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Friday, February 24, 2006

 

Campbell, Blair and a long term unemployed chap


I'm a bit late with this - Alistair Campbell's recent article about his feeling that "modern technology will change the way politicians communicate" despite being a technophobe throughout his years in the Labour government. The parts that really stood out for me, were the infamous stray email to Newsnight:
"However, as some readers may know, I am inclined to hit the wrong key from time to time, as when I joked with a friend that he should tell the BBC to "**** off and cover something important for once", only to discover that I sent it not to my friend but to the BBC, thereby providing Newsnight with a lead story to salivate over on an otherwise quiet news day."
And this anecdote regarding the Prime Minister's technophobia and subsequent presence at an evening class in basic (not programming BASIC, just basic) IT:
"I should add that the prime minister is not much better. He may be one of the politicians most identified with change and modernity in the world today, but he too is at heart a pen and paper man, the computer on his desk almost as idle as the one I used to have on mine. He once attended a class for adults trying to learn new computer skills up in the north-east of England. Because of the media interest, we had TV cameras and press photographers in for part of the lesson, which concluded with a series of tests. The prime minister noticed that the man next to him seemed nervous, almost anxious. "I'm sorry you have to endure all this media glare just because you're next to me," said Mr Blair. "No, no," came the reply "that's not what's worrying me. What's worrying me is that you're the prime minister, I'm long-term unemployed, and I've done better than you in every single test we've done."
A revealing insight into technology and the government there. Gulp.

Comments:
Interesting piece on Gordon by Charlie "Chuckle" Whelan in the Indie yesterday - fascinating though Campbell and Whelan's modern-day stoops to newspaper journalism may be, and entertaining their digs at each other and their 'lies'... there's always something about their jovial anecdotes which just doesn't ring true either...!
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article347927.ece
The last few paragraphs seem to be Charlie's equivalent of the Campbell/Blair/dumb IT well-polished tale...
 


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