Political Propaganda
All three parties use a method called propaganda to attract our attention and to get our votes. This is how they get our votes, one example of propaganda is just criticising the other parties. It is ridiculous how the parties fight each other in order to get their constituencies. I will be looking at the parties' political manifestos; these are the promises that the parties say they will uphold if they become the leading party with the majority of votes. They say so many things, much of which is not even true, they are only things that they will try to do. Even if they don't do the things they said they would, who is going to tell them that they have been naughty? This is the problem we have with the propaganda that the use.
First I will look at a labour leaflet that I got through the door about a week ago. It is the leaflet for the constituency of Croydon South, and the running MP is Gerry Ryan. He firsts starts by talking about himself:
"Gerry has been a leading community campaigner, living in the constituency for the last 14 years, and Croydon for over 20 years."
The first thing he talks about is how is better than the rest, using implied criticism, to say that he is better because he lives in the area. He is suggesting that this somehow makes it so he knows more about the area. This is probably true, and so he is attracting people's attention by using this fact to his advantage. On the other hand, what he said about living there for so long may not even be true. No one is going to look up whether he has or not, so he can easily lie.
He then goes on to use a method called "Opinion as Fact". This is where the person gives his opinion and changes it to a fact. A fact has a much stronger impact on someone, compared to an opinion.
"A vote for Gerry will also be a vote for better local health and transport services."
This is the phrase he used, no one can predict that a vote for him will be good, it is only his own opinion. This phrase is a very well known phrase, which makes it even worse, you would have thought ...
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He then goes on to use a method called "Opinion as Fact". This is where the person gives his opinion and changes it to a fact. A fact has a much stronger impact on someone, compared to an opinion.
"A vote for Gerry will also be a vote for better local health and transport services."
This is the phrase he used, no one can predict that a vote for him will be good, it is only his own opinion. This phrase is a very well known phrase, which makes it even worse, you would have thought he could have thought of something more original instead of something that is used every year by someone.
On the opposite page he has used quotes from people saying how good Gerry has been to them in the past. They make him out to be really good, as all the quotes are positive:
"Gerry has helped not just us, but our local community, he always listens and he's always got time for you, Gerry's getting our support."
All the other quotes were of similar intentions, to get you to vote for him. It makes it all seem unreal, the way that all of his quotes are saying how wonderful he is, if he wanted it to look real he would have had to put in a quote about him being not perfect, but then that wouldn't win him the votes would it.
On the back of the leaflet, he goes on to telling us what he is going to do. He talks about jobs, public transport, opportunities for young people, crime and healthcare. These are all the most talked about issues at the moment making it a good idea to talk about them. The bit that annoys me about all his aims is that they are aims, and not promises. This is what I mean:
"I will push for the train and bus companies to give Croydon a better service."
"I'll work hard to bring even more investment to South Croydon."
Never at any point does he actually say, "I will improve public transport", he only ever says that he will "push" to make it better. What type of pathetic aim is that? That could be as small as dropping tickets by 1p. No one would notice the difference, but he hadn't lied. What he should have done is given a target of some sort, like "I will double the amount of operational buses", now that would be a good promise wouldn't it? We would be able to see if he really was doing something then, why don't they do this more? The reason is, what if they don't make it, their credibility would be ruined, that is the reason.
Now I will look at the Conservative, or Tory website. When you go to this page, the thing that confronts you is the following picture:
A picture of William Hague giving one of his tiresome speeches that he so often does. His motto is:
"It's time for common sense"
What he means by this nobody knows. This phrase has a vast range of meanings. Common sense is something that one person has, and they have their own sense of common sense, no one has the same opinion of it. So Hague saying, "Use common sense", is just ridiculous.
As well as his motto and his picture, there is a letter signed by William Hague himself. It states the key issues that he wishes to solve I he becomes PM, with the help of his party. One of the phrases that caught my attention was the following.
"We want to set people free so that they have greater power over their own lives."
This is a ridiculous statement, who said that we were not free, that we were imprisoned I suppose. Everyone is free, not totally free because of laws that limit us from doing bad things, but everything else we do, we are free to choose. We choose our own job, car, house, partner, and even how we get to work or school. No one controls these things apart from us. So saying that we will become free is just stupid. Here William Hague has used an unanswerable proposal. You can't say anything back to this statement, as it is not a question.
Again he look sat taxes, public services, quality of life etc. It is like a war between the parties fighting over the same territory which in this case political issues such as taxes. It seems like a waste of time.
No one can judge each party separately, as they all do the same thing, criticise each other, and fight over certain issues that interest the voters. All the parties are as bad as each other, using propaganda to attract more votes. Why can't they be honest with us, tell us what they will really do, interest us in what really matters. If a new party went up for election and said exactly what they were going to do, were totally honest and didn't criticise the other parties I any way, I would hope they would do well. But in our world, don't play like everyone else and you'll get nowhere.
