Friday, March 27, 2015

Cameron v Miliband - what did we learn?

To begin with, we learned that a debate is sometimes not a debate. Perhaps political leaders these days have to be isolated from each other in case they catch something. Both faced a grilling from an increasingly world-weary Jeremy Paxman, along with a series of not-too-difficult questions from an audience jollied along by Kay Burley. It was a strange compromise, generating very little in the way of passion or controversy.

Both leaders had obviously been heavily coached before the event, and you could see them almost bursting to get to their prepared sound bytes via a question vaguely related, or sometimes not related at all, to the point they'd rehearsed. They faced Jeremy Paxman across a weird object that may have been a bar table left over from Star Wars, or a fishtank that had fallen over. It may have been designed to keep them from doing a Clarkson on Paxman, but it led to them shouting answers at a bloke several yards away.

The expected line of questioning emerged; "So, Mr Cameron, you're a posh bloke with posh friends who are a bit dodgy aren't you" and "So Mr Miliband, you're a bit weird with a smarter brother, eh?" Both Ed and David handled things pretty well, with Ed clearly having been given a note that said "Show a bit of passion" and David having been advised to lean back and say "Let me explain..." as if someone was trying to stop him.

But what did we learn about the bid for number ten? Er..not much. Expectations were fairly low, and they weren't exceeded by much. In my assesment, Ed Miliband performed slightly better, and seemed to wrong-foot Paxman when he simply admitted that Labour had made mistakes. Cameron wasn't as strong as he might have been on the economy, but didn't do himself any real harm.

Overall, will it influence the result of the General Election? No.

Picture Credit: Creative Commons License

Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Media Coach 27th March 2015


What’s the order of news?; Jeremy Clarkson; Zayn Malik; Oreo Eclipse; Mail a Spud; Taking a Stand; How re-bookable are you?; Mind your language; An interview with Walter Bond; Music from Mick Terry


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Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Media Coach 20th March 2015


Apple watch; Big Brother remains; We Want Plates; Starbucks and race; Joining me on the platform tonight; Ten Media No-Nos; The largest amplifier in the world; An interview with Julie Creffield; Music from The Lost Hollow Band


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Thursday, March 12, 2015

The Media Coach 13th March 2015


A slip of the tongue; Eurovision Song Contest; Terry Pratchett; Jeremy Clarkson; Ten perfect pitching tips; Inspired by true events; Message first, social network second; An interview with Kimberly Davis; Music from Mary Hopkin


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Thursday, March 05, 2015

The Media Coach 6th March 2015


The election begins; Hall and Oates; Leonard Nimoy; “Spock” your banknotes; A little less rabbit; Be Reliable- Be an Expert; E M Forster and LinkedIn; An interview with Wayne Morris of Guidebook; Music from the 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco


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