If Gordon wants to be more popular he should ape zeitgeisters David and Boris

British PM Gordon Brown is not popular. Conservative leader David Cameron and Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson are extremely popular.

Aside from their joint love of rosette colour, what most unites Cameron and Johnson? They are Britain’s highest profile utility cyclists.

It’s strange, most ‘normal’ Brits hate cyclists yet Cameron and Johnson have stuck to their bikes despite recent attempts by the mainstream media to shame them into going by car instead.

Cycling may be in decline, in terms of bums on saddles, but it’s the sort of healthy, non-polluting, earth-friendly activity that goes down well in the sort of key constituencies that win British elections.

Cycling is tops with middle-class white people, says top WordPresser Christian Lander. And that’s true for the UK as well as the US.

So, if Gordon Brown wants to tickle the fancies of the electoral minority power-makers - the middle ground voters so beloved of British politicos - he needs to address their concerns from a streaming bikecam.



His YouTube initiative, launched today, is lame without a bike. It’s just a bloke in a suit, fluffing his words. Never heard of ‘take two’, Gordon? You might not be able to follow David Cameron’s bike commute on but his website - webcameron - is stuffed to the gills with other social media fripperies.

The Tory leader famously quipped that Gordon Brown was an “analogue politician in a digital age.”

Brown’s YouTube appearance, sans bicycle, is a good case in point.

However, the - conjured up by ? - gives us all a chance to tell Gordon he needs to get out and ride more.

Ask the PM will be a regular Q&A session open to everyone. You’ll also be able to vote for your favourite questions throughout with the most popular rising to the top.

So send in your video questions on any subject you like, from tackling climate change to improving the health service and creating jobs, and make the most of your chance to have a personal Prime Minister’s Question Time.

The first session will close to submissions on 21 June and the PM’s response will be shared shortly after.

Videos have to be less than 30 seconds long and can be ever so slightly frivoulous: “We will accept lighter questions not necessarily linked to Government policy.”

Interestingly, “questions will be selected based on their popularity with YouTube users…”

So, here’s a challenge. Let’s collaborate on a bike-topic video, post it to YouTube and then make it popular so Gordon has to answer it (preferably from a bike saddle).

As Gordon probably knows, fame on YouTube can be cruel. Gordon Brown’s official YouTube videos struggle to get 2000+ views. However, one of him picking his nose - and allegedly eating the results - has had 233,255 views to date: