Stuff: Soggy Sunak, Liverpool (Taylor's Version)

 

Why are political correspondents so often quirky? Is it because they have to listen to nonsense day in day out? I ask after watching both Chris Mason and Robert Peston’s attendance at Wednesday’s General Election announcement. They both, in their own way, tried to cover all possible ground eking out the time as the 5pm scheduled speech slipped by almost twenty minutes and I thought how unusual both of them were. What they do convey though is the excitement that ebbs around political circles at this kind of event. It has been a while. We’ve had leadership changes but the last actual General Election was four and a half years ago and current PM Rishi Sunak has decided now is a good time to go to the country. For Messrs Peston and Mason plus the cohorts of other correspondents and presenters this is, as one of them said, their `Cup Final`. As such it is treated with similar predictions as to what the speech might say. The difference from football is that the commentators do seem to know in advance what it will say and in some ways are part of the choreography of the whole thing.

 

Wet, Wet, Wet: Rishi wishing he was lucky

The problems that can beset live outside broadcasting were in full effect on this day. Glitches, sound issues, awkward cuts all fell foul of the weather. It wasn’t the best time for anyone to be standing outside for ages on what was the first of two sodden days this week in which is just rained and rained. And then it rained. I had a notion that Rishi was peeking through the window waiting for the rain to go off and indeed it did seem to have stopped when he emerged only a couple of minutes after the lectern itself. The latter was wooden (no I’m not going to make the obvious gag) and wrangled into place by a man whose work was briefly watched by a few million people. Curiously everything including the cabling emerged not from Number 10 but Number 11. The lectern was placed and its wrangler – lets call him Guy- gesticulated to the watching millions though really he was seeking assurances that it lined up with the camera. No? Let’s just shift it a little to the left. Not too far left though, that might send mixed messages.

Moments after Guy is finished the shiny Number Ten front door opens and Rishi, clad in his usual slightly small suit because that’s trendy (it really is btw even though not meant for someone of his age) emerges and starts his speech. And it very much is the speech he always gives which is that he is the man for the now more dangerous world and that his Labour counterpart has no plan. This a week after his Labour counterpart actually announced a plan. Never mind though because nobody watching is really paying attention to the words. What we’re all watching on our sharply defined tvs is how the rain has started and intensified and is soaking that shiny jacket. I mean really soaking it. Meanwhile the sound of the old 1997 Labour party anthem Things Can Only Get Better blares out from the end of the street courtesy of a protestor. Even Rishi would probably agree with that sentiment at this moment.

He soldiers on, the rainwater now gathering on his shoulders. I wondered if his speech lasted long enough whether he would start to sink into the tarmac. Had this been a sitcom water would have rushed out of a gutter and flattened him. Amusing though this was to watch I was also thinking how embarrassing it is for Britain when the speech is shown around the world. Any other world leader would either have done the thing indoors or under a canopy or had someone holding an umbrella. The next day when questioned about this he said he wasn’t “a fair-weather politician” which is actually a good answer but far fewer people heard that than saw the speech. 

After he’d gone back inside Number Ten to be put in the spin dryer, the correspondents had their say basically repeating chunks of the speech and reaching the same conclusions about each party’s electoral prospects as they had half an hour earlier. So in fact the speech changes little like all speeches during elections. But the question is – who will win? Well both sides are fairly even but I think Peston edges it.

I will be living in Taylor Town next month as Liverpool temporarily rebrands to celebrate the Queen of Pop’s three sell out concerts. I don’t know if this kind of thing happens everywhere she plays but Liverpool is really going for it. A massive TAYLOR banner already spans the grand pillars of St Georges Hall and this is only the start. The official Visit Liverpool site says the place will be transformed between 8 to 16 June and you won’t be able to miss Taylor Swift. There will be a Taylor Town Trail featuring eleven installations each inspired by a different Era of her career, like the tour. The ones already flagged up a red room (`Red' era), a moss covered grand piano for `Evermore,` giant hearts (Lover era) and a mural inspired by the number 13 (this relates to `Fearless, I’m not quite Swift enough to know that one). Whether her latest release will be celebrated by a live interpretation of a poet being tortured hasn’t been confirmed.

That’s not all though! There will be a series of craft workshops dubbed Liverpool Loves Taylor (Craft Version) where you can revive that Seventies obsession of Origami (paper folding), transform T Shirts , make collages and decorate cupcakes all with Taylor themes. The University of Liverpool are hosting a Tay Day described as “a unique symposium for academics, students and fans to unpack the cultural phenomenon that is Taylor Swift “ There will also be karaoke sessions, a series of talks interpreting her lyrics and aspects of her whole career. This smorgasbord of Swiftrionics will make her inescapable.

This kind of attention is unusual at the height of a music career. Usually the analysis, celebration and retrospective starts years, sometimes decades, later long after they’ve faded from ubiquity. Some of the above activities seem old fashioned perhaps reflecting that Swift’s music is versatile enough to transcend any type of audience. Her strong teen following is matched by older people who find her music easier to listen to than rap or rock.  Did I tell you that she filmed a video in my workplace…(sniiip- That’s enough Taylor Swift)