On the campaign trail... Posted Fri Jul 14 07:24:02 BST 2000 by Jon

I heard Ted Rogers mentioned somewhere or other the other day which reminded me...

The only time I saw his stand-up was on an edition of Newsnight. In 1987. Covering the General Election. They got 2 foreign MEPs (1 lefty, 1 righty) to look at British political campaigning. This involved watching Thatcher entertain her troops somewhere in provincial England.

The speech was prefaced by warm-up man Ted Rogers, doing routines about Pakistanis (brief clip shown)... who completely died. The BBC reporter (clear tone of distaste) said he "amused few and offended many". The 2 foreigners hated it. The left-wing one said it was "worse than Le Pen in the European Parliament", which stuck in my mind as the worst review of a comedian ever.

Stan Boardman and Jim Davidson have also spoken out for conservatism. Let's have a strand about political campaigning in general. I bet Ben Elton etc. have done loads of terrible gigs in front of Labour Party/union audiences who didn't take to them...



Subject: Re: On the campaign trail... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Al on Fri Jul 14 08:36:28 BST 2000:

Let's see... there's the famous (and possibly misunderstood) "Let's bomb Russia!" outburst by Cuddly Ken (Everett not Livingstone) at the Tory Party conference. Cilla Black and Tarby both did benefits for the Tories in the 80s.

I heard that Stephen Fry has written gags for John Smith and Tony Blair's speeches.

As for the Lib Dems - Nicholas Parsons used to be a prominent supporter, as well as Ludovic Kennedy who often speaks at their conferences.

Stand ups dying a death in fromt of Lab/Union audiences - I'll get back to you on that...

Subject: Re: On the campaign trail... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Jon on Fri Jul 14 09:56:20 BST 2000:

The Tories pioneered having special rallies featuring celebs in 1983 - that's where the Everett outburst happened. Also featured Steve Davis saying he liked 'potting reds', which must have been worth a few marginals.

Labour copied the idea from the tories (the first of many) with the Red Rose Revue in '87, featuring Elton and Ricky Tomlinson and others. I think they still do them, though the Tories have now given up.

Subject: Re: On the campaign trail... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Alan on Fri Jul 14 11:05:42 BST 2000:

>the Tories have now given up

Are you kidding? I know it was nearly five years ago, but few of us can forget Michael Portillo's routine to the Tory Party conference where he proudly claimed that qualifications gained anywhere else in the world except Britain were worthless, because - as we all know - education abroad is totally corrupt and foreigners can just buy their qualifications. Like every other grandstanding patriotic outburst by this collagen-camel-faced shitgiblet, this was undermined by the fact that he is of course Spanish, hence foreign (his father was a lefty poet, what's more); the Brucie bonus here being that Portillo's much-vaunted Oxbridge MA was simply a BA which he paid the statutory fee to upgrade to a Masters several years later.

"It's irony on a base level, but I like it" - Bill Hicks

Subject: Re: On the campaign trail... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Jon on Fri Jul 14 11:13:12 BST 2000:

"Portillo's much-vaunted Oxbridge MA was simply a BA which he paid the statutory fee to upgrade to a Masters several years later. "

I didn't have to pay anything to get my Cambridge MA.

Anyhow, let's not forget John Cleese's broadcasts for the Lib Dems. Or Red Wedge.

Subject: Re: On the campaign trail... [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Anonymous on Fri Jul 14 17:34:32 BST 2000:

I was there when Alan Partridge met Tony Blair at Labour Conference in 1996...God it was embarrasing. It was a spoof chat show and for most of the time Blair wondered why he was there, Partridge's rabid Tory views left Tony speechless. (Steve Coogan is of course a Labour supporter)

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