Fearless campaigners in town

There are two new campaigners on the scene, set to shake things up.

One is a free spirited, full of flair, ex-French football player called David Ginola. The other is a spoof middle England pub landlord called Al Murray.

While David is taking on the incumbent FIFA president marred by accusations of corruption, Al is taking on Nigel Farage – the leader of what used to be an outsider anti-immigration political party but has suddenly emerged as a genuine election contender.

The question for the public is - are these campaigners just jokers or publicity stunt front men, or do they have a chance of making a difference?

Making a difference

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think we have true candidates for office on our hands. But we do have two great stories, with two colourful characters, drawing attention to issues that need highlighting (corruption of FIFA, misconceived credibility of UKIP). And judging by the coverage – stories in all national media – they’re being successful in doing this.

David Ginola’s candidacy is backed by Paddy Power – a bookmaker never shy of taking a marketing risk. The concept is that this is a crowd-funded campaign supported and funded by the public. They’re hoping to raise £2.3 million and have already paid David a cool £250,000.

I actually think Paddy Power have got this second bit slightly wrong. By paying David a huge fee and asking for the public to donate, the campaign is seriously undermined, as is David’s genuine interest in FIFA’s presidency. The campaign could have garnered far more support (and less media criticism) if it had simply asked for people to ‘Join Team Ginola’ rather than paying for the privilege (although that would have cost PP an eye-watering £2 million according to their campaign budget).

However, putting this aside, the idea is a good one. If David Ginola turned up on FIFA’s doorstep backed by millions of football fans (who had pledged their support online) on a ticket of “democracy”, “transparency” and “equality”, it might have created some waves.

From reading some of the comments on social media, the campaign seems to have captured the imagination of football fans who recognise the tongue and cheek nature of it while realising there is a valid point to be made.

Let’s turn our attention to Al

UKIP have been causing the Tories and Labour problems. The main political parties simply don’t know how to handle them. To the extent that the Labour party strategy on UKIP (leaked to the media) said they should “move the conversation away from immigration when campaigning”.

The beauty of Al Murray is that by poking fun at UKIP- “It seems to me the UK is ready for a bloke, waving a pint around and offering common sense solutions” – it highlights some of the ridiculous things about them.

I found myself on the way to work taking part in a Metro quiz in which I had to answer questions on which were UKIPs policies and which were Al Murray’s.

What do you think?

• Legalising hand guns
• Bricking up the channel tunnel

There is a similar quiz on the Mirror’s website about who said what.

And while Nigel welcomes Al to the race, all his inclusion seeks to do is make fun of UKIP, undermining their credibility as a genuine political party.

What’s the point?

The most important things about elections is that people take an interest. And - judging by the column inches, the response on social media, and the interest people have shown - these campaigns have certainly done that.

While David Cameron dodges the TV debate – two fearsome campaigners are using the media to call for change! Good on them.