I blame Rory Bremner

he had *such* a good impression of Paddy Ashdown that it built a TV entertainment profile for him that led Paddy onto things like HIGNFY. Charles Kennedy thought that looked a jolly good idea, and nailed it and turned that popularity into a real-world boost for his party.

Every fecking politician ever since has tried to do the same and so we have Boris and Farage as "popular" leaders with a big "PR brand" and people voting for them on the basis that at least they've heard of them and seen them on TV lots.

Posted By: CWC, Sep 5, 13:31:31