BMJ  2005;330 (7 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7499.0-g

Editor's choice

Triumph of the white male

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The winner of the United Kingdom's election will come as a surprise to the nation's 9-13 year olds. A survey of these future voters revealed that footballer Wayne Rooney would make the best prime minister. Second to Rooney in this most perceptive of pre-election polls was schoolboy wizard Harry Potter. Failing that Charlie from "Busted," a defunct teen pop band, was best equipped to lead the country in any future wars or fiscal negotiations. Tony Blair, who has a taste for many of the attributes desired by his country's children—a love of football, music, and, his critics will say, a recently acquired taste for fiction—came in a respectable fourth.

By all accounts this has been the most negative and personalised election campaign in the history of British politics. Researchers from Loughborough University calculated that 43% of television and press coverage showed politicians attacking rivals. Voters turned their backs on this . . . [Full text of this article]

Kamran Abbasi, deputy editor

(kabbasi@bmj.com)


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