UK leaders deploy wives for election
Source: Agencies |
April 12, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE wants to dispel the notion that he's half-man, half-machine. The other wants to banish the notion that he's too posh for office. So in a break with tradition, the men fighting to become Britain's prime minister are turning to their wives for help.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his challenger David Cameron both have image problems that they're tackling in a way the British electorate isn't used to seeing: by dispatching their spouses to the campaign trail.
The Labour Party's Brown is seen by some as a cold, distant grouch. Enter Sarah Brown, his articulate and approachable spouse, to add a warm, human dimension.
Conservative leader Cameron - fighting some voters' perception that he is a spoiled rich kid from Britain's most elite private school - has deployed his sunny wife Samantha to soften his "posh boy" reputation, despite the fact she herself is a distant relative of King Charles II.
The result is a British campaign in which the candidates' spouses are in the spotlight as never before, giving the race a bit more of an American flavor, reminding voters of how Michelle Obama's appeal helped her husband move into the Oval Office.
Many of the millions of undecided voters targeted by the campaigns are women, who worry about what the ballot will mean to their families.
Sarah Brown, a former public relations executive who is traveling the campaign trail with her husband, provides an open counterpoint to Brown.
She draws a picture of a cozy home life, telling the world how they watch movies, dote on their two young sons, and go for walks together.
"The issue that Brown is trying to overcome is the impression he's half-man, half-machine," said Andrew Hawkins of polling firm ComRes, "and for David Cameron to demonstrate that he is principled and there's some substance under the style."
Samantha Cameron is also trying to show her husband as a normal guy - despite the fact that her background is even more aristocratic than his. But she's a working mother - the creative director of an upmarket retailer - who looks after two kids and has another on the way.
But things don't always go to plan: SamCam, as she's known in the tabloids, was chided in the British press for popping in to visit her father, Sir Reginald Sheffield, just before a campaign stop last week. The Times reported that "her attempts at classlessness were slightly undermined" when she had lunch at his 120-hectare Thealby Hall estate.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his challenger David Cameron both have image problems that they're tackling in a way the British electorate isn't used to seeing: by dispatching their spouses to the campaign trail.
The Labour Party's Brown is seen by some as a cold, distant grouch. Enter Sarah Brown, his articulate and approachable spouse, to add a warm, human dimension.
Conservative leader Cameron - fighting some voters' perception that he is a spoiled rich kid from Britain's most elite private school - has deployed his sunny wife Samantha to soften his "posh boy" reputation, despite the fact she herself is a distant relative of King Charles II.
The result is a British campaign in which the candidates' spouses are in the spotlight as never before, giving the race a bit more of an American flavor, reminding voters of how Michelle Obama's appeal helped her husband move into the Oval Office.
Many of the millions of undecided voters targeted by the campaigns are women, who worry about what the ballot will mean to their families.
Sarah Brown, a former public relations executive who is traveling the campaign trail with her husband, provides an open counterpoint to Brown.
She draws a picture of a cozy home life, telling the world how they watch movies, dote on their two young sons, and go for walks together.
"The issue that Brown is trying to overcome is the impression he's half-man, half-machine," said Andrew Hawkins of polling firm ComRes, "and for David Cameron to demonstrate that he is principled and there's some substance under the style."
Samantha Cameron is also trying to show her husband as a normal guy - despite the fact that her background is even more aristocratic than his. But she's a working mother - the creative director of an upmarket retailer - who looks after two kids and has another on the way.
But things don't always go to plan: SamCam, as she's known in the tabloids, was chided in the British press for popping in to visit her father, Sir Reginald Sheffield, just before a campaign stop last week. The Times reported that "her attempts at classlessness were slightly undermined" when she had lunch at his 120-hectare Thealby Hall estate.
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