Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain - A useful map from The Local.
- And some even more useful tips from the same folk.
- Given what it means for Spain's view of itself - not to mention the vast sums which have flowed this way - it's not terribly surprising that the Spanish remain among the most pro-Europe people in the EU. Bucking a trend, it says here.
- Two out-of-favour Catalans won seats in the EU parliament on Sunday. Sr Puigdemont is in self-exile in Belgium and Sr Junqueras is in prison. Understandably, it's unclear if they'll be sitting in the place any time soon.
- Oh, dear. Temperatures at either end of Spain between Thursday and Sunday will be polar opposites - reaching up to 37ºC in the south and barely reaching 14ºC in the north.
- The number of contenders for the leadership of the Conservative party has reached 127, I think. All of them demonstrably insane.
- There's a nice article below on this leadership election process.
- There is plenty of scope for everyone to interpret the facts to suit their existing preferences.
- Richard North yesterday: One of the most fundamental defects in the reportage is the failure to evaluate the results in the context of what in fact is a low-turnout, low-interest electionThe very essence of the support for Farage was that it was a protest vote in an election which didn't matter, where people were prepared to take a risk-free punt. In a general election, however, it gets serious. People know that they are electing a government and are thus less inclined to take risks. Thus, time after time, where we see outliers in peripheral elections, the electorate tend to focus on the parties most likely to be able to form a government.
- The German political establishment is reeling after most voters rejected the two historical parties of government for the first time in a nationwide ballot.
- Richard North addresses the critical issue of its democratic credentials here. Click if you want to know what he means by: The most refined form of bullshit known to man.
- Here's a non-surprise about we atheists. Especially we ex-Catholic ones, I guess.
- A nice cartoon from the wonderful Mike Williams:-
- Yet another example of Fart's astonishing combination of arrogance, dishonesty and stupidity. Back to the Dunning-Kruger effect.
- Word of the Day: Despampanante, a new one for me.
- My neighbour Amparo's younger son has returned from a year in the USA, with a notable mid-Western accent. And a change in music tastes. I used to have to endure loud boom-boom, techno stuff. But now it's country and western. Which is a change for the better, I guess.
- Here's one of the fat, greedy greenfinches that dominate the bird feeding station in my garden:-
THE ARTICLE
For Tory candidates, it’s all about kerb appeal: Rachel Sylvester
Voters get a feel for politicians before they know them, which is why trying to ape the Brexit Party would be disastrous
‘They will feel you before they hear you”, James Brown, the godfather of soul, told his friend Al Sharpton, the civil rights campaigner, when he was running for president of the United States. The advice is now quoted by Beto O’Rourke, the charismatic Texan who is seeking the Democratic nomination, and it is a message that the Tory leadership candidates should also take on board. Leadership is about character as much as it is about ideas.
In his book The Political Brain, the American psychologist Drew Westen argued that one of the main determinants of electoral success is what he calls “kerb appeal”, the feeling voters get when they “drive by” a politician a few times on television and form an emotional impression. It is often nothing to do with what they say. In one study people were asked to look at photographs of the winners and losers of House and Senate races — their instinctive assessments of which looked most competent correctly predicted the winner about 70 cent of the time. Policy matters, of course it does, but personality and plausibility also count.
Theresa May’s inability to form an emotional connection with either her colleagues or the voters was perhaps her greatest flaw as prime minister. When participants in a focus group organised by the consultancy Britain Thinks were asked which drink she reminded them of, one suggested eggnog, explaining that: “You’re offered it because somebody’s made it and you have to accept it but you’d probably rather tip it into a plant pot.”
By contrast, Tony Blair at the height of his popularity had an extraordinary ability to make people feel he was on their side. Before the 1997 election, voters from different social and economic backgrounds were asked what he would order in a pub. Each of them opted for whatever it was they themselves would choose.
Public perception is more like an impressionist painting, made up of splodges of colour, than a clear black and white line drawing. One government aide says that “every politician is driven by their own self-belief matched equally by their own insecurity” and it is the balance between those two forces that determines how desperately they want to form a connection with the voters. There is no MP in whom this tension is more obvious than Boris Johnson, a narcissist who also craves the approval of others.
