There is something deep in the British psyche that has given a long history to custard throwing and most of us in politics have experienced it in some form at one time or another. Sometimes our families are in the firing line. Many years ago my partner was hit by an egg when she answered the door – eggs hurt incidentally.
I thought Peter Mandelson emerged from his experience with much more respect than the woman who carried out the attack. While politicians might have to put up with this occasionally I do think the media have to ask themselves some serious questions on how they cover such incidents. More than one whole page in the Guardian seems a bit disproportionate when you think what else is happening in the world.
I remember when the same woman climbed on the roof of Parliament while thousands of people were lobbying Parliament about the EU. The woman and her two compatriots got mega media coverage. The thousands lobbying got very little. Does democracy matter? Or have we all got to be fit enough to climb on a roof to get the media to pay attention?
Yes, stunts like this are the only way to get the media to pay attention. And when they do draw attention its always more than deserved.
I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad thing, the news media are slowly dying, and if this is what they are devoting time to then they deserve to go.
I also thought Peter Mandelson came of much better than the woman, it was an infantile stunt and serves no purpose.
I suspect that of all the people who could have been gunged Mandelson is probably the least likely to gain the public’s sympathy and judging from the press coverage the two are as one. However, I did think he dealt with it quite well.
As much as I disagree with the Heathrow expansion plans, I don’t approve of this campaign group and their methods at all. There may have been a lot of coverage of this in the press, but almost none of it touched on the issue of Heathrow’s expansion. All the appropriately-named “Plane Stupid” are doing is making the public less sympathetic towards those who oppose the development.
The woman said she’d targeted Lord Mandelson as he’s unelected, meaning there’s no other way to hold him accountable. What then would she have done if he were an MP? Move to Hartlepool and do nothing until next year?
Lord Soley, you must be glad the protesters didn’t target a Lord who’s rather more directly involved in lobbying for the third runway.
“The woman and her two compatriots got mega media coverage. The thousands lobbying got very little. Does democracy matter?”
That is absolutely the right question. And the answer, it seems, is that stunts matter more than numbers. There’s a good question as to why this is the case, and I don’t think it’s fair to blame it all on the media. Politicians seem to find it easy to ignore large scale, but boring, protest, but feel obliged to respond to a headline, so it should come as no surprise that some campaigners seek headlines rather than mass support.
Given the woman has since been arrested, she may well end up as future Secretary for State for Northern Ireland, then Wales, then Works and Pensions, then failed Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
With this outpouring of bon homie towards The Master, I’m sure he’ll find her a suitable place for her talents.
I must say I am generally in favour of custard pies as a means of civil disobedience. As Lord Soley says it is a form of protest with a strong British tradition, and serves as well to remind us that those in power are just as human as the rest of us as it does to draw attention to whatever the cause is.
The only damage ever done is to pride. Nothing wrong with that.
Also, I thought that Mandelson’s response to the attack in discussing the exact type of green custard he had been gunged with was marvellously appropriate.
pseudonym: Probably fair comment. When you see protests these days (even the most peaceful and law abiding) the police seem to regard their first duty as to keep them as far away from anywhere and anyone that matters so as to cause the least nuisance or embarrassment. The press naturally find this spectacle fairly uninteresting. Both therefore militate toward people mounting these stunts as they are the only way to get both press and political attention.
Thank you for these comments. I think Troika21 makes an important point about declining newspaper sales. All the newspapers are desperate to find ways of halting the decline but I’m not convinced that focusing on less important issues or focusing on stunts will work. The opportunities for people to cover this in the new media is always going to be better than the newspapers.
Perhaps they could try covering serious news and leaving more of the opinion to the Internet – especially blogs!!
@Lord Soley: I don’t know to what extent you read many of the popular political blogs and non-press run sites but the interesting change I think many of us have noticed over the years is the extent to which blogs are starting to become news finders and makers with their stories repeated in the mainstream press some days later – often to their great annoyance source unattributed. This trend is far more advanced in US politics but as things do it will no doubt become so here.
It’s next to impossible for papers to compete with the low(er) cost of even the professional blogs/sites. To take a computing metaphor ‘given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow’ so I think with enough eyesballs bloggers can find stories that few if any newspaper could afford sufficient staff to research or follow. It really is possible for blogs to glean news – in the old farming sense – that simply wouldn’t see be covered otherwise.
I enjoy robust opinion in blogs as much as the next person but I think some blogs are making news in as valid way as anywhere in the mainstream press.
“I thought Peter Mandelson emerged from his experience with much more respect than the woman who carried out the attack. ”
this is disingenous nonsense – that might have been true on the day – but once this poor, defenceless woman was arrested, and Mandy started his frankly sinister reference to slight skin damage the message went out loud and clear that much more of this sort of thing and it would be a free holiday in cuba with a nappy and the orange pyjamas.
When Peter Mandelson starts cracking jokes then, as with Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, you know that trouble cannot be far away…
Perhaps we should sponsor Lord Mandelson to put a truly funny joke on this site, for Comic Relief.
Better still, a post for all Peers to put their favourite joke up and they should pay a minimum of a tenner.
Oh, go on, try to get this blog mentioned on BBC this Friday.
Croft. Yes, I am aware of how blogs are reporting/creating news. I think that is good but it is a real challenge to the media generally.
What I am concerned about is how we can access news in a single site/newspaper with some confidence in its accuracy. This is an emerging agenda which will shape our society in radical ways.