Politics is about substance, not X-Factor, Gordon Brown told voters in Cardiff, writes MARK HENNESSY
TWO AUDITIONS took place yesterday in Cardiff, both in stadiums. One promises a small flat on a quiet street, but with 100-hour weeks and endless stresses; the other a life of celebrity and tabloid attention.
In the Swalec stadium, the home of Glamorgan cricket, Labour’s Gordon Brown met with dozens of young people for a live local radio debate about his plans for five more years of power.
Just three miles away in Cardiff City's sparkling new home, several thousand youngsters gathered for preliminary auditions for the Simon Cowell-produced X Factortalent show.
The Swalec encounter, it has to be said, made for dry listening. Brown endlessly talked about “the future” and the Labour-created youth jobs fund, which aims to put 17,000 people into jobs in Wales in coming months.
Sally Richards, from Barry, was encouraged by Brown in her ambitions to set up a health and beauty shop in her home-town, even if he insisted on calling it a hair-dressing salon.
“I want to help you with the banks. I am setting up an adjudicator [to rule on banks’ decisions to refuse borrowing]. There isn’t anybody in this room who isn’t angry with the banks,” he told her.
Questioned about MPs’ behaviour, Brown – and few would, in truth, argue otherwise – said he had not entered politics for money: “I am not in it for money, wealth or privilege. That is me.”
Just hours after Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg had called him “a desperate politician” and said he did not believe Brown’s conversion to the need for reforms of the Commons and the Lords, Brown said, “I am only here because I want to make a difference. If I cannot make a difference, I go,” though the remark was over-interpreted.
Told later as he shook hands with guests about X Factor's presence in Cardiff, Brown said jokingly: "I didn't know that, I wasn't invited. But I don't think I would do very well on that." He is clearly frustrated with much of the stage-management deemed necessary for electioneering today, preferring politics to be about reports and process, rather than style and presentation.
“When the banks collapsed two years ago, you could not solve it with a soundbite. It is about taking unpopular decisions,” the prime minister declared, before a photo-shoot out in the sunshine.
Much of yesterday in his base camp in Cardiff’s St David’s Hotel was devoted to preparing for tonight’s TV debate. Douglas Alexander and other Labour heavies were in town to help out.
Meanwhile, over in Cardiff City’s ground, it was all about style and presentation, with talent an optional extra, where youngsters had queued from early morning for the chance to audition.
However, Cowell and the other judges of the show watched by 12 million people do not appear for the initial weeding-out, leaving that work to production staff who coped with endless registrations.
Politics was far from the mind of Kirstie O’Brien from Merthyr Tydfil, who had just got through the first screening after performing a medley of James Taylor and Celine Dion.
"Oh, Gordon Brown, I don't like him," she said, when pressed. "Nick Clegg is all right, I mean the way he presents himself and his body language. Maybe it is just because I fancy him," she told The Irish Times. Proud aunt Suzanne O'Brien offered a simple solution. She and Kirstie would vote for Brown if he promised to vote for Kirstie in The X Factor: "That's fair enough, don't you think."