It has been reported that Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, is receiving voice coaching so that he comes across as being less posh and more a man of the people. This seems like a strange move, especially in the light of Boris Johnson’s success at making a virtue of being everyone’s favourite posh bloke. Rather than waste time and effort using image and voice consultants to unlock his inner-chav, Osborne would be better off following Boris’ example and winning the affections of the crowd by being interesting.
The best way to keep the crowd engaged and involved – whether you are a business leader, corporate marketing director or wannabe political leader – is to be interesting. Boris had the benefit of his Spectator and Daily Telegraph columns (plus occasional appearances on Have I Got News for You) to showcase his interesting (and occasionally mad) take on the world. Even those who disagree with his politics cannot deny that Boris is interesting – the sort of bloke who you could imagine enlivening the dullest dinner party or taxi journey.
As for Osborne, the only things of interest appear to be the fact that he is a son of a baronet (which, according to my dictionary is someone not as important as a baron but more important than a knight … yawn) and that he was once a member of the deadly dull Bullingdon Club, which only journalists who never went to Oxford describe as ‘notorious’ – nobody even vaguely interesting ever went near the Bullingdon. His Corfu adventures with Russian billionaires and Mandelson were almost interesting, but oligarchs are just so pre credit crunch, don’t you think?
Maybe Osborne is simply uninteresting – a man of hidden shallows – in which case, no amount of voice training will turn him into a man of the people. Perhaps his advisers should check out whether there are any future slots available on long-running television new quizzes … well if it worked for BoJo …