Woke up this morning to the news that the Tories are leading Labour in opinion polls at the moment- no surprises there, but apparently for the first time, voters are rating the Tories higher than Labour on issues like health and education and not just their usual areas of immigration and crime. This brought to mind a conversation I had with a friend a few weeks ago. She's English, working class girl made good and has always been an ardent Labour voter, even though she's fairly high powered in the City....but two weeks ago, she told me she was going to vote Tory in the next elections. The question I asked her is the same one I would like to ask the thousand or so people polled last week:
I am as fed up with Tony Blair as any of you, but pray tell me what alternative policies the Tories have put forward beyond trying to be all things to all people? On health? On education? Even on the environment, beyond the cycling and arctic touring stunts, what? The numerous policy review commissions that Cameron set up are yet to report back, so on what is this sudden swing to the Tories based on?
The answer of course is image......in a media obsessed world, image is everything and it may well sweep the Tories into power at the next elections...
Have had a fantastic raid of the local library and have come away with Manju Kapur's new book Home which I just finished. Her depiction of an Indian trading family reminded me very much of the machinations that went on in a prominent Nigerian family who were friends of my parents....no decisions were personal- from who you married to how many children you had, to what car or clothes you bought your wife- all had to be sanctioned by the grand family council and the patriarch, otherwise you were cut off penniless, and isolated from the lucrative family business......
Other prized hauls this week include Romesh Gunesekera's new book, The Match, Freakonomics, Naomi Alderman's Disobedience set in an Orthodox Jewish community in North London and Vikram Seth's Two Lives.....
An interesting week lies ahead, reading wise
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment