The UK elections are all but over, and there will be lots of assessments, evaluations and in-depth analyses of the events. A week ago Jonathan Eyal was describing Nick Clegg's meteoric rise to become a real player in what had appeared to be a two-man show-down. Eyal's showbiz discourse draws explicit links between politics and the prize culture. He describes Clegg as having "sprang out of nowhere", as being assumed to be little more than "a studio prop" who has become "the star of the show". And, most significantly, he refers to this support for Clegg ("Cleggmania") as being "no different from that of Ms Susan Boyle, a British middle-aged singer who rose from obscurity to instant stardom after being 'discovered' on a TV show". However, he notes that not all are convinced by this similarity: "Politics, the argument went, is more than just a fleeting Britain's Got Talent performance" (The Straits Times, Wednesday, April 28 2010, pg A2) What follows is an analysis of voting trends, set against a long history of democracy in the UK.
There are many influences on the way the vote goes, and that politics and entertainment have a lot in common is reinforced by the whole prize culture. Who is learning from whom, I wonder?
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