High Noon

The other day I was complaining about the fatuous cartoon animation that the BBC were using to "explain" the hard-to-grasp intricacies of the London mayoral election. Elsewhere in the blogosphere, indignation tended to concentrate on Jeremy Vine's cowboy impersonation, a travesty that I was fortunate enough to avoid. Can't have been much worse than the Beano-business, I thought. How wrong I was. If you haven't yet seen the whole excruciating performance, here it is. It's worth watching through to the end just to see the look on Tessa Jowell's face.



Hard to know what to say, really. Either those responsible were actually drunk at the time, or they assumed that most of the audience would be. But this was local election coverage. Most normal people don't sit up most of the night waiting to hear whether Reading has moved to No Overall Control. Those who do have the obsessive interest in politics required to tune in to this sort of show want to know facts, put into context by basic, easy-to-follow maps and graphs.

Far from helping to explain anything, this skit served only to confuse matters. I think the message had something to do with Lib Dem poll numbers, but it's hard to tell exactly what. It reminds me of one of Humph's convoluted metaphors designed to illustrate the concept behind One Song to the Tune of Another.

"It might help to think of the Lib Dem leader as a Wild West gunslinger and the percentage share of the vote as old cans hanging from strings in an old-style saloon. Nick Clegg's task is to use his gun - that is, his campaign team - to "hit", that is, reach, the "tin cans", or the target number of votes. But, I hear you ask, what do a lot of empty beer cans rattling around in a bar have to do with the Liberal Democrats? In the studio we've got Charles Kennedy."

If this doesn't lead to High Noon for everyone responsible, the BBC needs a new sheriff.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Fucking Hell. I spent all day yesterday as an extra in a Doritos ad being filmed for Canada - why a Canadian ad should be filmed in Arrochar and why I should be clutching a blue cheese made of wood what dressed as a Breton fisherman may be deep what-song-the-sirens sang questions but are in fact perfec tly explicable when put beside the question what the fuck has happened to Withered-on-the-Vine Newsnight.
Anonymous said…
Ah sorry Heresiarch ' that was a bit of a rant. I shouldn't comment half way down the bottle.

'wood what' in the above should be 'wood while' - aff tae bed goodnight.
Heresiarch said…
Not at all. Rants are good. Especially regarding something as rantworthy as this.

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