So the Sion Simon “spoof” David Cameron piece has been pulled following a great outcry (well, maybe not…). Everyone’s focused on the line where Simon (as Cameron) implored people to sleep with his wife and take home his children, but there’s a more than just that.

Disregarding whether it was offensive (a matter for David Cameron and his family to say, not me), what a lot of people have ignored is that it totally missed the target. The image and persona that Webcameron is trying to generate is very much the inoffensive concerned family man - not setting himself out either as a “with it” yoof baseball cap-wearing bloke in a cheap T-shirt, but as this ordinary bland bloke who helps out with the washing up. As far as I know (i.e. according to Google Image search), David Cameron hasn’t even ever worn a baseball cap for a photo op - perhaps mindful of how much of a tit his Shadow Foreign Secretary made himself look when he tried it.

If there is anyone who is valiantly trying to “get down with the kids” a bit too much it’s Sion Simon himself, who seems to be the person responsible for having stolen Shaun Ryder’s Happy Mondays-era hair, and who still thinks that it’s in fashion 17 years on; he looks (and sounds) like your bank’s assistant manager appearing on Stars In Their Eyes. His rattled and defensive interview on Sky News is worth a watch, not only for the attempt to cling onto the coat-tails of his bigger and harder mate Tom Watson, “the computer blogger” (as he puts it), but also for the deliberately hurt tone as he puts on, as he labels Cameron “egregious” and “nakedly shallow”. It’s straight out of sixth-form debating society, the “I’m going to talk as if he drowned live puppies in front of me” act, made all the more hilariously implausible by the fact the “family man” spiel Cameron has tried on is exactly the same game that Blair himself has played.

Despite what those saying it’s “a new low”, it’s not actually all bad. This is a direct consequence of when we, us bloggers and grassroots types, ask our politicians to engage with the web and communicate directly - we find out that little bit more quickly how quite crap they actually are. I just hope that the rest won’t be too discouraged by Sion Simon’s unfortunate example and are more forthcoming as well.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 23:00:03 and is filed under General.