Tweeting in a war zone.

As the world adapts to new technologies and new communications, it is changing the way we interact with each other socially and is changing the way the world operates politically. Propaganda is nothing new and its proliferation has been used to amass armies and turn nations against each other. Repressed people are now able to voice their subversions through Twitter and broadcast the acts of violence by governments through YouTube. The internet has emancipated the voices to the West and to pressurise the governments of secretive and cruel regimes. Yet, how effective is it and are governments now catching up with this technological proliferation?

The ‘Green Revolution’ during the 2009 elections Iran was the inaugural example of a digital rebellion. After questionable results were returned and the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed electoral victory, young Iranians poured onto the streets of Tehran to protest at the result. With hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters amassing across the capital and the world’s attention heaping pressure on the Iranian Government, the Ministry of Information banned all foreign journalists. Their expulsion saw the Revolutionary Guard turn violent against its own people, without the world’s gaze scrutinising its every move. Yet, they didn’t account for mobile phones recording every move and the use of Twitter to organise public rallies. Although it did not force the government out, it highlighted their ability to turn violent on its own people and the disharmony among the Iranian population.

The recent uncertainty in Syria has been difficult to report due to the government in Damascus closing the borders to foreigners. Despite regime change in the region, with the help of new communications, the Syrian government has been effective in curbing the use of the internet. Not only has it switched off the network to prevent protests but more concerning it has forced protestors to deny unrest and promote the regime’s values online. What is also concerning is the inability of Western organisations to discern what is true and what might not be true. This week saw the press duped into the abduction of a lesbian Syrian blogger, it turned out it was a man from Scotland. Wars are now fought with public relations teams; the recent conflicts in Israel and Libya have been notorious through the role of government spokesmen. Journalists are driven around warzones like city tour buses and press releases are issued as prolifically as canon fire.

We may be unable to understand the truth fully and unfortunately more people may lose their lives before anything changes. The ability of the Chinese Government to control its firewall shows how effective these measures can be implemented. However, leaders can no longer prevent news of uprisings from escaping their borders. Long gone are the days of Glasnost and State TV monopolising the news channels, the BBC and CNN are simply a click away. Assassins come in the form of the sniper and blogosphere.

The Flashman papers.

The role of the media in politics and its use to construct and then ultimately destruct the careers of those in power is well known. For years sketch writers and cartoonists have lampooned the credibility and fallibility of politicians and in reverse speechwriters, spin doctors and political advisors have been hired to lionise their every move and utterance. The cult of personality in electoral politics can be grave or a procession to a Ministerial promotion.

It is particularly interesting to look at the relationship between the three major parties and their own ‘witticisms’ of each other. The age of coalition government has flipped the previous polarities and has increased the forensic detail on policy and partnership, particularly in the Liberal Democrat’s ailing leader Nick Clegg. Clegg, whose election debate performances spun the short-lived craze of ‘Cleggmania’ is now perceived as the manservant to the Bullingdon boy David Cameron. Clegg was previously deemed a fresh faced reformer on the outside, yet a year later his political reputation has been tarnished by his partnership in Government that supposedly quashed his principles. Clegg’s short lived ascendancy and decline, is through a cocktail of his political weakness and the media turning the screw on his every mistake.

Labour leader, Ed Miliband exclaimed that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, was like Harry Paget ‘Flashman’, the ‘hero’ in the George Fraser MacDonald novels. Harry Flashman VC, KCB, KCIE, Legion d’Honneur and so on was a Victorian soldier who was chucked out of Rugby and whose father bought him a commission in the light dragoons. Some say he was a cavalier, cheat, thief and womanising cad – not exceptional talents for a politician to have. Though Flashman was heroic as well, he saved British India, confounded the French and defeated the Su Indians; he even took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. It is not necessarily a bad portrait to take on. It was the Soviet’s who pejoratively called Mrs Thatcher the ‘Iron Lady’ yet she used this to enhance her personality.

Ed Miliband whose distinguishing features have seen him titled ‘Red Ed’ for his apparent Old Labour views. He has also been toyed because of his inferiority to his bigger brother, former Foreign Secretary, David. The issue with asserting a personality is that it can inevitably lead to parody and typecast. John Major, who came to power after ten years of Mrs Thatcher, was portrayed as the ‘grey man’ for his insipidness. Tony Blair, despite the charisma and personality, is known for his lack of substance too. Playing to the media helps politicians get to where they want to belong but the continuous airbrushing assimilates a portfolio to one of Lord Sugar’s rejects: all talk but utterly hopeless.

It is unfair because politicians are never going to get things right. The age of 24-hour news examines every single angle of a story and grasps every opinion. An apology shows weakness, but defiance can show a lack of sympathy or pure haughtiness. The end of Gordon Brown’s tenure in Downing Street reflected this perfectly. Enoch Powell famously said that ‘All political lives end in failure’ and whilst Cameron and Miliband will continue to play their Punch and Judy politics, Clegg will continue to stand in the background resembling Hamlet’s indecisiveness and retain his position as media/electorate punch bag.