Arnie is Back!

Austrian passport holder Arnold Schwarzenegger has been elected Governor of California.

The ex-bodybuilder, Mr Universe and "actor" ousted incumbent governor, Gray Davis, when he was recalled over the state's financial woes.
The cult of celebrity is obviously rather strong in Californian politics, Ronnie Reagan was elected Governor there in 1966 and went on to become President.....

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In Britain we wouldn't be suckered into electing people just because they appeared on the telly would we?
Oh yes we would!
Britons elected Giles Brandreth to parliament for goodness sake, a man only famous for wearing colourful jumpers!
Actor Glenda Jackson is still there and, more recently, crusading BBC journalist Martin Bell was elected as an independent candidate. Independent candidates usually have no chance of being elected....

Is electing a showbiz politician going to lead to disaster? I don't think so.
We needn't actually worry about their ability to govern. People such as Arnie and Ronnie are usually just puppets and spokesmen for their teams of advisors who actually make policy. They are the "acceptable face" of the party machine.

So let's go the whole hog...
You want puppets? We got 'em!

Jones The Steam gets the railways on track.

How about Bob The Builder for minister of transport, he can fix the pot-holes in Britain's crumbling road system for sure. He might like to enlist the help of Jones The Steam from Ivor The Engine to look after the railways.

Trumpton provides rich pickings for our new government:

Home secretary is obviously the Mayor of Trumpton's destiny whereas Mr Troop the town Hall clerk would make an excellent Chancellor of the Exchequer (well, no worse then Gordon Brown anyway).
Meanwhile from Chigley, Farmer Bell is to be minister of agriculture whilst Captain Snort from Pippin Fort can look after the armed forces.

Popping over to Merrytwit (Charlie Chalk's island home) we can enlist Trader Jones as minister for trade and industry and Arnold the Elephant can be speaker of the house of Lords... or should that be Bagpuss?

The point is:
If we are going to have the country run by unelected backroom spinmeisters, why not have a photogenic face up front?

Under this new regime, there would be no room for unprepossessing looking politicians with no sense of humour or charisma.
Things don't look too good for Iain Duncan Smith do they?

© Winamop & DA 2003

Index of other old page 94s here.

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