Rachel Reeves wept in public yesterday.Has it softened those hearts which were stony because they saw the Labour Party turning its back on the weakest in society? So was it a case of real tears of compassion or the weak sniffling of a woman out of her depth?
She’s not the first to do a bit of public blubbing.
Ed Muskie (no,NOT Elon Musk) was a Democratic candidate in 1972. A newspaper attacked his wife and old Ed dissolved in public tears. Far from sympathy, he holed his campaign under the water-line.Lesson: don’t pretend you love your wife.
Barack Obama in 2016 got a bit weepy when speaking of gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting of children. It did him a bundle of good, with people seeing him as empathising with those caught up in Sandy Hook. Lesson: Weep for the dead and you’re on a winner.
Hillary Clinton in 2008 appeared to weep while running for the Democratic candidate for President. She got a mixed bag reaction: some saw the tears a showing empathy, others wondered if America was ready for this weepy woman. Some thought it made here more human, others that she was an emotional cry-baby.
Bob Hawke, Australian PM in 1980, shed a few. The Aussies watching saw his tears and confession of infidelity and decided he was a proper bloke. Straight up.
Theresa May cried but that was only as she retired as British PM, so nobody cared all that much.
Gordon Brown in 2010 teared up during an. Interview when he spoke of his daughter’s death. The public saw him as having emotional depth and his words as deeply moving.
In Ireland, Mary Harney got a bit choked up in the early 2000s, talking about the South’s Health Service. Shure what else would you do? But it didn’t really win her much sympathy.
Finally, Enda Kenny in 2011 spoke of the Magdalene laundries scandal, for which he apologized.The public thought he was such a nice man and so genuine and compassionate.
I was going to talk about Maira Cahill’s lacrimose tendencies, but I found my tears were drenching my keyboard and I could have been electrocuted.
tearing up. as any psychiatrist would tell you, is a controlling mechanism, used by the unscrupulous
The Labour Party are useless. Every time they get back into government they start threatening the weak and poor. For some reason they seem to think they have to pick on people on benefits. I remember the late Alistair Darling making promises to take away benefits and force people to accept any work. Personally I don’t think a “Sir” should be allowed anywhere near a so called Labour Party, never mind becoming party leader.Regarding Rachel Reeves, I felt sorry for her but having read Bridget’s post about the unscrupulous, I am not so sure now!
Margaret thatcher cried like a baby when she got the boot from number ten-
the Iron lady turned to rust-
Very good Jude free Palestine