It's said that if you show a picture of a high-profile Opposition spokesman like George Osborne or Chris Grayling to the person in the street, they'll have trouble identifying them. This could well be true. And if it's true of the second biggest party, the Tories, then just think what a problem the smaller parties have with 'recognition factor'.
The Liberal Democrats took a humorous approach to the problem a few years ago when they realised that they had just enough MPs for a pack of cards. Their current leader Nick Clegg is probably worrying in private about losing a few of his Aces to his fellow players next time round... (By the way, what is he doing in that photo? Fans of FlashForward will find it very disturbing indeed.)
What about the minority parties - the Greens and UKIP, for example? Would you know the leader of UKIP if he walked up to you in the street? Probably not. Fair enough, really, as Lord Pearson has not been as high profile as his, ahem, colourful predecessor Nigel Farage.
One person who doesn't know his name is a lady called Julia Gasper. Or at least, she didn't, live on air on BBC Radio Oxford this week. Fair enough, you may be saying. Not a lot of people would be able to name the leader of UKIP. Yes - but unfortunately, Ms Gasper is the UKIP Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford East in the forthcoming General Election. Each of the other candidates in the studio - Steve Goddard for the Liberal Democrats, Andrew Smith for Labour and Edward Argar for the Conservatives - did a decent job standing up for their respective bosses. But Ms Gasper, who had just corrected presenter Bill Heine for a slip of the tongue in which he referred to Nigel Farage as the current and not the former leader, sat in silence when challenged by Mr Heine to put everyone straight by giving her current leader's name. It was one of those awful, cringeworthy moments of radio. Ms Gasper ran out of laughter and sat in silence. One can be pretty sure that the other candidates in the studio knew the answer and probably almost wanted to help her out...
X Marks The Box imagines that a crash course awaits her at UKIP HQ this weekend.
2 comments:
The leader of the Green Party is Caroline Lucas, one of the most recognizable English MEPs.
Kaihsu: Indeed, I know that and you know that, but does the voter in the street?
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