Saturday Slump

You can tell there's not much going on on the domestic political front at the moment, given that the top story is a Tory pledge to ensure children get two hours free sports lessons a week.

I don't think there's much to be said on this. It's hardly a vote winner, and it's not going to motivate people to pay more attention to the political process. A reasonable policy, but hardly ground breaking. Labour are still selling off those playing fields just like the Tories did, so I hardly have any sympathy with them on this matter. But sport does need to keep being emphasised in schools... so if it's being talked about, it's better than nothing.

While more problems emerge in the Middle East, it is probably best if politicans tone down the politicking for a few days. But it has been suspiciously quiet of new policies for the past few days, so I'm rather expecting it to be slightly busier next week. Of course, the simple problem is that Middle East woes in Israel cannot be exploited electorally, so the Tories will have little to say on things like this.

I have always wondered what events like this, where the only reaction the media is interested in is one from the "office" of the Prime Minister, rather than one from the person holding the office - i.e. the message will be broadly non-partisan and representative of the nation. The problem is that this kind of event, reinforced by the media, makes people get used to seeing, as in this case, Tony Blair being the man with the Only British Opinion on this issue, which is normally one people can find it very difficult to disagree with.

In such cases like this, it gives a tiny edge to an incumbent government... because it allows people who may not normally agree with him a chance to actually agree with him! Perhaps this has an impact on what people's opinions are of him... "he's a nice man really" sort of thing.

Or maybe not.