Social : Change one word and it will make the election seem different

Nick Clegg is already a hero, no doubt, to his colleagues in the Liberal Democrats. After all, he has - almost single-handedly it seems - taken them from also-rans to the party with the highest proportion of public support. Of course, to the Tories and the Labour Party he is a villain; he has, as far as they are concerned, mucked everything up. Goodness me, he's interfered in their good, old-fashioned knock-abouts; instead of it being a straight fight between two parties, now there are three of them.

Many people actually blame Gordon Brown; after all he agreed to having the Liberal Democrats take part in the TV debate. He could have put his foot down and said, no. it's just me and my mate Dave. But he didn't - and now look at the mess he has created for the Labour Party, struggling along at the bottom of the polls.

Now, the Conservatives are touting the message that if we fall in love with the Liberal Democrats we would actually be electing a "hung parliament". And the Labour Party, not to be out-done is telling us that if we vote for the Liberal Democrats we'll be allowing those nasty Tories more power. They are, inevitably, trying to get it back to a two-way fight.

But what if we change just one word? What if we ditch the word "hung"? After all it suggests something negative - being "hung" is not something we do to nice people. The word is associated with death, crime, punishment. It also suggests that progress is not possible - the argument gets hung or stuck on each issue, is the implication.

However, according to all the polls each main political party is getting roughly 25-30% of the electorate, with the "other" parties receiving the remainder. Prior to the election, the Labour Party held power with only 28% of the public supporting them - they led us even though 72% of us don't agree with them.

So, what if we ditched the word "hung" and replaced it with "balanced"...?

If we thought we were going to get a "balanced parliament" rather than a "hung" one, we would view it much more positively. And then it would also stop the bickering - after all, the Tories and Labour parties couldn't then say we shouldn't vote for a "balanced parliament".

Change one word and often you change perceptions.

Though, I admit, that would also be possible to achieve that by changing the Prime Minister......!

Graham Jones
Internet Psychologist

Tel: 0118 336 9710
Fax: 0118 336 9711


Get my free Guide to Extra Internet Profits