What do you think?

OK my post on the statement "Lipstick on a pig" which has been used by both Presidential candidates has caused a little bit of a stir so I've set up a poll to gauge public opinion. I can see four reasons why it may be used. With my current readership spanning both sides of the pond results may well be interesting. First up the context:

"John McCain says he's about change too, and so I guess his whole angle
is,'Watch out George Bush -- except for economic policy, health care policy,
tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics --
we're really going to shake things up in Washington.'

"That's not change. That's just calling something the same thing
something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but
it's still a pig. You know you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called
change, it's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same
old thing."

First up is as stated here the context in which Barak Obama used the phrase was purely about McCain's change being an ineffective cover up to Bush's policies for the last eight years.

Next having seen the full statement you could side with the Republican camp who say "Obama was referring to Gov. Sarah Palin. It's obviously disrespectful and offensive.Who has been talking about lipstick lately? It was obvious."

Thirdly it's like that last song you hear in the morning before getting into work, you know the one, that one you can't get out of your heard no matter how bad it is. But somehow later on you can't help humming along of making some oblique reference to it.

Finally while a google search for Lipstick on a pig brings up 490,000 searches try adding Iraq and you get 190,000 searches alone. The phrase has been used by many American commentators on many different issues, including both Presidential candidates in the past on more than one occasion. Therefore while not as common as goggling it is an idiom in both Barack Obama and John McCain. John Edwards used it similarly to Obama to talk down Bushes job creation strategy in 2004 and Dick Cheney also used it that year.

So over to you, you decide.

Lipstick on a Pig: The Porcine of the Species

Well neither Barak Obama nor John McCain were first to coin the phrase "putting lipstick on a pig" though both have used it it was first cited in the online Urban Dictionary as far back as August 10, 2004; when it was defined as:

A term used by many, generally in reference to someone who may be trying to make something or someone look appealing or attractive when it quite clearly will not work, or will only deceive the dumbest of people.

Although Time magazine ran a story ran a story on the history of the phrase and it first sprung from funding for an American football stadium in 1985.

"One of the oldest published quotes using the entire phrase appeared in
The Washington Post in November 1985. Asked by the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors to put his station's $20,000 fundraiser earnings toward the
renovation of Candlestick Park, KNBR personality Ron Lyons scoffed, "That would
be like putting lipstick on a pig."

Well there's no doubt this idiom survived the collision of two words and thoughts to conjure up a phrase that has a specific use and parlance. This evolution of language has seen the word survive and be fit to be used by both candidates during this election cycle. So why the brouhaha over it's use? Has it really become a term of sexist abuse as the latest attack ads on US TV would have us believe? Lets look into the context of how both Senator's use the phrase.

The first use was by the Senator from Arizona not as they may have you believe by the one from Illinois. It was actually made in the context of a female opponent. As CNN reports it was John McCain who first used the phrase:

In Iowa last October, McCain drew comparisons between Hillary Clinton's current
health care plan and the one she championed in 1993: "I think they put some
lipstick on the pig, but it's still a pig." He used roughly the same line in
May, after effectively claiming the Republican nomination.

Now look at the alleged sexist use of the phrase by Barak Obama on Monday in Virginia.

"John McCain says he's about change too, and so I guess his whole angle is,
'Watch out George Bush -- except for economic policy, health care policy, tax
policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics -- we're
really going to shake things up in Washington.'

"That's not change. That's just calling something the same thing something
different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You
know you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it's still
going to stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing."

Now maybe McCain spokesman Brian Rogers can tell me what he thinks is the "big difference" between the two references. He says:

"McCain was referring to a policy proposal. Obama was referring to [Alaska]
Gov. Sarah Palin. It's obviously disrespectful and offensive.

"Who has been talking about lipstick lately? It was obvious. The crowd
went crazy because of it."

Erm well lets take a careful look at those two paragraphs of text from Barak. He starts by stating he is talking about McCain, about his lining up with Bushes policy in Washington. Now as Sarah Palin who actually described herself (and all hockey moms) as a pitbull with lipstick, loves to remind us she isn't one of the Washington set. So clearly she cannot be lining up change in line with those policies i.e. putting lipstick on a pig.

