An excellent point

I must say, this is an excellent point. It simply hadn't occurred to me, but it should have done.

Comments

[Bob]

Oh for pity's sake. Brown wasn't insulting hard-working sales staff doing honest work (although they can take offence if they want to join the millions around the country who do so at the slightest provocation). He was attacking Cameron for treating politics AS IF it were a double-glazing hard sell. Nothing wrong with double glazing. But politics can't be sold that way. Daniel and Stephen are over-reacting.

[Colin W]

Not sure about that. There's nothing wrong with being a salesman, obviously. The question is whether being a salesman - even a good salesman - qualifies you to run the country. I don't think it does.

(That's independent of the question of whether the charge that Cameron is a salesman is fair. Whether it's fair or not, I think even people who work in sales should concede that if it were true, it would be a legitimate concern about a potential PM.)

[Ed]

Iain Martin touched on this at the time:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/iain_martin/blog/2008/05/03/gordon_brown_beware_salesmen_have_feelings_too

[John Scott]

Whilst the analysis presented could work, in reality it does not. Mr Brown is simply making use of existing negative connotations associated with an occupation as a convenient short-hand for his criticisms of Cameron. It is a perfectly common rhetorical technique.

One could argue that it suggests a disrespect for entrepreneurs, but the language is only useful if its connotations are widely shared. As such, such a criticism of Mr Brown would not work as "everyone knows" that salespeople are slick, shifty etc. It may not be true, but it is one of a number of stereotypes, think of the ideas conjured into the mind by references to lawyers and builders for example.