Meeting the people (only if you have to)
Simon Campion-Brown rediscovers his love of politics
There are few more satisfying and enjoyable sights that watching politicians being discomforted by confrontations with ordinary members of the public, the very people that in a democracy – oh so inconveniently – they need votes from in order to reach and retain their positions of power and privilege.
Who can forget Gordon Brown’s “bigoted woman’ comment, caught on recorded sound as he was driven away from what should have been a carefully set-up ‘Prime Minister meets the people’ walkabout during the 2010 General Election?
More recently, last week even, it was great fun to watch David Cameron being harangued by a lady on the street in Kent.
Last night, watching BBC1’s Six O’ Clock News bulletin, I confess I wallowed anew with glee in an item on Environment Secretary Owen Paterson as he made a well-publicised visit to the Somerset Levels, in order to see for himself the prolonged effects of the flooding caused by the recent bad weather.
See here for a report on Mr Paterson’s day – THE GUARDIAN
