Immortal satire

Just before I dash off to buy new clothes (I am going to the ball), here's some fun.

I've just been to Alan's brilliant lecture on political satire and political communication (and then marked the best set of Pol Comms presentations of my decade here. This first clip from Yes Prime Minister was shown: it's still the best popular summary of the British newspaper landscape - with a killer zinger.



The second is still absolutely spot on about party political broadcasts. Now the economy's utterly fornicated, expect to see a lot of leather-bound books and hear a lot of Elgar.

Evil, cynical genius

In the old days, politicians would appeal to your political interests. Now, it's just a matter of selling you a lifestyle. This is both the best and worst political broadcast I've ever seen. Want policies? Tough. The message is, nice girls don't boff socialists (she cries because she's just slept with someone who has filled in an application for the Socialist Party of Austria). But that doesn't matter. It could just as easily sell holidays, insurance, the Nazis, whatever. Hollow… so hollow that it doesn't need dialogue.