Well, if I actually go back and count up everything I’ve written over the last few weeks, this election is clearly worth more like 83,000 words to me…
Which is a lot of writing – and also a lot of reading.
If you have been following me on this long, and sometimes disturbing, journey through Victoria’s political psyche, with its egos, ids, and superegos, I think you deserve a reward.
I’ve commented a few times over the course of these posts that it would be interesting to create wordclouds for some of these political parties. Well, it turns out that www.wordclouds.com lets me do just that – and it even lets me choose the colours and shapes so that they can be themed with the parties in question! So, herewith, for your delectation and delight, the political parties contesting the Victorian State Election – in pictorial form!
Animal Justice Party
The only question here was which animal to use. The dolphin was pretty cool, but I liked the way the words clustered on the turtle – very thematically appropriate. Wordcloud generated from all the AJP’s online policy pages pasted into a single document.
Aussie Battler Party
The Aussie Battlers, represented as a total garbage fire. The question here was which set of policies could truly represent them, particularly since so many were no longer available. In the end, I decided that Lorem Ipsum, the classic pseudo-Latin text used by printers as a placeholder, was the most appropriate option.
Australian Country Party
The Australian Country Party, represented as a chicken sitting on her nest. Wordcloud composed of all the online policy pages for the Victorian branch of the Australian Country Party.
Australian Greens
The Greens could really only be represented by a tree. Their wordcloud is much more detailed than most of the others, because they have a single handy PDF containing all their policies which I was able to upload into the wordcloud system.
Australian Labor Party
If there’s one thing the Andrews government likes, it’s trains. So here is a nice one just for them. For this wordcloud, I used their main policy pages, not the many, many, subpages, because there are limits to my dedication. Besides, this one seemed to have the right sort of keywords.
Australian Liberty Alliance
The ALA’s ‘manifesto’ represented as a map of Australia, which they don’t deserve, but I couldn’t think of anything appropriate, either. I’m surprised Islam doesn’t come up larger.
Democratic Labour Party
As the only party with a religious platform, the DLP is represented by a church. Wordcloud is compiled from the policies currently available online.
Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party
Hinch’s Justice Party, represented, of course, by a gavel. Wordcloud composed from his online policies.
Fiona Patten’s Reason Party
I really wanted to make this a rainbow, given Patten’s support for all things LGBT, but since she is trying to move to the reason platform, I decided that the Parthenon was a better idea. Wordcloud from the policy page.
Health Australia Party
An apple a day keeps the infectious diseases at bay! But only if it’s organic and not GM… This wordcloud is compiled from the full policy document downloaded from the HAP in mid-November.
Hudson for Northern Victoria
Wordcloud of the main webpage for Hudson for Northern Victoria, superimposed onto a map of Victoria, with the Northern Victorian region highlighted in green.
Liberal Democratic Party
The Liberal Democrats are represented by the Statue of Liberty, because let’s face it, they want to be as American as possible, only without the religion. Wordcloud is compiled from their policy document, but strangely lacking words like ‘liberty’ and ‘government’, which were very frequently used in the document. Not sure what that’s about. Perhaps the program is getting testy?
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party is represented by a lobster for no particular reason… Because their detailed policies are tricky to compile, I went with the umbrella policies from their get back in control website, combined with their values statement from the Victorian Liberals website.
National Party of Australia
The Nationals are represented by a field which is being used to grow some rather alarming crops. Wordcloud from their main policy pages – I did not go into the read more sections, because life is too short.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers are represented by an arrow hitting a target, because I think that they do kind of secretly think they are Robin Hood. Wordcloud from a combined PDF of all their policies.
Sustainable Australia
Sustainable Australia’s slogan for the Victorian State Election is ‘Stop overdevelopment’. They don’t actually mention castles, but I think castles are implied. Wordcloud is a compilation of all their policies.
Transport Matters
Transport matters, represented by a yellow taxi. I think we all know why. Wordcloud from their entire policy platform.
Victorian Socialists
You can’t have a Socialist Party and not give them a nice, revolutionary sort of red flag, now, can you? Wordcloud from their manifesto and policy page.
Voluntary Euthanasia Party
The VEP is represented by a person lying in bed. There really wasn’t a lot on the VEP website to go on, so I combined all of it into this wordcloud.
Vote 1 Local Jobs
I considered representing Vote 1 Local Jobs with a question mark, because I really have no idea what they are about. But since they have a 1 in their title, they might as well get one here, too. This is a compilation of everything I was able to find across their extremely dodgy website.
So, what do you think? Do these word clouds make you think differently about the various parties? Or do they just make you think that I need some better hobbies?
Or maybe both…?
These are amazing!
The National Party wordcloud really nailed them didn’t it – the crops they care about most in 2018 should leave farmers reeling!