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Is Miliband posher than Cameron? And do we care?

(82 Posts)
Lilygran Mon 23-Mar-15 13:21:38

There's been some discussion today about which of them is posher. Apparently voters think Miliband is 'aloof'. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/11489438/Ed-Miliband-is-more-of-a-toff-than-David-Cameron-Labour-MP-says.html. Do you vote for personality? Or policies? Does it matter if you wouldn't want to meet the party leader socially?

rosesarered Mon 23-Mar-15 21:03:46

All top politicians are good at PR in ALL the parties, either because they had jobs in PR, because they study it to get on in life or because they pay huge sums to PR firms to help them.You can think it's a good thing, or you can think it's a bad thing, but they all do it.

durhamjen Mon 23-Mar-15 20:22:05

Why?
It means an enthusiast. He's a PR enthusiast, which is why people believed him when he said the NHS was safe in his hands.
I presume you remember the hug a husky episode? That's definitely PR freakery. Vote blue, get green was real PR freakery again.
I'll call him a liar instead, shall I?

Ana Mon 23-Mar-15 20:08:53

I'm not the huge Cameron fan that you seem to think I am, durhamjen, but calling anyone a 'freak' is not on.

durhamjen Mon 23-Mar-15 19:54:19

By the way, rose, I said that Miliband was shy and thoughtful and did not go to public school before university. Ana only picked up on the shy word.
Why did you not attack her for that?

durhamjen Mon 23-Mar-15 19:51:25

No. Cameron's only job was a PR man. It's the truth. That's why he gets a "good" press, because he knows how to manipulate the press.
I was just being short and succinct, because I know some people do not like reading long posts.

rosequartz Mon 23-Mar-15 19:28:27

Better than a PR freak

Is that the 'When you can't think of a good argument say something spiteful' maxim.

durhamjen Mon 23-Mar-15 19:22:20

Better than a PR freak.

Ana Mon 23-Mar-15 19:16:19

Yes, and I said they didn't win the last election, also correct.

Perhaps shyness isn't the ideal quality for a would-be PM?

durhamjen Mon 23-Mar-15 19:14:11

Ana, Annie said the last labour government. She was correct.

durhamjen Mon 23-Mar-15 19:13:11

Many of them are still there, Anniebach, and hopefully will be in the next government. There are a few from up north who have even worked down the pits,believe it or not!

I wouldn't expect any other sort of article from the Telegraph, a newspaper owned by people who do not pay taxes on the income because they live in Guernsey, a tax haven. What I am surprised at is the man who gave the interview.
Miliband is shy and thoughtful, and did not go to a public school before university.

Ana Mon 23-Mar-15 19:06:23

I'm not sure I agree with your definition of 'ordinary', Anniebach in some of those cases, but in any event that government didn't win the last election.

Anniebach Mon 23-Mar-15 18:53:02

Really Ana, Mo Molam, Alan Johnson, John Prescott, Peter Hain, Dennis Skinner, Clair Short, Gordon Brown, Tom Watson, Frank Field, Dswn Primarolo, Angela Eagle and many more

absent Mon 23-Mar-15 18:31:15

Why are MPs extraordinary? I know many of them consider themselves special but does everyone else have to?

Ana Mon 23-Mar-15 18:20:57

Not many, though.

Anniebach Mon 23-Mar-15 18:16:47

The last labour government certainly had ordinary people MP's.

absent Mon 23-Mar-15 18:13:29

TB also recalled watching a football player who had retired before he was born or some such nonsense. No doubt he was holding his "ordinary people's" mug of tea while telling this yarn to the assembled journalists.

rosequartz Mon 23-Mar-15 17:45:09

I'm a Grammar school educated grocers daughter shock
I have a feeling of deja vu!

I remember when TB told us that he had 'slept on a park bench' hmm

All Earthlings look ordinary to those of us from another planet.

Ana Mon 23-Mar-15 17:27:34

That's a very scary photo of Ed! shock

Juliette Mon 23-Mar-15 17:15:18

I'm a Grammar school educated grocers daughter. Does that make me an ordinary person?
I don't think you can define ordinary, we are all ordinary in our own social group. Whether we be politicians, doctors or un-skilled workers. It's all relative.
Crossing the divide is never easy for any of us.

Nonnie Mon 23-Mar-15 16:49:39

soon no! Don't wish that on people who are already suffering. Haven't they enough to put up with already? grin

I think they should have had a proper job too. At least then they will have mixed with a variety of people and have a small idea of what matters to others.

It is impossible for any of us to understand how someone whose life is so different from our own feels or what their life is like. I cannot know what pressures a captain of industry feels any more than I can understand the pressure of poverty or disability. I can try, and do as I have been really hard up at times but never so poor I didn't know where the next meal would come from. To pretend to understand is wrong imo.

GillT57 Mon 23-Mar-15 16:40:39

I am very concerned about the current trend for career politicians. The path seems to be from Public School to House of Commons Researcher via Oxbridge or Russell group. I am not an inverted snob, and dont think that anyone is too posh ( whatever that means), but I do think that we were better off with MPs who have worked for a living, even the barristers who made up the bulk of government when Thatcher, Major and Blair were in power, had an understanding of finding their own clients, paying their bills, sitting up until all hours preparing work etc. An no, Mr Cameron, you do not understand what juggling family life with two careers is like, your wife may work part time but she earns, on her own, about 6 times the average salary for a part time job.

whitewave Mon 23-Mar-15 16:38:07

Right wing press sniping again. Oh well it will all stop after the election.

kittylester Mon 23-Mar-15 16:28:20

Feetle please come and stay with this ordinary family!

soontobe Mon 23-Mar-15 16:22:34

I vote for what I think a party's vision is.

I would like though, and think it ought to be mandatory, for every new politician to live with a person for a week, who is struggling in life, whether they are struggling with. Whether it is disability, poverty, additional needs, old age, health etc.
I think that it would open their eyes.

ninathenana Mon 23-Mar-15 16:20:46

grin feetlebaum