Mr Putin's Strategy Prevails

Watching as much as I can bear of the election coverage it is striking how ineffective almost every gambit seems to be.  Fairly dramatic policy commitments are launched; incidents planned and unplanned strike the news editor's desk with enough force to command headline coverage; mighty gaffes are perpetrated; claim, counterclaim, downright lie and outright abuse are hurled; and all disappear from the scene in a welter of newly-minted nonsense, with a half-life of about an hour.

Postcard from Hell

It has been suggested that Mr Putin's over-arching strategy for managing politics in the era of the interweb (over which he exercises a lot less control than his Chinese counterparts) is to bombard all media with such a cacophony of high volume noise, the less coherent the better, so that confusion reigns and nobody believes anything.

(Nearer to home, I'd say that recent UK exponents of media management such as Campbell, Mandelson and Clifford, all essayed a similar strategy - but episodically; smokescreens deployed reactively at times of particularly awkward embarrassment for their clients and masters, rather than as an ongoing 24/7 way of life.  Modus operandi, rather than vivendi.)

Under the Putin doctrine the incumbent power is presumed to be the beneficiary as no opposition ever gains traction.

I wonder if Cameron, by design or otherwise, is in line to benefit from the same?  He doesn't even need to generate the hubub himself (though the Tories play their part) - his opponents do it for him, which might even add to its charm.

A good weekend to all.

ND

And so it starts with Salmond at the Fore

Finally, the UK Election hoves into view as the main chapter in the Nation's life for a few weeks.

It is for yourself to decide how welcome this (I am on hols for abroad 2 weeks of it, lucky me!) for your media viewing habits....

Interestingly though this time is that the minor parties are still far up the agenda. This as we know from the last election means a hung parliament is nailed on. With coverage the minor parties have their Oxygen.

Mr Salmond has led the way with his frankly bizarre rants about holding Westminster to ransom. They are less bizarre when you remember how bitter he is to have lost the referendum and with it his job last year. Now is the time for revenge on those pesky English, the bogey men who cost him his job by not being able to vote for him in an Scotland-only referendum.

So now he remains keen to be as obstructive as possible - he is lucky that with such a and tiny vote base on a single issue, his clarity of strategy is easy. Wind up the English, make it hell for Westminster, appear lefty and populist to garner the votes of the '45%.' Simples.

Rather more of a nightmare for Milliband and Cameron. For them too is the Farage outlier, roundly attacked in the press and every slight mistake jumped upon, the role of traditional English underdog beckons for the campaign. The harder the mainstream try, the more oxygen he gets and his vote base firms up. Plus of course, he can become the English anti-Salmond - always important to be a lucky General.

Meanwhile, Cameron produced a non-budget to save excitement for the manifesto, so squandering his last big set-piece and Milliband, well the less said about him the better (literally true, as Labour is so much more popular than its leader...).

The debates finally agreed have an odd structure but this will suit the Government, with so many and such an arcane format they will likely not have the impact of 2010 - so helping the incumbent.

Still though, the Campaign will be bitter and repetitive with so many voices heard and few of reason amongst them.