Archive for the ‘foxes’ tag
Chickens and Foxes
Great story today that during the 1997 election the Conservatives were having Tony Blair followed by a guy in a chicken suit (for refusing to debate John Major), who after expression doubts Daniel Finkelstein had to keep on side (quote of the day: ‘It was my job to stop the chicken defecting to the Labour Party. ‘). To counter this dastardly threat Labour responded by having a guy in a fox suit on hand to harass the chicken as Three Line Whip explains:
Things got so farcical that at one stage, with Blair due to appear at a Glasgow press conference, the Tory chicken was so spooked by Labour’s fox that it hid out in the offices of a friendly (to the Tories) newspaper office overlooking the Labour venue only to leap out when the PM-in-waiting eventually turned up.
If this seems a little familiar to some, fans of the West Wing will remember that Josh in season 6 likewise had guys dress up in chicken suits to harness other candidates for not wanting to debate his candidate (which makes you wonder if one inspired the other or if chicken suits are just part of the political zeitgeist). However, unlike the Tories, he went on to win his election and the man who thought chicken suits were a good idea is now chief of staff to the fictional leader of the free world. There’s probably an important lesson to take away from this.
