Forget debates...THIS is how to engage people

"Filipino voters expect to be ‘charmed and entertained’ by their candidates. Surely UK elections would be less tedious if we demanded the same? Gordon Brown, take note..."

In the Guardian recently Hadley Freeman wrote that UK elections are so boring that they might lead people to ‘self-lobotomise with a spoon’. Her comparison was with US - long and tempestuous, and UK - short and boring - elections.



The Philippines, which is due to hold presidential elections on 10 May 2010, just days after UK voters cast their ballots, gives us another, and perhaps more interesting, point of comparison.


The opening of the presidential race on 9 February 2010 was heralded by The Philippines Daily Enquirer as being like the beginning of a carnival.

And our Gordon might want to take note of the tactics of their Gordon: Richard (Dick) Gordon, a candidate for the Philippines presidential race.

Gordon, a former Senator, is not likely to win the race but he is having a lot of fun trying. Gordon and his running mate Bayani Fernando campaign as 'political transformers’ and have a transformers-branded truck as a campaign vehicle.

Gordon’s campaign was also boosted by his performance with the comedy duo Moymoy Palaboy in which they lip sync their way through the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.



The video for this performance went viral and had received over 50,000 hits within just three days of being loaded up to Youtube.

Gordon, who has admitted that he has little money for advertising his presidential bid, must be delighted with the free publicity. Filipino voters expect to be ‘charmed and entertained’ by their candidates. Surely UK elections would be less tedious if we demanded the same? Gordon Brown, take note.

Dr Pauline Eadie