Opinion
cally unlimited number of ways to par- a good ground game on election day, a issue of campaign finance remains criti-
ticipate in the campaign and raised the serious candidate and a Prime Minister cal. Labour should not need to rely on
expectation of what it means to be a sup- talking about issues that mattered to the rich donors and businesses. There have
porter. Over 6 million people signed up! voters, ensured a victory. been too many recent scandals, involv-
The social-networking model provided The Obama experience, however, ing both major parties. Public trust and
Obama with something that previously, heralds a new era of political fund-rais- confidence in the political process has
candidates had always lacked: a means ing and campaigning. We need to break declined.
of capturing excitement and translating new ground in the UK especially when Obama has shown that raising
it into money. young people are not engaging, the finance, encouraging activism, using
The recent by-election in Glenrothes electorate is changing, party member- social networks and reconnecting with
was a real success for Labour. Mood, ship is declining, and the media can too the public are transformative processes
morale and momentum, combined with often be cynical and undermining. The that could renew our democracy. HM
KEITH AITKEN
keithaitken@holyrood.com
In limbo
W
ith that unerring, nay uncanny, merely a more glamorous extension of voodoo doll, the must-have political sou-
talent for being in the right place their own country. venir of the year after M. le Président was
at the right time that is the mark of the French newspaper coverage was silly enough to sue the distributors, I sud-
truly great reporter, I managed to spend inquisitive, fastidious and full of fact. It was denly realised why sobriety had followed
the week of the US elections and the also, for France, uncommonly consistent in so swiftly upon elation. When I was in
Glenrothes by-election in the only hotel tone. There must surely have been a French France last year, it was Sarkozy who
in France without cable TV. publication somewhere that wanted a symbolised a dazzling new dawn. Today,
The craving for news of the hustings Republican win, but I never found it. Even they queue to ridicule him. Great hope,
became narcotic. Just occasionally, in a the infallibly Gaullist Le Figaro noted that the French know, can become great dis-
wasteland of witless cartoons and game- the rest of the world had already chosen appointment.
shows (the French watch a version of between the candidates, and that French Which brings us to Scotland. Per-
Countdown that makes ours look scholarly), voters had polled three-to-one in favour haps to your surprise, certainly to mine,
I’d stumble on one of those frantic Gal- of Obama. After the result, it was pleased Le Monde and Figaro both ran substantive
lic studio discussion programmes where to reassure its conservative readership that features from what the latter charmingly
the camera chops restlessly between “avec Obama, l’Amerique n’a pas viré à gauche.” called “l’ancienne ville minière de Glenrothes”.
close-ups of ear-lobes and trouser cuffs In an interview, Dominique Villepin, prime Both declared it a key test for Gordon
to denote immediacy. These distractions minister under Chirac and caustic critic of Brown. Le Monde, which devoted the
did nothing to help my pedestrian facil- Bush’s Iraq rampage, cheerily explained whole of page three (Dateline: Carden-
ity with the language keep pace.
O
null
ne
why he preferred Barack Obama to Nico- den), was fascinated by the marital cam-
US election night brought no live
wonders las Sarkozy. paign duo of Les Brown, a good name for
coverage on channels available to me. It
despairingly
Le Monde, voice of the centre-left, took a fifties guitar virtuoso. But both also rec-
was maddening. For a while my daugh-
how the
a broadly similar line, remarking that ognised the significance for Alex Salmond
ter gamely sent snippets from home
British
rarely had a US President acceded to such and observed how tumbling banks had
(“McCain took Kentucky, Obama Ver- relief as would Bush’s successor. Its enthu- changed the political landscape. Despite
mont”) but even the supplest texting
press would
siasm for Obama (“quelle intelligence, quelle the odd minor error, both pieces were
thumb in Glasgow had succumbed to
have
maestria, quel sang-froid”) was inevitably cogent, relevant and lengthy. One won-
sleep before the result was settled. Only covered an less restrained than Figaro’s, and it trum- ders despairingly how the British press
with the breakfast news did it finally
equivalent
peted the result, “Happy New Century!” would have covered an equivalent French
become clear that history had been
French vote
In the Champs-Elysées, French Africans vote. Figaro thought Labour would prob-
made in the night. danced election night away, while in Lyon ably lose, Le Monde was less sure.
Thank heavens for the printed press, a Moroccan restaurant near our hotel The count came too late for either
which provided acres of superb report- filled its window with a poster of the taut, Friday issue, and I learned the outcome
age and analysis both before and after
null
earnest face that, by next day, stared from from (unsolicited plug) Holyrood’s e-news-
Obama’s triumph. Yes folks, despite every cover on the newsstand. letter on my BlackBerry. It was impossible
their Francocentric reputation, the Yet by Friday, a distinct mood-change to resist comparisons. Even with the ini-
papers read by the cheese-eating sur- was taking place, again with equal force tial elation starting to subside, Obama’s
render monkeys (copyright: The Simpsons) on left and right. Increasingly, the writ- win felt unmistakeably like the beginning
were every inch as fascinated by this con- ing was of the awesome weight of of something. It seemed much less clear
test as their British counterparts, with expectation and challenge now resting that morning whether Glenrothes was a
the added virtue of lacking the latter’s on those bony shoulders. Queuing in a beginning or an end, a hope reborn or
tiresomely incurious view of the US as bookshop to invest €12.95 in a Sarkozy fading. To be honest, it still does. HM
36
| 17 November 2008 | Holyrood magazine | www.holyrood.com |
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