Do politicians need sex appeal to be successful in these social media times?

Galaxy

Probably matters if I spell the PM's correctly

LOL! But guess what, I didn't see the mistake until you pointed it out - the brain sees what it's meant to see!

People (some) have suggested that Sunak is out of touch because he's wealthy. Obviously, he doesn't move in impoverished circles so to speak, but I don't think his wealth is what makes him appear out of touch. Some people just are, and I think what blights Sunak is his ambition - he reels around from one 'initiative' / plan / idea to another in the hope of gaining voter approval without appearing to think carefully about what might or might not be involved. Which makes him seem out of touch.

As for Starmer, much is being made of his background, or maybe he's making much of it I don't know, I just cannot keep watching or listening to such meanderings - personally, I don't care unless he's done something criminal in the past.

I want to know what he and or anyone else is going to do for the country as a whole (an impossible task anyway). Business / Industry, seems to approve of him, or some of it anyway, so that's a start.

Probably matters if I spell the PM's correctly

I agree with the last two posts today, and with Dickens earlier. Does it really matter? It doesn't have to be either/or.
Admittedly, there are some people who think just because someone is wealthy, that they live in a bubble and have no idea about how others may be struggling. Or that they can't empathise or support others.
I'm fed up hearing on an election campaign all these back biting stories in an attempt to gain what?

I agree completely but if people obsess about how wealthy Sunsk is then they have to show how 'ordinary' Starmer is, it's all nonsense.

I am stunned about this endless arguing about someones back ground, what on earth does it matter what anybody's father, grandfather and great grandfather to the nth generation did in life. The experiences someone has in childhood do not preclude them from gathering new and very different experiences in adulthood, that far override their earliest memories. Most of our great social reformers, from Elizabeth Fry to Florence Nightingale to General Booth, William Wilberforce and all who lobbied for industrial legislation to protect factory workers, even St Francis, in the 14th century came from privileged classes but could understand the privations of the poor and give their lives to helping them.

More to the point, I have just been looking at some YouGov analysis and Labour is no longer the party of the working classes. Those people with least education are far more likely to vote Conservative than Labour. In 2019, nealy 60% voted Conservative and ony 25% Labour. While voters with degrees are far more likely to vote Labour (43%) than Conservative (29%).

Labour is now the party of the affluent well-educated. yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/26925-how-britain-voted-2019-general-election

Primrose, Casdon says" people still stone pick" in her post.
Did you miss it ?

Oh don't pick it.
It'll never get better!

What actually is stone picking? It doesn't sound like a very racy activity. No sex appeal.

Casdon

Primrose53

Casdon

Primrose53 anybody would think you’re looking for lies! People still stone pick. It’s very stony where I live in the mountains of Wales, and they mainly pick from sports pitches now, there’s less arable land, but in the seventies it was still common on farmers fields,, as was potato picking by hand. Rural does not necessarily equate to stony, stony relates to the ground type in the area. I wish that wasn’t the case, I’ve got so many in my garden that I’ve got an area where I have to dump them as I remove them from the borders,

It’s all flints around here which are sharp and lethal but I have never seen anybody picking them off fields in the 70s to the present day.

So are you actually saying Starmer is lying, because you’ve never seen stone picking?

Well have you? 😝

Doodledog

Chocolatelovinggran

I'm a champagne socialist: I want everyone to afford champagne, ( ok , cava)
Tony Benn was a committed, caring socialist from a grand family ( Wedgwood, since you ask). Your origins do not limit your worldview. Margaret Thatcher came from humble origins but definitely wasn't a socialist.

I agree. Why can't people accept that others can think for themselves and don't need to buy a package of beliefs from any party/religion/organisation? There is no reason I can see why someone who drinks champagne shouldn't want others to be able to do likewise, or to have more than a basic lifestyle in other ways. The idea that Labour voters/MPs are hypocritical if they don't live in council houses and work in mines or mills is as idiotic as thinking that the same applies to Tories without trust funds and titles.

The champagne-socialist jibe is such old hat now I'm surprised anyone still uses the expression.

Times have changed, the working-class are no longer a homogenous group of down-trodden workers waiting at the factory gate in hope of a 'hire' for the day. They are educated people capable of thinking for themselves, so there is no reason why the Labour party should not reflect that. We move onward.

Wealthy people are quite capable of having empathy for those who aren't and, those who aren't are not necessarily opposed to those with wealth (as long as they pay their taxes!).

Starmer's father started The Oxted Tool Company, but he was the only person who worked in the building in Hurst Green. The biography talks about Starmer helping out and also the stone picking. I was born and grew up about 10 minutes walk away and recognised the context and some of the people the book talks about. I have no reason to think there is anything untrue in the descriptions, although I didn't share his enthusiasm for growing up in Oxted. I found it very narrow minded and snobbish and was glad to get away to university.

