martin, I forget his surname now, had this new method of getting people to talk to him. Get the front ring of the cooker red hot and set the bare arse on it. The rest everyone can imagine.

ken livingston went to bed with this fellow. peter hain, a pillar of socity, was the chairman of the troops out orginisation.

No matter what the spin, this is true folks.

David Anthony said...

Ahh, the classic foil of the democratic process through closed option elections.

And where is The Norfolk Blogger may I ask??

Tim Leunig said...

The last ten years have not been good for the right. Of course the list is full of people the left like, the left have been in the ascendency for the past decade.
I am sure that had you done the same in 1992, there would have been few people on the left in the list - Labour had failed miserably under Kinnock, the Alliance had crumbled, and so on.

Nich Starling said...

David. Where should I be ? Certainly not vote for the CSA who are basically a Tory front organisation.

Peter Black said...

Isn't Blair on the right? :-)

Alan Douglas said...

It seems one can vote early and OFTEN !

Alan Douglas

Paddy Briggs said...

The Countryside Alliance?????

Ha, bloody ha !

Tony said...

Ken Livingstone?!?! It is possible to make some half baked argument for including some of the others. But Livingstone? At least Channel 4 does not pretend to be impartial.

Andrew Cooper said...

Presumably whoever put this together is a Countryside Alliance supporter. They've split the left vote between 5 options leaving, as you point out, only one choice for those on the right. It's almost clever.

Anonymous said...

I thought gordo was responsible for longest period of sustained growth for blah blah blah... nope, I guess even channel 4 agree that gordo shouldn't be celebrated, rather labelled with infamy!

Anonymous said...

Why not George Galloway?

Love him or hate him, he does inspire something in some people.

And he's usually worth listening to (though not when on his radio show - a bizzare experience!)

But I really can not think of any truly inspiring political leaders from the last decade.

Unknown said...

Iain - who would you suggest as an inspiring politicl figure from the Right over the last decade? Ian Duncan Smith?

Anonymous said...

Alex Salmond is not as unappealing to those on the right as you think. The SNP are abolishing the very lowest level of business rates & are committed to seeking the power to cut corporationn tax. Part of the reason they won the election is that, by noticing & committing themselves to Irish style growth, they managed to outflank the Scottish Tories on the free market "right".

I could wish Mr Cameron were willing to follow the same example.

To be fair it is probably more some of his supporters rather than Salmond himself who are responsible for this sensible change in direction.

In going for the Countryside Alliance I think you are showing some english parochialism here Iain.

Anonymous said...

Peter Black - "Isn't Blair on the right? :-)"

No. I'm surprised that anyone was taken in by that oh-so-obvious pose designed to appeal to non-socialists.

Big Andy - Agreed. No one not of average height and weight from the Conservatives for the past 12 or 13 years now. It's eerie. Almost as if it were planned ...

Anonymous said...

The quality of the so-called journalism behind these awards is woeful. The Countryside Alliance did not organise the fuel protests, it was ‘Farmers for Action’, and when mentioning the demonstration, why flag up figure of 250k demonstrators, when the jaw dropping 407,000 who attended the Liberty & Livelihood march is a far greater achievement? I write as a former CA employee at the time of these events.

Anonymous said...

The Countryside Alliance? No, ta. Not even the sterling efforts of VoteOK in various marginals in '05 could persuade me: "Hallay, I'm Camilla Farnes-Barnes, and I'm from the Conservative Party" didn't go down so well on the council estates in my neck of the woods.

Let's face it, bar perhaps Cameron, the Tory party has had no-one inspiring to be personality of the decade. And no, Iain, Mad Nad and her "inspiring" campaigns to ban abortion by stealth don't count.

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone of sound mind want to vote for the CA? They would not give a flying fig for Conservative Associations if wasn't for their obscene addiction to ripping wild animals apart for 'entertainment'.
If modern Tory members think endorsing that lot is going to get us elected think again!
Come an election their dirty habits, which as a Conservative I find deeply distasteful,will be displayed for the electorate and it will harm our party greatly.

Anonymous said...

and alex salmond DOES SPEAK HIGHLY OF U

Anonymous said...

I'm with Alan... Vote now, and vote often! :-)

Anonymous said...

Which part of 3 election victories do you either not understand, or are quite at home with?

Neil Reddin said...

Some here seem to be expressing scepticism about the CA deserving their vote.

Come on ... the idea is not necessarily to vote for who you think deserves the award, but who will p*ss off the C4 lefties the most (as is the golden rule, of course, in any BBC political poll)

Anonymous said...

The idea that the Countryside Alliance and what it stands for is just opposed by people on the left is ridiculous.
Alan Clark,Widdy, Roger Gale and a host of others are not/were not left wing!
I am a Conservative and fundamentally against the CA and its so called 'sports'.

Anonymous said...

Neil Reddin has absolutely got it in one. The online Government petition to repeal the Hunting Act, the vote to choose Icons of England, the hugely attended demonstrations and umpteen other polls are great opportunities to embarass the government for their vindictive anti-hunt legislation, as well as having a pop at media lefties.

Anonymous said...

What utter nonsense about the 'vindictive' hunting ban.
So Neil Riddin and others think the majority of British people who are against ripping wild animals apart for sport are 'vindictive' does he?
While we are at shall we repeal the laws against badger baiting, cock fighting, bull baiting etc?
A modern Conservative Party should not be allies with people who want to take this country backward so they can get a thrill from chasing an animal to exhaustion before killing it with a pack of dogs.
Sensible Conservatives like Roger Gale MP (hardly a 'leftie') recognise this, as do the majority of voters.
Going into an election with a pledge to bring back fox hunting, hare coursing (Waterloo Cup for goodness sake) and stag hunting will be a suicide note for this party.