He carries on after the first analogy with a second about fish in paper still stinking after 8 years again a reference to the Bush policies that McCain has supported. The context is complete on either side of the edit that is doing the rounds in republican circles and on the airwaves in the States. Fortunately as the Huffington Post points out many in the media are not so easily fooled or deceived like the dumbest people.

No where in what Obama said does he refer to, nor hint at, Governor Palin. Of course McCain only started talking about "change" after the Democratic candidates in the primaries got mileage from it. Surely instead of a sexism charge which has no foundation in truth a trades description violation should be levelled at the McCain camp.

One senator used the phrase "putting lipstick on a pig" in relation to a female opponent. But the female opponent in question Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't take offence at it, nor use it to turn the tables on the man who said it, because Hillary is more of a man about it that McCain, Brian Rogers or his campaign team are.

You Better Knock, Knock, Knock on Doors

On Monday Ideas of Civilisation posted an interesting piece on his blog called "Should politicians have to contact voters?". It caused a little bit of debate in the comments thread of which I partook. Well yesterday I noticed this challenge issued by Nick Clegg which takes up just that point.

Nick points out as with IoC that most people feel alienated with politicians, I can vouch for that from the contact I have had with people on the doorstep. They rarely see their politician and in some instances have gone many years without any direct contact with a member of any political party coming to them before I turned up. Too often it seems that politicians especially in what are conceived to be safe seats take their electorate for granted and fail to connect.

Nick points out that he also feels the best way to engage with people is to go and talk to them saying:

"I'm passionate about connecting with people. Talking with them, listening to them, and learning from them. That is why since I became Leader I've been holding Town Hall meetings in constituencies across the country. And that is why at our conference in Bournemouth I will be challenging our party to knock on at least a million doors between the end of conference and Polling Day for the Local [in parts of England] and European elections. It is a tough challenge, but one which I am confident that we are more than capable of meeting.

"For Liberal Democrats calling on people to talk to them isn't just about elections and votes. It is about understanding what matters to residents in our communities. Our opponents often deride us for listening to the very real concerns of voters about local issues. But it is something to be proud of that we take seriously such concerns and, more importantly, work to act on them. This is what community politics is all about; and this is what makes us different from the other parties. Community politics rightly lies at the heart of our party and the way in which we do politics."

I totally agree, while you yourself may be somewhat tuned in to the concerns at a certain level you can get caught up too much in the high level, high profile politics. So without direct contact with non-political people you can miss an underlying groundswell of opinion from residents, concerned parents, the elderly or some other group in your society. A number of people have at times said to me that they feel that Lib Dem policies are often common sense, although sometimes followed by the phrase but I can't see myself voting for you. I think the fact that Lib Dem politicians and activists do engage with people is partly why our policies do form common sense, we hear both sides of the argument before going to conference to shape policy and the direction our party will take.

I for one will be out and about on doorsteps but I can't do a million on my own of course.

Two Knights. So What?

We're Knights of the Round Table,
We dance when ere we're able,
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable.*

From Monty Phyton and the Holy Grail and Spamalot

Well it really takes the biscuit when Nats Jeff have to compare the knights heading up the respective Commission/Futures Trust on either side of the debate.

Jeff goes out of his way to disparage the achievement of Sir Kenneth Calman. Yes unlike Sir Angus Grossart he is not involved in the world of business or economics but that hardly means he is not qualified to pass a dispassionate eye over the future of our country. Sir Kenneth has been Chair of Cancer Research in Scotland, Chief Medical Officer both for the UK Dept of Health and here in Scotland as well as holding senior posts at both Durham and now Glasgow Universities. He's also currently President of the Boys Brigade.

Sir Angus is a lawyer turned merchant banker, now Vice Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Has been Chairman of the National Gallaries of Scotland, as well as being Chairman of the Fine Arts Society and Lyon and Turnbill auctioneers.

Both seem able to carry out carry out cognitive function at the highest level, both have experience of leadership, both have shown a diversity in interests. I don't think it does anyone justice to accuse someone appointed to chair a review that they may not agree with of being an inferior product to the one that they do. Not when the evidence is there that both have strengths.

*I have to admit before writing and researching this piece fully I'd used this quote before reading here "[Sir Angus's] interest in architecture has taken him far afield, from Crusader castles in Syria to the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu in Peru" pure coincidence I assure you.

