Play With Words

布朗内阁的社区和地方政府大臣(Secrectary of state for communities and local government) Hazel Blears 今天在《观察家报》(The Observer)上撰文，指称政府在与选民沟通上做得太差，虽然用的是“我们”(we)，但许多人把这篇文章诠释为对布朗的批评。其中有这几句：

I’m not against new media. YouTube if you want to. But it’s no substitute for knocking on doors or setting up a stall in the town centre.

这显然是针对布朗最近的 YouTube 演出－－被人称为“最吓人的微笑”(most scary smile)。这句颇为押韵的 YouTube if you want to，是来自前首相撒切尔夫人的一句政治名言 U-turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning。不知道 YouTube if you want to 会不会也会从此成为流行说法。

Michael White uses the analogy to tell us what they are like:

If Mrs Thatcher was matron and John Major that nice bus conductor on the No 63, Tony Blair was an upmarket estate agent. But Brown is a hellfire preacher whose media handlers have told him to go easy on the hellfire stuff because it reduces the Sunday collection.

matron: A woman who acts as a supervisor or monitor in a public institution, such as a school, hospital, or prison.

hellfire: Portending future disaster

Lucy Mangan of the Guardian describes the voice of Margaret Thatcher:

As the child of parents who worked in the NHS and the National Theatre, I was brought up to think of her as a one-woman hell on earth, but I popped a few pills and did my best to follow Marr’s examination of the Thatcherite years despite the fact that her voice – that self-aggrandising, cloying, patronised and patronising voice oozing out of that vicious, dead-eyed face – still paralyses me with fear and loathing.

I’m always amazed to see Thatcher is hated so much by some people.