Calling yourself names

The ever increasing depths politicians abseil into trying to say much while avoiding meaning and commitment, noted many years ago by Orwell (yes, him again) were explored in a different way in this ABC article. One passage stood out.

Kevin Rudd set out to convince us of his economic conservatism in the 2007 campaign by shooting an ad in which he simply told us he was: "People have called me an economic conservative. And it's a badge I wear with pride."

(Later, according to an account by Herald journalist Peter Hartcher in his book 'To The Bitter End', Labor's national secretary Tim Gartrell anxiously double-checked with Google that people had really called Rudd an economic conservative. He found two instances; one where The Australian's Paul Kelly had called Mr Rudd an economic conservative, and one where Mr Rudd had called himself an economic conservative. "That'll do," thought Gartrell.)

What more can you say?

Leaving aside the politics, both Rudd and his successor Julia Gillard are language disasters. Rudd spoke like a middle level civil servant - the one that, when speaking, makes a brief meeting feel like an ice-age - while Gillard as Prime Minister has a dreadful habit of over using a phrase, and making herself sound like the trainee junior project gofer who has read the mission statement but just doesn't get it. Yet both are clearly intelligent and articulate people outside this job.

James