Reason vs Emotion

An excellent article by Jonathan Freedland in today's Guardian about how people respond to politicians, looking at why the Democrats keeping losing elections they 'should' win.

Freedland is writing in response to Drew Western's new book, The Political Brain, which seems to be a psyhcologist's take on an argument made very coherently by George Lakoff (a Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics) in Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate.

Lakoff's book is an excellent analysis of why how you say things is as important as what you say. As Freedland points out in his article, this is often mistaken for dumbing down or populism - but there is a big difference between, on the one hand, knowing your audience and talking to them (rather than at them, as so many politicians are wont to do) and on the other, re-writing your policies based on focus groups and opinion polls.

The fatal flaw in the New Labour project was not that they decided to communicate more effectively, but that they thought they needed to adopt right wing policies along with the effective communications techniques that the right have been using for decades. I'm hopeful that the Green Party is in the midst of improving its ability to communicate its vital message whilst avoiding the trap that Labour fell into.

Count your carbon (and then cut it)

An excellent review of two Carbon Calculation books in today's Guardian by Jeremy Leggett, author of Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis. He looks at Chris Goodall's in-depth calculator How to Live a Low-Carbon Life and Mark Lynas's pocket guide Carbon Counter: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint.

"I could nitpick about what is counted and what is not in these two fine books. But that would be futile. The point is this. If kilograms-of-carbon-saved becomes some kind of measure of wealth and health, then Microsoft's all-embracing carbon-counting software will not be far off. The carbon-aware future is coming. Despite the hills of carbon beans, and the need for fairly complex spreadsheets, it is going to be nothing if not interesting. Goodall and Lynas are the pioneers, and are doing a good job of taking us with them."