Strong and stable: Can the Tories really keep up this mantra for six weeks?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh. I cannot take it. If I ever again hear the phrase “strong and stable leadership” from Theresa May or another senior Tory I will vote for Jeremy Corbyn (*).
Traditionally, parties use the same slogan repeatedly so that it sinks in with the voters. When the journalists and then the public grow tired of it, only then is it deemed to have connected. Keep saying it. This is basic marketing. But even so the Tories are pushing it this time, with the most ambitious MPs putting the Blessed Theresa’s words of wisdom on their phones as a ring-tone. That’s not true, the ring-tone bit, and I wish I hadn’t suggested it because I have now planted the idea in the head of ambitious Tory male MPs who love being talked firmly to by the Prime Minister.
All they say, over and over again, is that Theresa May stands for “strong and stable leadership” against a potential “coalition of chaos” involving Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon, Caroline Lucas and Owen Jones of the Guardian. Usually these phrases are mind-numbing by the end of a campaign. This time it is too much before the election proper has even started.
Incidentally, I had a strong and stable breakfast earlier. Later, at the end of a day writing, I will have a strong and stable pint in one of my favourite pubs. I will avoid the pub much further along the road, which has a rougher crowd, because it is run by a coalition of chaos and is full of confused former UKIP voters jostling unhappily with ever growing numbers of bearded gentrification pioneers. I fear an outbreak of violence soon, in which hummus (only £7.99 with three bite-size oatcakes) is thrown.
Back to the election campaign. How deep are the nation’s reservoirs of boredom? Can the Tories really keep this “strong and stable” mantra up for six weeks? Yes, they probably can, thanks to the pitiful state of the Labour party.
It may also be that the election is just done, and that the extraordinary bond Theresa May has formed with voters will work magic for her enraptured party. She has Tories, former Ukippers and former Labour leavers in the north and Wales. That’s almost half the electorate. On that basis, perhaps the robotic mantra will not annoy people other than hacks, although on BBC Question Time last night an exasperated audience member raised it.
Most likely, people will try to tune out of the campaign and then turn up to vote for “strong and stable leadership,” partly just to make the election stop.
Aaaaaaaaaagh.
(*) I probably won’t vote for Jeremy Corbyn, what with him being sympathetic to the IRA and communism and in favour of bankrupting the country.
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