Age shall not wither them nor the years condemn
What about that Menzies Cambell then, eh? What an idiot. Fancy being 66. Tosser. Everybody knows nobody ever did anything at the age of 66. Time to move on from trying to make the world a better place, Menzies, and time to get on with soiling yourself in a care home. He was marked as old and weak from the off and the lions of the media (can we use the word ‘pride’ in this instance?) dragged him down and had him for breakfast.
Unless there’s a World War on (Churchill was 70 in 1945), these old bastards can sod right off, can’t they? Yes, rather, we want our leaders to be young and thrusting. Take David Cameron. He’s 41 and the only proper job he had outside of politics was as a spin doctor for a failing television company (a ‘poisonous, slippery individual’, as he is fondly remembered by one journalist). Isn’t that the kind of person we want running our country? We need a salesman, someone with dynamism and who looks good on Facebook. That is the challenge of the 21st century.
Of course, David Cameron has no intention of ever being 66. He’s not a fool, for God’s sake. No doubt, having paid attention to this episode and mindful of the wishes of the public - or at least those who respond to opinion polls - Cameron, Gordon Brown, the Milibands, the Osbournes, the Burnhams, the Cleggs and the Huhnes will all hand in their resignations on the eve of their 66th birthdays and drag themselves off to a quiet spot to die. (’One way or another we will have Adrian Mole as Prime Minister,’ as Martin Bright puts it with no obvious sign of the terror you would have expected such a prophesy to engender.)
This just feeds into my theory that we’re on the cusp of a new Dark Age (if we’re not there already). Like Europe in the Middle Ages, we’re at the mercy of swaggering, inexperienced princelings. Ignorance and fear hold sway. I think another one of the seven seals might have been opened this week.
Us little people can all relax though. We’re clearly terrified and mistrusting of old age and those stupid enough to reach it. That must be true, the opinion polls say so, and evidence is abundant that we hate old people almost as much as we hate teenagers.
And so we’re making sure we’ll all be dead of obesity- and alcohol-related diseases long before the disgrace of our 66th birthdays arrive. Embrace that wheezing, coughing, waddling death. It’s a lot more dignified than doing it the Menzies Campbell way, isn’t it? What the hell was he thinking, fighting that non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma? He should have just rolled over and died and spared us all the embarrassment.
Update: Vince Cable sees sense, the old, unphotogenic bastard:
He said that given, “the current irrational prejudice about age” he had concluded that, “an older candidate is not electable”.
That might be Vince’s cover for other shortcomings but it’s no less true for all that.
Posted on October 17th, 2007 at 10:19 am
| See also • Apocalypsewatch: An occasional series • Brown vs Cameron: It’s a toss up • As desperation takes hold |
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As a child of the 40s myself I have a lot of sympathy for Ming but it has to be said that his age seemed to be more of an issue with him than with the rest of us. Sure, he got ribbed, but this is politics after all. Ashdown is actually older than Campbell but doesn’t seem to suffer the same ageist abuse.
All that has happened in the Lib Dems is that the fight for control which led to the demise of Kennedy suffered a postponement while Ming held things together for a while. Now that he’s not even managing to do that very well the struggle has restarted.
Campbell was always going to be an interim leader and this seems as good a time as any to move on. Far more important than Ming’s demise is the question of who takes over and where this leads the Lib Dems at a time when, given the Cameron/Brown Punch and Judy show we have now passing for political debate, we need a strong third party more than ever.
Having said that I completely agree with the main thrust of the piece.
Anyway, I must go, the home-help has just arrived to tie my shoelaces.
I fear you got out of bed on the wrong side today Yoghurt.
Any update on whether Ming wears sock suspenders or not?
the liberals have a remarkable ability to self destruct but as you say, he was on a hiding to nothing
Yeah Mike, Ashdown may be older than Campbell, but he’s not bald is he? He looks younger. Plus, he’s not actually the leader of the Lib Dems and hasn’t been for some time.
Nice one, and that is exactly what I thought, I was like 66, that’s not that old. But it is nice to know that bloggers (in this case Lib Dem ones) can bring down a party leader (that’s what the BBC were attributing the new calls for his resignation to before the actual announcement)
So in essence, it was the media wot done it. Which doesn`t surprise me - in his interview with Nick `Affable` Robinson, Ming said that he’d had 6 separate interviews a week or two ago and every one raised the issue of age and/or leadership. The modern breed of meeja journos have small braynes indeed, and have to follow the mainstream consensus or face the sack.
Seems that the Libdems really only have one realistic option - step forward Charles Kennedy! See the petition at -
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/kennedystheman/index.html
- and do the right thing!
Ashdown may be older than Campbell, but he’s not bald is he? He looks younger.
Erm, that was my point.
Is it ageism or howoldyoulookism?
Ashdown no longer the leader? Damn, I missed that one.
Abdul-Rahim’s nailed it. Ming: bald. Hague: bald. IDS: bald. Blair: left office while starting to bald.
If I were a psephologist, I’d be cosying up to Dave’s and Gordon’s barbers.
What bothers me is it brings the spooky rightwinger Chris Huhne closer to power and thereby boosts the career of his sidekick, my loathsome stepmother Sharon Bowles MEP.
In the age of TPM (Total Policy Merger) these things ARE important, in fact they are the ONLY thing that is important. Ming wasnt dumped because of ageism he was dumped because he and his party were devoid if policy.
Bring back the pisshead or the guy who goes out with a Cheeky Girl. This is how low Brit-politics has sunk. Excessive mediocrity by politicians that have sunk to a common neo-liberal denominator, and you expect people to vote for them?
Churchill was born in 1881, moron.
Churchill was born in 1874, moron.
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