The Conservatives had Major, not only did he appear to be a personality free zone, but he was around at peak Spitting Image, who amplified these defects. No programme will ever have the same impact again.
Spitting Image certainly had impact, but we're still very much in an age where the media has massive influence. MASSIVE. Politicians are incredibly scared of speaking out on issues where they fear the media might get upset, such as road transport and traffic. By way of a quick rant, road issues are in desperate need of major attention, but politicians know that a great many journalists are petrolheads, so they simply dare not tackle road travel properly. I mean, everyone on this forum knows that train drivers dare not exceed speed limits these days, yet road driving is so different. Drive on an uncongested motorway at 70mph and far more cars will overtake you than you will overtake. (That's if you're not lane-hogging ie causing obstruction, which a lot of people seem to regard as less of an offence than that of overtaking on the inside, as made necessary by that obstruction). Or drive through an uncongested town at the speed limit and you will guarantee to annoy drivers behind you who want to go faster. In other words, the MAJORITY of car drivers willingly break the law with almost complete impunity. Okay, I'm not perfect myself but why oh why can cars not be limited at production, to a maximum speed of 90mph, when that's ample for every safety and legal reason there is? And why can they not be fitted with devices which cut power when following too close to the vehicle in front, which is the cause of most of our 35 deaths every single week, plus many more life changing injuries? Why can drivers not have mandatory re-tests every ten years? The list goes on, and although some of these things have (minor) counter arguments, these things are barely even looked at, because of the fear of bad press. And yet when you think about it, other people's driving, and other people's parking are huge on the list of things that annoy people, often leading to very nasty disputes, road rage, frustrations, injuries and deaths. (Apologies for the rant, but I've worked in road travel for many years, in receipt of vast numbers of complaints and I could say a lot more about political disinterest!).
Talking of a personality free zone, I have nothing particular against Andy Murray, but here is another example of media power. I'd venture to suggest that he is perhaps the John Major of sport, yet he won BBC Sports PERSONALITY of the year THREE times. And perhaps someone could tell me what gives our tabloid newspapers who are often unspeakably biased, the right to give strongly worded political opinion, when our future King, whose mother has been having a weekly audience with the Prime Minister for the last 70 years (and thus arguably has a valid understanding of some issues), can be openly roasted by those same tabloids, simply for making an occasional comment IN PRIVATE?
So to conclude, yes, sadly it's all about what our media says. It is those senior political Party members who know how to best manipulate our reporters, who will hold the key to No.10 at the next General Election. And if charisma has to come with being hugely self-centred, disregard for the law etc, then perhaps we as voters ought to be thinking about whether we're right to value charisma above integrity.
