Why should Gordon Brown be exciting?

In case you’ve missed it, and you wouldn’t be alone in dozing off, Gordon Brown is currently in America glad-handing Dubya and all three of the potential next Presidents of the United States, ie Obama, Hillary and the one who’s part of the chip company.

Now, I think we’re all agreed on the fact Gordy isn’t Tony Blair. He’s cut from a different cloth and, let’s fact it, is in politics to do good for people, rather than get his face in the newspapers and on TV.

The thing is, for all the carping that goes on, you’d think that Gordon Brown should actually be pretending to host Strictly Come Dancing, rather than run the country.

Labour peer Lord Desai (who?) has attacked the current Prime Minister thus:

“Blair was like champagne and caviar. Brown is more like porridge or haggis. He is solid, very nourishing but not exciting.”

Apart from the fact that he’s stretched that metaphor to its very limits, it also begs the question why should Gordon Brown be “exciting”?

He’s looking after the country, not a flipping theme park.

It simply proves that most people think we need a leader who acts in the style of Richard Branson, rather than one who actually knows what he’s doing.

I’m sure you’re not bothered, Gordon, but you’re doing fine from where I’m sitting!

Domino’s Pizza pledge

Domino’s PizzaWe got take-out pizza this evening from none other than Domino’s Pizza and I was mildly disturbed by their new ‘pledge’.

They proudly proclaim the provenance of their ingredients, as if it were a selling point. Apparently, their mozzarella comes from Wales, their hot peppers from Peru, their tomatoes from Portugal and their pineapple from Thailand.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that kinda weirds me out a little. I know that Domino’s are hardly a smalltime concern, but it would be lovely to think that they were thinking about food miles just a little bit.

I can’t believe that Peru is the closest place in the world that grows hot peppers and pineapples all the way from Thailand.

Possibly most laughable is the fact they make a traditionally Italian cheese in the principality.

Anyway, whatever the provenance, the taste was actually pretty good, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.

ITV scores own goal with Pushing Daisies

Pushing DaisiesIn one of the most baffling decisions by a TV broadcaster for a long time, ITV has decided to only show 8 of the 9 episodes of new US comedy drama Pushing Daisies, so that the series will finish in time for Euro 2008.

More odd still, the episode they’re banishing is No.2, the one that should have been shown this Saturday.

Now it’s too early to say whether I’m a massive fan of the show, but this strikes me as one of the weirdest things I’ve heard in a long time.

If a show isn’t performing well in the ratings, it’s standard practice to shift its time slot, so it doesn’t hurt overall viewing figures or advertising revenues, but Pushing Daisies has only been on one week so far.

It’s also weird, given that this is the first US import that ITV have bought and scheduled in a primetime evening slot since the 90s and their head of commissioning was waxing lyrical about it at the press launch only the other week.

Dare I venture that it’s no wonder that ITV is faring so badly in the ratings war when they’re willing to make crass decisions like this?