I Agree With Nick – Old Parties Think Style And Appearance Is What Counts In An Election

It amuses me to hear both Labour and Conservative politicians referring to Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats as being all about style and appearance as though that means something significant.

The two old established squabbling dance partners had planned on spending three weeks going around the country and shaking hands with people and telling them how terrible life would be with the other lot in power. Politicians are out kissing babies knowing that some people will vote for them because they kissed a baby or because they shook hands. This is hardly about policies. All of the traversing the country has little to do with policy and everything to do with appearances.

When was the last time you saw your MP on the streets of your town actually talking to people except around the time of an election? They might well argue that they have no time for such things in normal times and this may be true so maybe Parliament should operate on a four day week to allow more time for MPs to be in their constituencies spending time shaking hands with lots of people and finding out what people really want.

Everything they say is geared to being elected, or re-elected, and I look forward to hearing a politician or a political party say that we should vote for someone else because they can do a better job. In the meantime, the best I can hope for is that they will want to shake my hand to demonstrate how they think that style and charisma is much more important than policies in getting my vote.