So, the Birmingham-based Labour MP Siôn Simon (nice hair) has hit the headlines over a video his mate and blogging MP extraordinaire Tom Watson posted to YouTube, an attempted send-up of Tory leader David Cameron.
Of course, there has been a flurry of moans and gripes about it, mostly along the lines that it is offensive and unbecoming of an elected representative to gibber on internet videos – probably mostly from people who haven’t seen it and don’t even know what YouTube is. But that isn’t the point. The problem with the Simon video is that it’s crap. It’s not even remotely funny.
Simon himself has been all over the news, claiming the video was ’satire’ and was making a serious political point in a ridiculously pompous and self-inflated way. He went to to slate David Cameron for his use of the internet to promote himself and his party, apparently claiming, astonishingly, that Cameron didn’t have the right to use these technologies because he hadn’t been blogging as long as Tom Watson had. Or something. The point that Siôn Simon seems to have completely missed is that nobody owns this technology. Anyone can use it, that’s the whole point.
I’m not a massive fan of Cameron’s web efforts, they do seem rather too staged and well rehearsed to be taken seriously, but he has every right to try and connect with people through whatever means he can. I mean, at least he’s trying.
Simon’s pastiche wasn’t particularly offensive – it was just neither funny or necessary.
update: the video has now been taken down by Simon. But you can’t keep this sort of crud off the web! One video now posted with a defence of his actions by Simon feature the classic words: “Sion Simon: from Leftie Lickspittle to utter Berk”
