An April Fool That I Want To Be True

Oh The Guardian, how you make me giggle. This is perhaps the best - and therefore most disappointing April Fool's Joke I have read in a looong time.

I'm not a huge fan of Gordon Brown the politician. I think he works himself too hard; I think his smile is much too forced; I think he's not particularly brilliant at being decisive. And in terms of wowing the media, he's not been great.

But he is definitely the Ying to David Cameron's Yang. And portraying himself as being more of a bruiser than Cameron might well work. Big Bully Brown vs Nice Guy Dave? It's the whole "clunking fist" idea, and whilst it wouldn't guarantee Labour a comfy majority, the Guardian's posters strike me as being very good publicity.

Yes, they're a joke. But it's not often you see a joke with such good design, and such witty incisive writing. I particularly liked this section:

"Possible confrontations under discussion include pushing Andrew Marr out of the way while passing him on a staircase, or thumping the back of Jeremy Paxman's chair so hard that he flinches in shock."

It's not often someone rattles Paxman, is it? Though winding him up is a different matter.

I really hope the Labour posters do at least try and capitalise on this, because one of the easiest - if perhaps unfair - ways to attack both Cameron and Osborne is their relative inexperience. Cameron himself has only held one other position in the Shadow Cabinet, and that was Education Secretary: if he gets in, he'll be the first Prime Minister not to have served in government or in more than one of the "top four" Shadow Cabinet posts (Blair was Shadow Home Secretary for two years).

Finally, here's my idea for a Lib Dem poster...

Not as easy as it looks! Heh.

Chris