Russell Brand v Ed Miliband: who came out on top?
Russell Brand has just released his video with Ed Miliband. Overall it was what we expected, quite awkward, shouty at times but generally trying to present an alternative style of political interview.
Two things that struck me –
Ed Miliband couldn’t resist mirroring Brand’s unique accent dropping from time to time into a sort of mockney, street. my favourite example was the Labour leader admonishing Brand about 12 minutes in: “It ain’t gonna be like that, right, it ain’t gonna be like that”.
Ed Miliband neutralised Mr Brand after a time. It started a bit shaky and seemed like it might descend into two blokes shouting about “trans national corporations”, “towers of money” and Rupert Murdoch, as time went on though the Labour leader started to calm down Brand leading him on to topics he favoured.
Zero hours contracts, media plurality (to an extent), getting the Tories out. he was especially good when he told Brand he wasn’t looking for the euphoria of Obama or Blair. He just wanted to get in and change things, he said.
Mr Brand ended the video with as close an endorsement as Ed Miliband could have hoped for, saying the Labour leader “he understands the way that media works now, the way that the country feels at the moment, the way that people felt hat he was prepared to talk to us at the trews.”