Art in politics

I find it fascinating how people make their decisions to support or not support political leaders. During the 2001 general election, I lost count of the number of blokes who told me they were voting Labour becasue John Prescott punched that bloke.

On the day of our deputy leadership election I stopped to gossip with Steve Bell who was covering the event for the Guardian. He told me that he wanted Harriet to win because her face was a gift to cartoonists!

This logic is very bad news for Ken Livingstone. My old pal Matt Buck delights in the fact that a real life caricature has become a candidate for London mayor.

I’ve been meaning to add Matt to the blogroll for ages. He’s up there now, along with Political Hack who I met at Labour Party conference. A few months ago my student intern was plagued by Tory bloggers ringing him to ask if he was the guy who did the now-departed Hamer Shawcross blog. Last week I met Hamer for the first time. And to say I was gobsmacked when his identity was revealed is an understatement.