In April, Alistair Darling, the UK chancellor of the exchequer, made media history. To deliver a pre-Budget message he posted his own, DIY interview on YouTube. He avoided interrogation by the serious media and his own, unmediated effort still made it into all the news outlets.
Emboldened by this success, Gordon Brown, the prime minister, bravely tried the same trick last month with his planned reforms to MPs’ expenses. His eccentric delivery and insane grins ignited a media frenzy and the video became a cult hit on YouTube. But despite his poverty of execution, we should now ask, if UK politicians can reach millions of voters through the internet why do they need those awful televised party political broadcasts?
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