Tag Archives: David Cameron

Ed’s union backing will strike a chord with Tory spin

26 Sep

The media are running with the line that Ed Miliband was elected as Labour leader - and the Conservatives are bound to pick up on this and run with it – is because of the support of the unions. As Nick Robinson on his BBC blog said: ‘ His brother David won the first three rounds of voting and won more support amongst MPs and MEPs and ordinary party members. What clinched the contest was the votes of union members – a fact that will be deployed ruthlessly by his political enemies.’

Now the Tories have the perfect attack on Ed Miliband and therefore the Labour Party. We have already seen a number of protests and strikes from unionised workers and as we all know major cuts will be coming in October, this will lead to more industrial action.

It gives the Tories a narrative to attack Labour and it gives the media a story. It is an extremely powerful message and one that is already no doubt being fleshed out by Tory strategists.

The Tories can paint Ed M as being indebted to the unions. It will be an extremely powerful line, one that will almost certainly be picked up by a media that is sympathetic to the government, and a message is likely the resonate with the pubic. Instead of people such as Bob Crow (head of the RMT union) becoming the cause of annoyance and figures of hate, it will become Ed Miliband and as such the Labour Party.

Although people will be angry at cuts to their services, they also get angry when their lives are disrupted. Look at the recent strikes by RMT workers that put a stop to large sections of the London Underground. People do not care about whether ticket offices remain open, what they do care about is that their journeying around London was disrupted. If the action of unionised members affect people’s lives the Tories will try to get Miliband to denounce them, if he does not they will say it is because they got him elected. This is not a new strategy, but it will be more powerful on Ed and will be more powerful because of the cuts that will be coming. It may help deflect some of the public anger away that is coming the Tories’ way and shift it onto Labour.

So how does Ed Miliband and Labour combat this forthcoming attack? Simple it needs to tell a story why the unions are striking and link it back to direct decisions the government has made.

Labour has to get across that they support the unionised members because they are ordinary hard-working people who are merely opposed to vicious cuts imposed by the coalition. Another powerful counter is that members are not striking to save their jobs but to protect the services that everyone in our country  rely upon. That they do not strike because of some dogma, they strike to try to save the services that people need, unlike Tory cuts which are driven by a party doctrine.

PR’s been cut but PR is important to handle the cuts

22 Jun

 


David Cameron and George Osborne - the two men behind today's Emergency Budget should be happy at the way it has been positioned

 

The government has been quick to announce it is cutting its PR and communication budget but what is interesting is the PR of the cuts.

The Emergency Budget is set to be announced today, just as promised within 50 days since the election.

The Government believes it is going to have to make severe cuts to get the country’s finances back in order. The government have tested the public with the earlier announcement of cuts of £6bn of cuts. These were merely just the non-controversial start, ID cards and Quangos are not going to upset too many people and they allowed the government a chance to gauge public opinion.

But we are likely to see the true scale of the cuts in a couple of today’s budget and also further cuts likely to come in the Autumn.

Cuts in the public spending are always going to be controversial, so PR has been vital in order to try to position the government favourably.

The focus of the Con-Dem Government’s media activity has been about the economy and specifically about the need for cuts. They are trying to convince the public – and essentially voters – that the cuts are necessary, the cuts are Labour’s fault and the Con-Dem coalition are saving the economy and the country from tougher times in the future.

The first focus of this PR campaign started before the election with the Conservatives attacking Labour about their handling of the economy. But Luckily for the Conservatives a political consensus had formed about the need for cuts, this allowed the message to be accepted by the public.

Then after forming a government the Conservatives attempted to show the public that the tough decisions they will have to make are merely down to Labour. Stories were fed to the media about how bad the economy and public finances were and how it was all down to Labour. Examples of this are Ministers proclaiming black holes in the department’s budget, the Liam Bryne’s ‘No Money Left’ letter, etc. The strategy then moved onto the consequences of not making cuts, for example Nick Clegg claimed it would not be progressive for future generations to pay for our spending. We have seen in interviews and speeches over the past few weeks time after time government ministers telling us tough times lay ahead, severe cuts will have to be made. They have not given the public details but are merely preparing them for the budget. The public now believe cuts are necessary and that severe cuts are going to be made in today’s Emergency Budget.

We have also had leaks about certain aspects of the budget to try to prepare the public for the cuts and tax rises that will be announced later today – for example a rise in VAT is widely anticipated and if it is confirmed today it will not be a shock.

Overall the Conservative’s communication strategy has been good and they way they have positioned today’s budget, its cuts and tax rises has been top-notch

Two-faced Tory marketing mantra

22 Jan

Latest Tory billboard campaign which was
rumoured to have cost the party £500,000

While Euro RSCG London may be getting a bit of a boost from the Tory party at the moment it is safe to say that the industry is going to take a battering if they assume power in the General Election.

George Osborne has said the Conservatives would cut the government’s advertising spend immediately if they are voted into power. He called the current spend ‘poor value for money’ and ‘excessive’. Gordon Brown said he would also cut the government’s marketing spend by a quarter but many have a horrible feeling the Tories want to go much further.

David Cameron echoed the views of his shadow chancellor by saying the current spend was ‘irresponsible’. You would get the impression that the Tories had a clear scepticism of the merits of marketing, PR and advertising from their less than positive comments. So it came as a surprise when Dave revealed that his party would spend the maximum legal limit of £18m on marketing during the upcoming election campaign. They are also expected to spend many more millions on marketing in the run-up to when the election is called.

And of course they have already released a string of high-profile and  expensive campaigns in the past six months or so. You can get an idea how much they are plowing into their campaign from their furious marketing activity and from a string of articles found on marketingmagazine.co.uk (here are just a recent few) – ‘Tories look to recruit General Election brand manager‘, ‘Labour campaign funding on the slide as Tories launch poster offensive’ , ‘Conservative Party poster accuses Labour of class war’, ‘Conservative Party target younger voters with Spotify ad campaign’.

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