This week, Neil Calloway looks at who the British public think their political leaders are in the Star Wars universe…
You may have noticed that a new Star Wars film was released this week. As is the case with this sort of phenomenon, everyone tries to jump on whatever the Star Wars equivalent of a bandwagon is – maybe one of those transporters that Jawas use?
Included in the bandwagon jumpers are the polling organisation YouGov, who this week released a poll detailing the British public’s favourite Star Wars characters from the original trilogy.
Sensibly, when phoned up and asked by a total stranger which Star Wars character they would most like to be, 31% of respondents said “don’t know”, which is probably what I’d say. Of people who answered 19% said they would be Princess Leia, just ahead of the 18% who wanted to be Han Solo. People in the Midlands, Wales and Scotland preferred to be the Corellian smuggler to the Alderaanian Princess.
It gets interesting when voting at the 2015 General Election is taken into account. People who voted Labour or UKIP wanted to be Han Solo most, whereas almost a quarter (24%) of Conservative voters wanted to be Leia. Liberal Democrat voters most wanted to be Chewbacca; there are echoes of the coalition there; Lib Dems don’t see themselves as a main character but only a sidekick.
People were also questioned who they thought party leaders would want to be if they were a Star Wars character. Most people obviously answered “don’t know”, which I imagine is short for “I don’t know, that’s a ridiculous question.”
Of those that did answer, 22% said they thought David Cameron would like to be Darth Vader. I’m not sure if they mean he is completely evil, or if like Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi, they think there is some good in him. Maybe they just think he is part machine.
16% thought Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would like to be Yoda, slightly ahead of the 15% who thought he would like to be Obi-Wan Kenobi; obviously there is a pattern here; people see him as an old, wise man who has been out in the wilderness for years before coming to the foreground again. Islington North isn’t quite Dagoboh or the wasteland of Tatooine, though.
61% of people said they didn’t know which Star Wars character Lib Dem leader Tim Farron would be, possibly because that many people don’t know who Tim Farron is. Of those who did answer, however, 14% said he would be Wicket The Ewok. A senior Lib Dem of my acquaintance (there’s so few of them nowadays that all Lib Dems are senior now) said that this was unfair. Unfair on the Ewok, that is.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage was identified as wanting to be Darth Vader by 20% of people, with only UKIP voters choosing him as Han Solo.
It’s a bit of fun, but it shows how well ingrained in our culture Star Wars characters are, and even politicians want to be associated with the series. Both David Cameron and George Osborne attended the London premiere of The Force Awakens, and when thanked by J.J. Abrams (tax breaks provided by the government meant the film was largely shot in Britain) Cameron apparently got polite applause, and Osborne was booed. A campaign to leave the EU has just published an advert depicting the scene from Empire Strikes Back where Darth Vader asks Luke to join him to rule the galaxy. Here, Darth represents the EU, and inexplicably, the Eton and Oxford educated David Cameron is Luke Skywalker, the farmboy from Tatooine. I’m sure if they announced a plan to build a Death Star most Euro-sceptics would stop arguing and support Britain being a member of the EU.
It’s not just Britain where Star Wars has infected politics. At the end of his last press conference before Christmas, US President Barack Obama announced he was going to watch The Force Awakens. There’s an odd connection between Obama and Star Wars; he was apparently the model for The West Wing character Matt Santos, who was played by Jimmy Smits, who of course appeared as Senator Bail Organa in the Star Wars prequels. A recent poll in the US showed that younger voters would prefer Darth Vader as President to Donald Trump, and that in a head to head between Hillary Clinton and Yoda, 41% of people would vote for the Jedi Master, and only 25% would vote for the former Secretary of State.
I’m not sure if it’s a reflection of the impact of the series, or the low regard with which we hold politicians – maybe it’s both – but I find it hard to argue with someone who would prefer Yoda or Vader to be the most powerful person in the world to the present frontrunners.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=WWU57JuvPl0
Originally published December 20, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
