As readers of my blog will know I am a fan of American Idol. I have fessed up about this and cannot apologize for it even though I have to admit that this year the contestants just haven't been as charismatic or as talented as in previous years. Their presence on stage has been somewhat muted and their showmanship is still developing. None of them can really give us a clear idea of what their actual style is and don't seem to be able to stick to their beliefs or their 'true self' as the judges put it. Is there really any authenticity on show for us or are they being molded and groomed into the cash cow that the show so desperately wants?
HANG ON A MINUTE! Am I talking about American Idol or am I really talking about the British General Election? They could be one in the same thing. All the contestants, whoops sorry I mean politicians, couldn't really convince us of their true beliefs or persuade us, as a majority, to vote for them. What is the difference? Where is their authenticity? Did any one of them have a 'moment' we can latch on to and feel sure we can make a confident choice? The answer is clearly no as it's a draw. It seems that we can't go into extra time. We can't have a replay on a Wednesday evening. We can't even have a 'hands on the buzzer' really difficult sudden death question or a penalty shoot out with Richard Kingson in goal (he let eight in against Chelsea the other day so must be rubbish).
This is on a parallel with American Idol. Idol gets the American public to vote people off and the final three have to stand there and wait for the results each week when one goes home. We then get to watch a little video of their experience while the rest sit down with relief and know they get to sing for one more week. So why don't we do that. It must be fairly easy to organise a telephone vote and stop the all-boys-together 'talks' that appear to be based on who will be new best friends. So get the three of the them together, Ryan Seacrest could be the presenter although Ant or Dec could do it equally well. We all cast our vote and the one with the least amount of votes goes home. Obviously we get to watch a little video of their career so far but miss out the singing at the end.
After that the final two need to perform a few entertaining tasks to convince us of their suitability to run the country. First they could do a few really tricky maths problems such as "If Tony spends X amount on education and healthcare over Y amount of years what will the national debt be? Give your answer in percentages equated to the GDP?" (Answer is 59.9% in case you were wondering) or perhaps they write a persuasive piece with the title "Proportional representation -v- First past the post - Who benefits most?". Just a thought. It goes without saying that Simon Cowell would get to berate them mercilessly. That wouldn't have anything to do with the answers or the voting, but merely for public enjoyment.
The BBC has already put a little video montage together going over Gorden's experience since he became P.M.
Have a look.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8673754.stm
Gordon 'will' step down is the headline today. When? is the unanswered question. I predict that more people would be inclined to vote by phone than turn out at a polling station. No schools would close and the crime rate would be significantly reduced as a high percentage of the population would stay in and watch the telly that night. Sorted.
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