The former foreign secretary is an entertainer who has an ability to cheer the nation up but he is a buffoon who leaves chaos in his wake too. The image of him hanging from a zip wire has stuck in the public mind because it perfectly captures this combination. Although he has a bust of Pericles in his office his favourite cartoon character is Dennis the Menace. He is a disrupter, and these are serious times. It would be risky for the Tories to choose their own favourite buccaneering Brexiteer who makes them feel happy, because he elicits rather different emotions in others.
The assessment of the emotional impression created by politicians is inevitably subjective but candidates can hone a certain image. In his television appearances, Dominic Raab evokes the memory of Alan B’Stard, the right-wing Conservative MP played by Rik Mayall in the 1980s comedy The New Statesman, who will stop at nothing to further his career. Having promised to slash 5p off the basic rate of income tax, and take Britain out of the EU without a deal if there are no more concessions from Brussels, the former Brexit secretary refused at the weekend to disown his earlier suggestion that feminists were “obnoxious bigots”. It may be no coincidence that an MP from a rival camp reports hearing one of his supporters arguing that the next Tory leader must not be a woman because Mrs May has done such a bad job.
Matt Hancock is going for a vibe of energetic youth, with a trendy image makeover and a modernising message. Esther McVey is a “blue-collar Tory” whose own background as a Barnardo’s child embodies her theme of working-class aspiration. Jeremy Hunt is presenting himself as the grown-up choice, Andrea Leadsom conveys an image of brisk efficiency and Sajid Javid wants to be seen as a bridge-builder. Rory Stewart is intriguing because of his experience outside Westminster and his willingness to put personal ambition to one side. Michael Gove, seen as a potential unity candidate, is respected in the party as a reformer who can win an argument, but he still grates with a chunk of the wider electorate after his divisive period as education secretary.
The truth is that parties as well as leaders have a character that they convey to the electorate. Sir Oliver Letwin, the former cabinet minister calls it an “aroma”, which voters can smell without even looking at the menu of policies contained in a manifesto. In the 1990s the voters were quite well disposed to certain proposals, until they found out that they were supported by the Conservatives. As Mrs May famously warned, the Tories gave the impression of being the “nasty party” and they are in danger of falling into the same trap again by putting ideology before the national interest.
After the disastrous European election results, most of the Tory leadership candidates are competing to show they can “close down” Nigel Farage by sounding as similar to the Brexit Party as possible. This may work in the short term, winning over the Conservative activists they need in order to get their hands on the keys to No 10, but it will be disastrous at the next general election when they need to appeal to the electorate as a whole. According to a YouGov poll earlier this month, two thirds of Tory members support leaving the EU without a deal, compared with less than a third of all voters and the overwhelming majority of young people want to Remain.
In 2016, the official Vote Leave campaign — that was supported by most Tory Brexiteers — only succeeded by distancing itself from Mr Farage and the rhetoric of his xenophobic “Breaking Point” poster. Afterwards, Mr Gove admitted that he still felt uncomfortable about the focus on immigration and would have preferred a campaign with a “slightly different feel”. Yet now the Conservatives are queuing up to ape the “bad boys of Brexit”, with some even contemplating a pact with Mr Farage. It is huge mistake. The voters feel parties as well as leaders before they hear them and if they sense the Tories are becoming extreme, they will not even listen to what they have to say.
For Tory candidates, it’s all about kerb appeal: Rachel Sylvester
Voters get a feel for politicians before they know them, which is why trying to ape the Brexit Party would be disastrous
‘They will feel you before they hear you”, James Brown, the godfather of soul, told his friend Al Sharpton, the civil rights campaigner, when he was running for president of the United States. The advice is now quoted by Beto O’Rourke, the charismatic Texan who is seeking the Democratic nomination, and it is a message that the Tory leadership candidates should also take on board. Leadership is about character as much as it is about ideas.
In his book The Political Brain, the American psychologist Drew Westen argued that one of the main determinants of electoral success is what he calls “kerb appeal”, the feeling voters get when they “drive by” a politician a few times on television and form an emotional impression. It is often nothing to do with what they say. In one study people were asked to look at photographs of the winners and losers of House and Senate races — their instinctive assessments of which looked most competent correctly predicted the winner about 70 cent of the time. Policy matters, of course it does, but personality and plausibility also count.
