aibu to wonder why someone who worked as PR for ITV can now run the country?

[southeastastralbeing]

?? explain!

well the US had an actor for a president (Reagan)so why not?

can't be that hard to answer surely?

Well he is the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons and he then formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats so he has a majority so he formed the Government with the permission of the queen.

but he was a pr man for itv? and people elected him to prime minister??

bump

Southeast, yanbu. Why shouldn't a PM have actual qualifications for the job? The trouble is, given his background, it seems unlikely he has any clue what life is about for most people, and he's not done anything jobwise to put that right. Maybe MPs should be obliged to do voluntary work with people on the margins of society for a year, so when they start redesigning the benefits system they can actually picture the people whose lives they're messing with. Didn't Obama do something similar?

...and it wasn't through hard work either. but through a friend of a friend or something of the like [another relative?]. hmmm, 'those who work hard' eh?!

So what would be a qualification for being PM?!?!

not public relations for ITV surely lol

or maybe simon cowel could be in with a chance!

PR is the best qualification for the job. It's all about spin, selling and acting. Reagan, Clinton and Blair were all actors. Gordon Brown couldn't act for toffee, he never mastered the art of smiling like a human being. PR is where it is at, that's why Anne Widdecombe, the most popular Tory MP, never stood a chance of being leader.

"well the US had an actor for a president (Reagan)so why not?"

He was also a former governor of a state large enough that it would be eligible to join the G8 in its own right, of course. And prior to that a union leader (depending on whether the Screen Actor's Guild qualifies as a union) of some note.

I always think the sneering at former actors who go into politics is a bit knee-jerk. Arnie hasn't done a bad job in California, he told Bush to fuck off in no uncertain terms of stem cell research (to the point of giving a large amount of state money to researchers) and has, after all, married into a political family of some minor fame. He's also an actor. What of it?

'PR is the best qualification for the job' - only if you actually want your politics to be all about spin. The best qualification for the job would be time spent living on the minimum wage, time spent helping the homeless, time spent in an NHS hospital and a bloody good Economics degree. Even if they're still filthy rich they could at least have a look at how the other half lives. Whatever you think about Princess Di at least she took William and Harry to hostels and hospitals. So their life hasn't all been about falling out of Bouji's.

Vince Cable has a bloody good economics degree. He's also bloody useless.

Gordon Brown had many of the attributes you list: long time in an NHS hospital after his accident, long time living on student grants, good record of voluntary work, a PhD if not in economics but in political history of someone who definitely ticked all the boxes. He too was bloody useless.

'PR is the best qualification for the job' - only if you actually want your politics to be all about spin.

You're right, but it's not about we, the people, want. We don't have a say. The parties chose PR spin doctors and actors because they want to play out their spiel to us. They want to sell and spin their policies. They need someone who can read from a pager and put it across with enough pregnant pauses to fool the public. They want a 'straight kinda guy' like Blair, the sort of guy that enough of the public will fall for. Gordon Brown believed teh same sort of things as Blair, but he couldn't perform the role well enough to convince the audience. He should have gone to RADA, instead the result was nada.

I don't agree GB was bloody useless but there's no point having another post mortem on that. He was useless at spin certainly. But his experiences did give him an insight into people's lives, which probably informed innovations such as Sure Start centres and the big improvements in the NHS under the last govt. As far as economics goes, he is widely praised abroad for having saved everyone's bacon during the global economic crisis and stopping it becoming a total meltdown.

I can't see DC achieving any of the above.

Gordon Brown wasn't from a priveledged background but he was an awful Prime Minister who has caused the worst budgetary crisis outside of the two world wars so I wouldn't put too much weight behind past life experiences.

'he is widely praised abroad for having saved everyone's bacon during the global economic crisis and stopping it becoming a total meltdown'

he is widely praised by fellow progressives and the progressive papers, full of spin and global warming producing hot air. He is a legend in his own lunch box, but a joke in the eyes of others.

Cameron is a good PR person. He will achieve much more than Brown. Cameron has advisers behind him, it's not just him on his own. And don't forget, he has a crack team - Osborne and Gove.

Isn't California bankrupt?

Claig, no, you're just wrong on that. Obama, Sarkozy, and several other leaders all acknowledged that GB's decisive action averted a crisis. If I had time I'd find the links to prove it.

'Cameron is a good PR person. He will achieve much more than Brown.' Are you seriously saying that all you want in govt is good PR people? All it means is they're good at selling crap. And frankly, with the Murdoch press behind them, they barely need to lift a finger in PR terms.

As for Osborne and Gove as a crack team - LMAO. You cannot be serious.

Baildonwen, GB didn't 'cause the economic crisis' - how reductive can you get? There's been a global economic crisis, and I hardly think he could singlehandedly destroy the economy of Greece, Ireland, Portugal...

'Obama, Sarkozy, and several other leaders all acknowledged that GB's decisive action averted a crisis. If I had time I'd find the links to prove it.'

I agree, I remember that. But they are actors too. They patted Gordon on the back and boosted him up. They thought he looked down in the dumps, they didn't realise that his was normal look.

'As for Osborne and Gove as a crack team - LMAO. You cannot be serious.'
yes that was a slight jest.

Brown had been building up a structural deficit before the financial crisis so we were in a terrible position going into the crisis

'I hardly think he could singlehandedly destroy the economy of Greece, Ireland, Portugal...'

I think youa re underestimating Gordon 'Calamity' Clown.

"There's been a global economic crisis"

Caused by weak regulation of banks. And whose fault is that? Well, Clinton, the progressives' favourite, repealed Glass Steagall, against the advice of people to his right. And the UK banking sector, which is the largest in Europe, was regulated (or not) by Brown. Who did have the grace to admit that perhaps the deregulation had gone a little far.

that's right. They deliberately deregulated and turned a blind eye. They encouraged the credit bubble amd sat back and waited for the inevitable.

Brown actually said that he didn't realise what had been going on in the banks. That was acting. the progressive newspapers believed his every word, but others didn't.

This is what he said about his period in charge of regulation.

"In the 1990s, the banks, they all came to us and said, 'Look, we don't want to be regulated, we want to be free of regulation.' ... And all the complaints I was getting from people was, 'Look you're regulating them too much.'

"The truth is that globally and nationally we should have been regulating them more. So I've learnt from that."