World Still Exists! Is this Due to One Way Traffic?

OK the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been fired up, but before everyone breathes too big a sigh of relieve protons are currently only going in one direction. you see they having starting the ones going in the other direction yet, nor the deflection of the two once they hit full speed.

Not that I'm necessarily a doom sayer but rumours of the Earth's survival have yet to be cleared up, counted clarified and appraised after the scientists make crash test dummies of us all.

So just in case you haven't received* the directions from Prak on how to get to God's final message to his creation written in large letters of fire I'll let you into a little secret.

Meanwhile in tribute to the words of Michael Caine we ask the scientists to only blow the doors off and keep to that remit.

UPDATE: Since I wrote this I got to thinking. If LHC is trying to replicate the bib bang surely the least likely outcome would be that we'd get sucked into a quantum singularity or a black hole. Surely at the point of big bang there be explosion not implosion and we end up getting scattered to the ends of the galaxy waiting for the micro gravity of our component parts to cohere together to form glubs of mass somewhere out in the void. So it looks like it may not be a Vogon Construcutor Fleet we have to worry about after all. People of earth your attention please.

* That includes Scottish Tory Boy for one, more than likely, based on this. Though not Holyrood Patter.

All Silent from Nats on Pay Front

You probably won't read much about this in the Scottish blogosphere as there only a few small voices of non-SNP out here. But you'll hear even less about this from the Scottish Government themselves in fact so far they have "said nothing at all" with regard to the public sector pay dispute.

As today's Scotsman points out there are two reasons for this, first is the one they would have you believe is the one they want to lay the firmly at the feet of Westminster, must particularly Alistair Darlings reticent, and increasingly indefensible stance, over the 2% cap on public sector pay increases. The second however is that even if they wanted to break the salary cap all local authorities in Scotland are hamstrung by the SNP called for, and taken up, freeze on council tax increases and would have to rely on Holyrood to provide extra funding to do so.

So while the SNP, if they were in opposition, would be up in arms demanding action for Scots struggling to make ends meet they cannae of will nae act to allow public sector workers employed by local authorities to have a fair inflation compensatory wage. So while low wages is an argument the Nats cannot win the Scotsman is expecting us to see them attack Westminster on the inflationary prices ignoring the fact it takes two to tango.

Meanwhile of course on Newsnight Scotland the other week all three of the Labour leadership candidates defended the right for a fair wage for the public sector workers. So whoever comes to lead them this weekend Labour in Scotland may well be supporting strike action this winter in opposition to their Westminster colleagues while the Nats will be siding with Gordon Brown and Mr Darling. Oh what a tangled web that could create this autumn.

Scottish Tory Boy's Long Lost Weekend

Yeah last Wesdnesday he told us he was taking a break but now he's back looks like a long, lost weekend to me.

Here is my ode (the radio version) to STB, apologies to Lloyd Cole and his excellent Lost Weekend.

It took a long weekend in a flat in Edinburgh
Staring in space in a single room
And the sickest joke was the price of the laptop
Are you blogging at me now may I please blog along with you

This morning I woke up from a deep unquiet sleep
With ashtray clothes and missed my laptops screen
With which I wrote for you top ten Scottish blog
Upon my screen 'twas stolen from me when I logged off from you

You see I, I wouldnt blog it if I didnt mean it
Google me, I'll fall to pieces too easily
I was a STB with a head full of blog ideas
Wrote my heart on my blog like a stain
My aim was to inform you
Could we meet in the parliament
Did I ever hey please did you link to me
You see I, I wouldnt blog it if I didnt mean it

Google me, I'll fall to pieces
Yes it's too easy and theres nobody else to blame
Will I hang my head in a crying shame
There is nobody else to blame nobody else except my sweet self

Again it took a long weekend in a flat in Edinburgh
Twenty four gone years to conclude in tears
That the sickest joke was the price of the laptop
Are you blogging at me now
May I please blog along

I was STB with a head full of blog ideas
And unashamed wrote my blog with Tory ideals
And your STB was a link upon your blog
You linked to me when I linked to you
You see I, I wouldnt blog it if I didnt mean it
Dropped out me just needed to blog again you see.