Mayoral campaign videos online..

Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick have all released their campaign videos on Youtube. Westmonster had a quick gander and discovered some interesting contrasts:

Boris Johnson comes across as more Boris Karloff in his video. Shot in a rather sober black and white to show us the 'serious' side of Bojo, the suited and booted candidate treats viewers to a rather chaste listing of his proposed policies.

Through effusive gesticulations and a very serious look in his eyes, we hear how Boris will deal with issues such as the holes in London's roads, traffic congestion and the deaths of youngsters in the streets. He also promises to do something about London having the lowest recycling rate in The UK.

In comparison, Ken Livingstone's piece has all the colours of a rainbow. It begins with a perky Ken telling us about his love of the city's people and tries to sell Ken on the virtue of his being one of them. Next we hear how London is, "a model for the rest of the world", a statement that seems to be delivered with genuine sincerity. Unfortunately, this is followed by a shot of Livingstone skipping through the streets in gay abandon on his way to eat a greasy spoon fry-up (because he's a real Londoner).

For some reason the energy and imagery of the video seem quite similar to the version of London seen in the Austin Powers movies. It wouldn't be surprising if a troupe of dancers began to follow Livingstone around as he avoids the advances of myriad women and says things like 'yeah baby!'. It's a very groovy video. His policies concentrate on something to do with London's flowers, everybody being happy and, as one old dear states "going mad" if Kenny isn't re-elected - perhaps because there'll be more of these videos.

Finally, there's the video of Brian Paddick. If Livingstones view of the world is all rainbows and sunshine, Paddick seems to be all doom and gloom. Painting a very grim picture at the start of the piece, we hear that the number of murders and other crimes in the city are at a very disturbing level and that only one man can do something about it: enter Superman, excuse us, Brian Paddick.

Interviewing numerous scared locals on London's estates, including a Quasimodo-esque woman that is hiding in the bell tower shadows of her house, Paddick tells us how as an ex-Policeman he has walked "these streets" and is therefore able to do something about their problems. He even goes so far as to say that if he hasn't reduced crime by the end of his four year run he'll quit forever! It's very dramatic.

Perhaps what's really interesting is to take the three videos as a whole as they paint quite a picture of our country. At one end of the scale we have the groovy London utopia that Ken Livingstone inhabits, contrasted by the stark CCTV protected and fear-stricken version that Paddick lives in. In the middle somewhere we have those, like Boris, that are hiding away from the streets in some secluded room somewhere.

Maybe it all means something?

Written by Oli Anderson on 9 Apr 2008 11:30 AM. Permalink