We had a Reform flyer land on our door mat a few days ago, an oversized bookmark affair. Actually well designed, easy to read and to get your head around. Just three slogans without any detail, four ‘facts’, and quoting the Westminster voting intention YouGov poll of 6 May, which puts Reform ahead of everyone else. Perfectly replete with a photo of the ‘dear leader’!
Occam’s Razor, to cut out unnecessary complexities
Coincidentally, I was researching Occam’s Razor for something entirely different. It was named after William of Ockham, a monk, a friar in Ockham, Surrey about 700 years ago. He supposedly came up with the notion that, if you are trying to sort out something difficult, the simplest solution is to be preferred; cut out the complexities.
Some bright spark must have called it Occam’s Razor and it has stuck. So, for example: If you hear hooves, think ‘horses’ not ‘zebras’, which doesn’t work so well on safari in Africa, but you get the idea. In other words, think of a razor and cut out the messy stuff.
Naturally, I’ve had to use the ‘razor’ to explain the concept in the first place and cut out any messy stuff. It is very closely allied to ‘stating the obvious’ which tends to miss out the messy stuff, both of which are avoided, at all costs, by writers of crime and psychological novels.
The Reform flyer
Back to the Reform flyer – Italics are mine –
Ignoring slogans, the first ‘substantive’ point is the catchy earworm: –
“Where’s your money gone?
X Council is almost £500 million in debt.
£xM borrowed for electric vehicles.
We have to stop the waste. “
Followed immediately by:
“Protect our heritage
Our town is losing its identity and iconic
buildings. Our heritage matters,
we will protect it.”
How Reform intends to square that financial circle of ‘protecting our heritage’ and ‘stopping waste’ is too complex, so ignore, no one will notice.
Razorites, the new name for Reform?
As Occam’s Razor is Reform’s brilliant tool to cut out awkward complexities, I’ve renamed them The Razorites. The sharp, clean shaven, clear thinking wokeless and trustworthy power to cut to the chase and cut out the waste. Hurrah!
My brain cell had no difficulty in spotting The Razorites’ work in reducing complexity. They are banking on those who don’t spot it and by raising the emotional temperature, assuming it was noticed, the inconsistent promises will be passed over.
To round off, right at the bottom, there’s a bit of conflation for good measure. Take the YouGov Westminster voting intention poll 6 May, directly map it onto said target town graphic to make it seem local even where there is little or no evidence of huge interest in them. Other towns are available.
“CURRENT POLLING HAS REFORM UK WINNING IN insert Town”
29% Razorites, 22% Labour, 17% Tory with no mention of the other 32% who will be sleeping in the wings.
I suspect similar versions of this flyer are being wheeled out nationally, each tweaked for the relevant constituency.
Brexit was first
The Razorites started with Brexit, which outwitted the Tories and inevitably led to their implosion. Naturally aided by our mainstream media over the years consistently focusing on the two main parties. Our complex free ‘first past the post’ voting system inevitably became a two-horse race (probably always was) and we ended up with Labour. The Razorites, having been a welcome media distraction, provided a bit of colour if you like!
Hence Labour is now courting policies which sit badly with their roots. The Razorites are looking to woo disgruntled voters and to mop up the rump of the Tory Party.
“A vote for the Conservatives in your constituency, is a vote for Labour”
And here we are looking for simplicity in a ‘winner takes all’ political system that pulls this way and that. There is one possible way out of the mess in the shape of proportional representation which both Labour and Tory parties oppose. The Razorites would find it more difficult to move the political arena more to the right and would be too complex for them, so would oppose it as well.
As someone once said: “Don’t vote, the government always gets in!”
Complex, isn’t it?
Kindly pass me the razor, thank you!
