Birds Of The Same Feather

Are flocking together at Tony Blair's campaign stops. And they are all birds hired and 'bussed in' by the Labour Party. Mysterious because no one knows where the next campaign stop will be - apart from the party cogs. Read about how Blair is using a trick from His Master's bag here (via Deccan Herald). More generally, the article illustrates how politicians, the wily lot, are busy sharing tricks and techniques in politics and electioneering.

The trick - apart from vote fraud which in its different forms is fairly well entrenched in all great and not so great nations by now - which Bush has handed over to his good friend Blair is this: only those people who will cheer for him should be present at his public meetings. All those nitwits who are likely to pose tough, uncomfortable questions are to be excluded.

Relevant excerpt from the article :

Prime Minister Blair ensures that he does not come face to face with the electorate or the politicians. He achieves this by refusing to advertise in advance where he will be campaigning on any given day. Like all great dictators he hides behind the excuse that his security is the issue, and that he is not trying to avoid questions from hostile voters or acerbic members of the Press.
...
When Mr Blair turns up at some pre-arranged meeting place, the party makes sure that the crowd consists exclusively of loyal supporters who have been bussed in specially. For the most part they consist of canvassers in a particular constituency who are told not to bother putting leaflets through doors, but to turn up at the local town hall for a special event. From there they are taken to where Mr Blair will be present.

Labour's successful pre-election tactics are now being copied by Conservative opposition leader Michael Howard. What neither Mr Blair nor Mr Howard want is for their appearance at a school or a factory to be hijacked by the Press asking uncomfortable questions about the issue of the day.
...
Analysts believe Mr Blair's tactics are modelled on those of US President George Bush whose own pre-election strategy was to avoid any possible ambush by hostile voters. Each audience before whom he appeared was allowed to be filmed, but no reporters were allowed to ask questions.

The part about people being 'bussed in' rings a faint bell - could Blair have got this idea from the land of snakes and elephants?

The article fails to mention one thing though. Bush has apparently found this technique so successful that he is still using it to sell his ideas to his countrymen. And it consists not just in denying reporters the chance to ask questions, but in actually throwing out anyone who could be expected to do so - ask questions I mean. Read about it here!

I think part of the problem is television. It wouldn't look good - the PM being asked tiresome questions again and again and not having a really good answer. What about the WMD, Mr Prime Minister? And the postal vote fraud down in Birmingham? Anyone who has seen the White House press conferences would have noticed it. The choice of who asks the next question is with Bush, or the White House official, or whoever is taking the questions. And thus a tough one could be followed by a friendly one which allows the spin to be put right back in. The whole thing rings hollow.

Blair and the Labour Party have a good enough lead over their rivals so they would have probably won even if the muzzle was not on. They just could "not resist the temptation" I guess.

How long before our politicians stop taking tough questions?