"You would think we were in the final three months of a general election campaign, not three and a half years out. Everywhere you look there's a party leader giving a press conference. Demanding attention from a public that just wants to be given a break. Even the news channels are losing interest. Sending along a reporter more on the off-chance someone says something idiotic, than in any expectation of anyone committing hard news. Well, anything more idiotic than usual."
"Kemi's presser took place in a tiny annexe of the British Academy. There was barely enough room for three rows of chairs. The front row reserved for a smattering of shadow ministers, there under duress. Armed with instructions to nod vigorously and laugh and applaud in the right places. A thankless task as they couldn't even manage that. This was going to be an hour of their lives they would never get back. All out of some misplaced notion of duty."
Political parties are holding repeated press conferences long before an election, seeking attention and staging performances. Media coverage has become perfunctory, with reporters sent on the off-chance of a gaffe. The Conservative and Reform leaders appeared simultaneously in central London, creating a sense of Westminster talking to itself. Kemi Badenoch spoke in a cramped annexe at the British Academy, attended by reluctant shadow ministers instructed to applaud. The events felt contrived and performative, emphasizing patriotic imagery and slogans. Messaging framed economic harms as political narratives, while presentations often felt insignificant and disconnected from immediate public concerns.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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