Politics? Viral? Europe? Are you mad?

This clip from Channel Four News describes a verbal attack on Gordon Brown by a Conservative MEP as the most viewed political speech in the fastest time in internet history. Two factors make this particularly interesting.
Firstly, the role that media such as Twitter and YouTube played in spreading an event which would otherwise have gone unreported (and is still curiously underplayed or ignored by the BBC) underlines a power shift away from traditional media.
Secondly, the political machinery in the UK, and possibly across Europe, has yet to seriously grasp either the threat or the opportunity offered by this new media.
There are some lessons that we can take from this episode if we look at the political environment. It’s arguable whether the dissatisfaction that helped fuel the speech’s popularity is felt mainly by people with a certain political view, or whether that feeling is more mainstream.
If there is a perception that a need is being ignored, does that make it easier for a maverick voice to be heard?
The speech has already received over 1 million hits since it was posted on YouTube. Watch it here.