I’d say that few young people want to become MPs because generally speaking MPs are seen by teens as crusty, out of touch oddballs at worst or chino wearing try hards at best.  I am not sure if this video will help… but social media certainly provides an opportunity for politicians to connect in a more meaningful way with this constituency.

In a great article for The Guardian, Catherine Bennett, writes that (the video)…“gives the impression of an unusually intelligent alien who has made a careful study of human beings, without ever having had the opportunity to meet one.”

Gordon and the Labour Government have since come under fire for 1. announcing the video on YouTube (as opposed to in Parliament) 2. trying to gain political advantage on an issue that effects all MPs and 3.  presenting a proposal that will clearly get voted down.

Oh dear… check it out:

I think some small changes could dramatically improve the video.

I would have had Gordon sitting in his actual (natural) work environment. That would prevent the body sways. It might also be advisable to present this in more of a Q and A format so that its more discursive – YouTube isn’t well suited to speeches.

The Downing Street YouTube channel needs a host – someone to take the audience into the heart of the Government and someone that the audience can relate to.  This host would interview the MPs by asking the questions that the audience want answered. These stage managed presentations don’t feel very authentic at all.

The tone of the expenses video is far too earnest and self important and the randomly interspersed smiles are disconcerting. Gordon has undoubtedly received a lot of training and its not reasonable to expect this stuff to come naturally to everyone but some simple changes could dramatically improve the content.

Comments have been suspended but were initially open, according to Bennett’s article.

In other half-baked YouTube video news…

Last week we had the worldwide President of Dominos Pizza on YouTube responding to the fall out caused by another YouTube video, which was created by two employees in North Carolina.  Dominos received a lot of positive coverage for their handling of the crisis but I felt all of the good work on YouTube was undone by that fact that Mr. Doyle did not respond direct to camera. I reckon he looks well shifty.

The title of the video is unfortunate.

Here is some off-camera action from Gordon Brown this time. More good work undone…

I am living overseas but I think Gordon Brown’s chances of returning the Labour Party to Government in 12 months time are very slim.  Will the Labour Party risk it? I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for the guy and I am definitely on his side of the political spectrum but I sense that there is strong support for change across the country.  Gordon’s tenure has been somewhat tenuous from the start – remember his shall we, shan’t we have an election stumble?

1. Wayward Dominos’ employees in Conover, North Carolina
2. The UK Labour Government’s political smear campaign

I have heard much discussion about the brand and political impact of these unfortunate exposes and lots of experts talking about the need for the victims (or culprits) to engage social media to clean up the mess caused by these indiscretions.

All of this is interesting to a point.

I have heard commentators sprouting the following nonsensical claims; that organisations will withdraw from social media programs as a result of the Dominos experience – in particular. And that Dominos in particular needs to get out there – i.e. into social media – to address the issue. Something that they eventually did.

Let us face the facts.

• Employees in fast food restaurants mess with food.
• Political smear campaigns are as old as politics.

The community is so obsessed with social media at the moment that we are failing to address or consider the underlying and age-old stories and issues here.

Social media has become the story – for everything. Its like a veneer that corporations and institutions can paint over their shoddy and unethical practices to make everything alright.

We’ll quickly move onto the next thing but I doubt that much will change at Dominos or within British politics.

Social media can be a means to an end (i.e. changing stuff) but its not an end in itself.

Wikipedia defines gilts as: Gilts are bonds issued by the governments of the United Kingdom, South Africa, or Ireland. The term is of British origin, and refers to the debt securities issued by the Bank of England, which had a gilt (or gilded) edge. Hence, they are called gilt-edged securities, or gilts for short. Generally, when a market participant refers to gilts, what is meant is British gilts unless otherwise specified, and the description below applies to the UK gilt market. ONS data reveal that about two-thirds of all gilts are held by insurance companies and pension funds.

It sounds to me like a gilt is another form of debt.

This practice is also referred to as printing money because the central bank will create the money in order to buy the gilts – the value of which (pounds75billion) is equivalent to one and a half times the entire stock of notes in the economy.

It all sounds very full on and risky (not to mention complicated) and is further evidence if it were needed that we are still a very long way from being out of the woods of financial crisis.

More from The Guardian here.