8:00am Friday 3rd July 2009
By Emily-Ann Elliott
It was a stunt designed to attract maximum publicity.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw climbed onto a “soapbox” for a question and answer session in Brighton.
But his attempt to make politics interesting to the masses took a nosedive - after he was spotted sipping from a bottle of “Boring” branded water.
Maybe this was due to the extremely warm weather, which made Mr Straw perspire perhaps even more than when faced by a grilling from fellow MPs in the House of Commons.
Mr Straw’s team set up his stand in quite a secluded spot outside the Brighthelm church and community centre at lunchtime yesterday, rather than a more central location such as Churchill Square.
After stepping onto what looked like a specially made wooden box, Mr Straw was surrounded only by his flunkies, with five police officers nearby.
It was only when Mr Straw singled out a “passerby” to ask the first question that a crowd started to gather.
He said to the man, who later told The Argus he was a local office worker, “You look like a man with a question”.
The man asked the former Home Secretary what Labour was going to do for the people of Brighton, which provided the perfect opportunity for Mr Straw to talk about “Building Britain’s Future”, the slogan which was plastered over the screen behind him.
At this point a crowd began to gather.
Among the issues he covered were the war in Iraq, the recession and of course “Building Britain’s Future”.
Mr Straw said he really enjoys speaking to people and stands on his “soapbox” regularly in his own constituency of Blackburn.
But he added: “It can be terrifying as you don’t always have the answers to the questions.”
After more than an hour Mr Straw had finished talking to the people of Brighton and was whisked away by his team of advisors - along with the “office worker from Brighton” who had asked the first question.
Some people were more taken with Mr Straw than others.
Reverend David Coleman from Brighton United Reform Church said: “It is very courageous what he is doing and he is performing very well and convincing everyone asking a question that he knows his stuff.”
However, not everyone was impressed with the party’s branding. One woman stopped to tell Mr Straw’s team that the posters looked like they were advertising the BNP party, rather than Labour.
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