Labour Conference 2009 – A Wordle of the key speeches September 29, 2009
Posted by James Ainsworth in Wheat.Tags: Gordon Brown, Lab09, Labour Conference, Peter Mandleson, Social Media, Wordle
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As a point of interest and using Wordle, a favourite tool of mine, I took it upon myself to run the transcripts of the two key speeches of this year’s event through the program to create a visual representation of the speeches.
Firstly, Lord Mandleson’s effort-which to watch looked clumsy, choreographed and almost beyond Carry On parody-we can see the key phrases used were ‘Change,’ ‘Party,’ ‘Back,’ and ‘Growth.’ For me this indicates the theme of looking back and looking forward. If New Labour is dead then New New Labour is now being offered as a choice and the party is on the cusp of a rebirth or a landslide. Time and the democratic process of an election will tell if Mandy’s speech was the healer or the false hope of the Labour party.
Gordon Brown’s speech ran along a similar theme of ‘Choice,’ ‘Change’ and ‘New,’ with policy revisions tantamount to backtracks (ID Cards) and whoppers of vast financial implications such as a National Care Service. No doubt the NCS will be talked up as revolutionary as the NHS when such a system was first pitched but will it ever see the light of day?
Oh and just a final thought on the theme of ‘Choice,’ which of the speeches was to the public and which was to the party? Mandy addresses his audience as “Conference” on numerous times but Gordon was more engaging with the camera and less erratic in his movements. So, PM for PM or stick with GB…?
A couple of (related?) thoughts: 1) The word Tories is almost as big as the word Labour in Mandy’s word cloud and the word Party is massive. 2) Brown’s emphasis on Choice and Change.
In a way, Mandy exemplifies the problem; his mental emvironment is a bipartite one, where the “choice” is between our party and that other one. “Change” represents either that other party (boo!) or a nicer version of us (hurrah!). But there is no real choice here, is there? And it’s a worldview that ignores the multifaceted way in which we live, and think, and express our preferences.
So where is the choice and where is the change? Is it any wonder people prefer to blog and tweet than to express their preferences at the ballot box?
Awesome blog!
I thought about starting my own blog too but I’m just too lazy so, I guess I‘ll just have to keep checking yours out.
LOL,