Dale’s Personal Blog

What’s interesting about my job as an IT industry analyst is that I can get under the skin of topics and issues, gather information from original sources, and have time to think about how it all hangs together. This allows me to see through a lot of the biased media coverage and advocacy of particular viewpoints, and form reasonably informed and objective opinions.

When it comes to politics and macro economics, however, I just don’t have the time or the means to do that, so I am, to a large degree, dependent on the press for input. In order to avoid becoming a victim of media bias too easily, I make a point of watching, listening to or reading multiple versions of the same story. It’s fascinating, for example, comparing the extreme right wing evangelical take on an event from Fox News, with the analysis provided on the BBC or various other European news channels. Being able to tune into local radio phone-in shows over the internet now is also handy when trying to figure out how extreme views are propagated and reinforced, and some of that stuff can be quite frightening.

Against this background, I have found it fascinating to see how the Barack Obama has caused confusion amongst the right wing media. It is difficult when faced with true leadership qualities backed up with open receptive reasoning to use the usual undermining tricks. Maybe Mr Obama is simply a master of deception, but I get the impression that there is real conviction to do the right thing (at least what he believes is the right thing), and that inspires people.

Closer to home, I can’t think of less inspiring bunch than those at the forefront of British politics at the moment. Brown has pretty much blown it in terms of credibility now, both through his actions and the way he handles himself from a PR perspective. I can therefore appreciate why many are calling for his resignation, but the problem is, those surrounding him are equally uninspiring. And looking to the opposition isn’t much help. David Cameron’s behaviour appears to me to be both divisive and incongruous, largely based on making ad hoc stands on issues that are considered to have significant PR mileage. More fundamentally, he just doesn’t come across as a genuine leader that I would trust – which is pretty much how I felt about Blair.

So where is the leadership going to come from in UK politics as we look forward? Perhaps it just appears worse than it is because Obama has raised the bar. As a pragmatist with no real leanings towards the left or the right in loyalty terms, I’ll fall in behind anyone who articulates a balanced and coherent view of the world, even if I disagree with some of the specifics. I just don’t see anyone I am even remotely comfortable with at the moment.