Theresa May’s inability to form an emotional connection with either her colleagues or the voters was perhaps her greatest flaw as prime minister. When participants in a focus group organised by the consultancy Britain Thinks were asked which drink she reminded them of, one suggested eggnog, explaining that: “You’re offered it because somebody’s made it and you have to accept it but you’d probably rather tip it into a plant pot.”
By contrast, Tony Blair at the height of his popularity had an extraordinary ability to make people feel he was on their side. Before the 1997 election, voters from different social and economic backgrounds were asked what he would order in a pub. Each of them opted for whatever it was they themselves would choose.
Public perception is more like an impressionist painting, made up of splodges of colour, than a clear black and white line drawing. One government aide says that “every politician is driven by their own self-belief matched equally by their own insecurity” and it is the balance between those two forces that determines how desperately they want to form a connection with the voters. There is no MP in whom this tension is more obvious than Boris Johnson, a narcissist who also craves the approval of others.
The former foreign secretary is an entertainer who has an ability to cheer the nation up but he is a buffoon who leaves chaos in his wake too. The image of him hanging from a zip wire has stuck in the public mind because it perfectly captures this combination. Although he has a bust of Pericles in his office his favourite cartoon character is Dennis the Menace. He is a disrupter, and these are serious times. It would be risky for the Tories to choose their own favourite buccaneering Brexiteer who makes them feel happy, because he elicits rather different emotions in others.
The assessment of the emotional impression created by politicians is inevitably subjective but candidates can hone a certain image. In his television appearances, Dominic Raab evokes the memory of Alan B’Stard, the right-wing Conservative MP played by Rik Mayall in the 1980s comedy The New Statesman, who will stop at nothing to further his career. Having promised to slash 5p off the basic rate of income tax, and take Britain out of the EU without a deal if there are no more concessions from Brussels, the former Brexit secretary refused at the weekend to disown his earlier suggestion that feminists were “obnoxious bigots”. It may be no coincidence that an MP from a rival camp reports hearing one of his supporters arguing that the next Tory leader must not be a woman because Mrs May has done such a bad job.
Matt Hancock is going for a vibe of energetic youth, with a trendy image makeover and a modernising message. Esther McVey is a “blue-collar Tory” whose own background as a Barnardo’s child embodies her theme of working-class aspiration. Jeremy Hunt is presenting himself as the grown-up choice, Andrea Leadsom conveys an image of brisk efficiency and Sajid Javid wants to be seen as a bridge-builder. Rory Stewart is intriguing because of his experience outside Westminster and his willingness to put personal ambition to one side. Michael Gove, seen as a potential unity candidate, is respected in the party as a reformer who can win an argument, but he still grates with a chunk of the wider electorate after his divisive period as education secretary.
The truth is that parties as well as leaders have a character that they convey to the electorate. Sir Oliver Letwin, the former cabinet minister calls it an “aroma”, which voters can smell without even looking at the menu of policies contained in a manifesto. In the 1990s the voters were quite well disposed to certain proposals, until they found out that they were supported by the Conservatives. As Mrs May famously warned, the Tories gave the impression of being the “nasty party” and they are in danger of falling into the same trap again by putting ideology before the national interest.
After the disastrous European election results, most of the Tory leadership candidates are competing to show they can “close down” Nigel Farage by sounding as similar to the Brexit Party as possible. This may work in the short term, winning over the Conservative activists they need in order to get their hands on the keys to No 10, but it will be disastrous at the next general election when they need to appeal to the electorate as a whole. According to a YouGov poll earlier this month, two thirds of Tory members support leaving the EU without a deal, compared with less than a third of all voters and the overwhelming majority of young people want to Remain.
In 2016, the official Vote Leave campaign — that was supported by most Tory Brexiteers — only succeeded by distancing itself from Mr Farage and the rhetoric of his xenophobic “Breaking Point” poster. Afterwards, Mr Gove admitted that he still felt uncomfortable about the focus on immigration and would have preferred a campaign with a “slightly different feel”. Yet now the Conservatives are queuing up to ape the “bad boys of Brexit”, with some even contemplating a pact with Mr Farage. It is huge mistake. The voters feel parties as well as leaders before they hear them and if they sense the Tories are becoming extreme, they will not even listen to what they have to say.
No comments:
Post a Comment