She’s just rehashed it. This is from 2022.

😂. You haven’t lost it Lauranorderr!

Starmer’s father was a toolmaker. The only statement from him with which I can agree wholeheartedly.

That should, of course, read 'I can't see. . .'.

Chocolatelovinggran

I'm a champagne socialist: I want everyone to afford champagne, ( ok , cava)
Tony Benn was a committed, caring socialist from a grand family ( Wedgwood, since you ask). Your origins do not limit your worldview. Margaret Thatcher came from humble origins but definitely wasn't a socialist.

I agree. Why can't people accept that others can think for themselves and don't need to buy a package of beliefs from any party/religion/organisation? There is no reason I can see why someone who drinks champagne shouldn't want others to be able to do likewise, or to have more than a basic lifestyle in other ways. The idea that Labour voters/MPs are hypocritical if they don't live in council houses and work in mines or mills is as idiotic as thinking that the same applies to Tories without trust funds and titles.

Primrose53

Casdon

Primrose53 anybody would think you’re looking for lies! People still stone pick. It’s very stony where I live in the mountains of Wales, and they mainly pick from sports pitches now, there’s less arable land, but in the seventies it was still common on farmers fields,, as was potato picking by hand. Rural does not necessarily equate to stony, stony relates to the ground type in the area. I wish that wasn’t the case, I’ve got so many in my garden that I’ve got an area where I have to dump them as I remove them from the borders,

It’s all flints around here which are sharp and lethal but I have never seen anybody picking them off fields in the 70s to the present day.

So are you actually saying Starmer is lying, because you’ve never seen stone picking?

I don't mind where politicians started from. I don't mind if they make money. I do mind if they feel they have to misrepresent their origins by pretending life was more of a struggle for them. It's insulting to those who do struggle and it's not recognising the advantages you were given and how that helped you.
Tony Benn never pretended to be anything other than what he was, a rich aristocrat who rejected the hierarchy and believed passionately in human rights.

I'm a champagne socialist: I want everyone to afford champagne, ( ok , cava)
Tony Benn was a committed, caring socialist from a grand family ( Wedgwood, since you ask). Your origins do not limit your worldview. Margaret Thatcher came from humble origins but definitely wasn't a socialist.

Casdon

Primrose53 anybody would think you’re looking for lies! People still stone pick. It’s very stony where I live in the mountains of Wales, and they mainly pick from sports pitches now, there’s less arable land, but in the seventies it was still common on farmers fields,, as was potato picking by hand. Rural does not necessarily equate to stony, stony relates to the ground type in the area. I wish that wasn’t the case, I’ve got so many in my garden that I’ve got an area where I have to dump them as I remove them from the borders,

It’s all flints around here which are sharp and lethal but I have never seen anybody picking them off fields in the 70s to the present day.

Glorianny

Eh picking up stones, 'e 'ad it easy. We 'ad to crawl round on our 'ands and knees sucking'em up from ground. And at end of day farmer give us a turnip if we were lucky

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Primrose53 anybody would think you’re looking for lies! People still stone pick. It’s very stony where I live in the mountains of Wales, and they mainly pick from sports pitches now, there’s less arable land, but in the seventies it was still common on farmers fields,, as was potato picking by hand. Rural does not necessarily equate to stony, stony relates to the ground type in the area. I wish that wasn’t the case, I’ve got so many in my garden that I’ve got an area where I have to dump them as I remove them from the borders,

Eh picking up stones, 'e 'ad it easy. We 'ad to crawl round on our 'ands and knees sucking'em up from ground. And at end of day farmer give us a turnip if we were lucky

Starmer is on TV live now from Sussex. He is talking about his childhood in Oxted and saying “my father was a toolmaker and worked in a factory”.

He is also saying his own first job was picking stones off fields for farmers!! I do know from my late father that in the 20s unemployed men had to do that or they got no dole money.

Not sure if I believe this Keir. He was born in 1962 so if he was 10 when he was supposedly stone picking it would have been the 70s. I never saw kids doing that and I lived in a very rural area.

People with entrenched political positions are not going to be persuaded to vote differently. I don’t expect Starmer to appeal to staunch Tory supporters, and don’t much care what they think of him either, because it doesn’t matter. It won’t have any influence on the outcome of the election.
What matters is the people who are undecided - that’s why the polls are the best indicator we have of which party is going to win out. I don’t think sex appeal has anything to do with it, nor do I think the leader is the most important factor in people’s minds when they make a decision about which party to vote for.