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What does this say about public opinion?

There’s an amusing piece by George Grant and Roger Waite in the Sunday Times about how Gordon has become the butt of some of the humour in this year’s pantomimes.

“..The scene is a basement in the City. Cinderella, a redundant investment banker, is sobbing because she has been forced to take on a cleaning job. Suddenly, after a blinding flash, Gordon Brown is standing before her.

“Don’t be afraid, Cinderella,” he says, holding a magic wand aloft. “For I am your fairy godfather.”

“Oh, fairy godfather,” says Cinderella. “Please will you wave your magic wand and help me to escape from this life of drudgery?”

So Gordon waves his magic wand . . . and absolutely nothing happens.

“But everything’s still the same,” sobs Cinders.

“Oh no, it isn’t,” says Gordon.

“Oh yes it is,” cries the audience.

That’s a taste of what panto lovers have been enjoying this season as Gordon Brown and his ministers assume the role of traditional stage villains. In productions from Aladdin to Mother Goose, the government is mercilessly pilloried…”

I think that this does have a political point. If audiences are really are reacting in the way the Sunday Times describes it then that it says something, surely, about public opinion?

Mike Smithson