Ade Grant's Blog, page 3

First Ade then Paul – Back Again!

Hello all,

We had some technical difficulties which resulted in a whole week without a podcast! I know, I know, terrible… But hooray! We’re back!

Below are the two latest episodes:

First Ade then Paul – Darth Vaper

This week, our bold heroes daringly discuss Lords Reform & E-Cigarettes

First Ade then Paul – Hot Sauce!

This week, our bold heroes daringly discuss Politics and Tech in Film & Mechanical Doping (Featuring Mr Tom of Sketchy Reviews)

Featuring Tom Charles!

First Ade then Paul – The Ted Zone

This week, our bold heroes daringly discuss Ted Cruz & Kickstarter Scams

Alan Duncan Speaks His Mind

For those who’ve listened to the latest podcast and would like to enjoy the clip of Alan Duncan telling us commoners what he thinks of us, here it is:

First Ade then Paul – De*** Star

This week, our bold heroes daringly discuss Cameron’s Tax & Breakthrough Initiatives

Local Election Broadcast – The Greens

Contain your excitement, it’s political broadcast season! And the first of the bunch that is even vaguely worth talking about comes from the Greens. Have a watch below, and then let’s get stuck in:

They’ve gone with a humorous parody of the political landscape to form the bulk of the broadcast, and for the most part it works. The gags are funny and the children engaging. Then, in the last minute the message suddenly shifts gear to deliver a more sober appeal for votes. This is about what we’ve come to expect from the Green Party (in fact, didn’t they already do this concept before? Or have I just seen it on Newswipe or something?). In the last general election they parodied the other parties as boyband figures. The theme of “the rest are all the same and not as clever as us” is certainly the one they’ve been hammering away at for some time now.

So, does the video work? Well it’s funny, but I’m not sure it will switch many votes. If anything it makes these figures more sympathetic. It’s easy to loathe a politician, but a child dressed up as them humanises that figure. Most of the Green Party’s support will come from the left, and yet what left-leaning person wouldn’t sympathise with the well-meaning Corbyn child in the video? I think the Greens missed a trick by not including themselves. True to do so wouldn’t have fed the false assertion at the heart of clip (that the Greens are somehow grown up unlike other parties), but self-deprecation is a lot more endearing that being lectured at. Also, I come away from the video having been reminded of all these figures who I may or may not want to support in other parties, but with no green alternative, let alone who this random figure is at the end.

This brings us to the worst aspect of the video, which is the condescending speech. You can’t have an election broadcast which consists solely of dressing children up as your opponents and making them act silly, only to claim that you’re the grown up in the equation. The hypocrisy utterly destroys the video. It is as if late in the day someone pointed out, “In making this, aren’t we being the very children we’re making our opponents out to be?” and they panicked and quickly tacked on the end to make themselves look more serious. Not to mention the rather creepy way the children are being watched on the monitors.

But still, it got me writing about it so there’s that.

First Ade then Paul – Jurassic Carp

This week, our bold heroes daringly discuss Basic Income & the Panama Papers:

First Ade then Paul – Norm Trooper

This week, I am all by myself, so I spend my time talking about the Cannabis (Legalisation and Regulation) Bill 2015-16.

Lock Up Your Rodents!

In a bizarre twist to the US Election campaign, Ted Cruz has felt compelled to make a formal statement that although Donald Trump may well be a rodent (Were-Guinea Pig), Cruz doesn’t want to shag him.

Good to know.

There’s also some stuff in there about tabloid attacks which might shed some light onto where he’s coming from with this.