THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ADVISERS WRITE YOUR SPEECHES
Mar 19th, 2010 by Conor McCabe
The video from the Irish Labour Party below is only three years old, but it might as well be a thousand for all the insight and relevance it carries.
The message, ‘are you happy?’, was aimed at what the party’s policy advisers saw as the real concerns of the Irish people: prosperity was here to stay, but the pace and direction of life was getting us down. We weren’t fulfilled in any way.
On top of this existentialist angst, the policy advisers saw education and crime as other areas of our lives where we just. weren’t. happy.
The government wasn’t doing anything about our general feelings of unhappiness, nor anything about criminals or schools. It was bad management, and what the Irish Labour Party could offer in coalition with Fine Gael was good management.
Nothing about the systemic problems in the economy, in the banks, in the political system itself - things that Irish left-wing bloggers were writing about on a weekly basis at that time.
I actually think the video is a brilliant piece of work for its superficiality and utter lack of any knowledge of the very real fault-lines in the Irish economy, which at the time this video was made were only 12 months away from breaking out from behind the haze and slap bang into our lives.
Something tells me, though, that while the Labour Party’s analysis has been completely discredited, the policy advisers who came up with this complete and utter shit are probably still calling the shots, still giving moronic advice, and still justifying their insights with the same level of bull as before.
Enjoy.
Remember this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvtUeSjzYL0
I’m actually amazed the Greens never took it down.
“I don’t think rich people should be treated better than poor people..” at 1:40 wins the day.
haha!
Over 40 kids made statements, and the Greens have shat on every single one of them.
Beautiful.
I remember this. I was canvassing for Labour down here in Wexford when they were pushing this campaign.
The most memorable moment for me was when I got a text message from Pat. It even said “Pat Rabbitte” in my inbox (the technical wizardry of it!) and it read: “Donal, are you happy?”
As it happened I was. I was on the jacks at work and felt like texting Pat back and telling him all about the very satisfying shite i was having but alas, there was no text-back facility.
A genuine contender for my most surreal experience of 2007!
The campaign was all soft focus. I remember being told the economic argument was a NON-RUNNER because everyone was in basic agreement that growth of 3-5% was a given.
So we were asked to concentrate on quality of life issues. The underlying cracks that Labour will now tell you they were shouting about from the roof-tops were never mentioned. It became an auction about who could put the most Gardai on the streets and an exercise in drawing attention to public funds being squandered on voting machines rather than addressing any of the real concerns.
This all at a time when Banks were selling their branch buildings on lease-back schemes throughout the country in anticipation of what they knew was coming in the property sector.
Less re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic, more bitching about the cup-holders on the space shuttle Columbia.
And you’re right Conor, all of those who authored that approach are still in place by and large, which is why they’ve chosen JOBS as their banner headline for the next election. Controversial eh? Notice how it seams to be focussing on what people want without actually alienating either potential coalition partner (or addressing any of the underlying problems).
What next from these gurus? OXYGEN? CHIPS? THE RIDE?
I remember Eamonn Gilmore’s first appearance as leader of the party on Questions and Answers, in January 2008, and his opening line was that the fundamentals of the economy were sound. And HOWEVER told him to say that is more than likely STILL writing speeches for the party, thinking he’s Bruno Gianelli from the West Wing when really he’s Hold the Bells from the Fast Show.
Of course, the real problem was not that the advisers wrote the speech, but that the politician don’t have enough wit to cry ‘Stop!’. The ‘Happynes” campaign (must check the sequence of Labour’s campaign and the cutie film) wasn’t in a category where a political leader should be taking advice: it’s not as if it were a campaign on financial derivatives where it might be reasonable to rely on expertise.