GUEST POST – Get the message

We are inviting a series of guest posts to mark the official launch of the Young Fabian blog. YF members who would like to contribute should get in touch with Vice Chair, Adrian Prandle, aprandle@youngfabians.org.uk.

Here, Young Fabian member Tom Foot makes the case for communicating in a way that both represents the party and resonates with the public.

Yet more contradictory messages for activists! This week an ICM poll revealed that Labour has achieved a net-gain of four points on the Conservatives.

However, a range of answers on ‘character’ suggest that “the Tory leader is now regarded as tougher, more decisive and more internationally respected than Gordon Brown.”

So, what should we take from all this?

I was surprised to hear that people considered Cameron more respected than Brown. Indeed, just two months ago, our Prime Minister was honoured by the UN as ‘world statesman of the year’! I recently heard, first-hand, a US President pleading with his own electorate to accept the notion of economic stimulus – he appealed to the actions of his opposite number here as justification. That is exceptional.

On the other hand, we have David Cameron – isolated in Europe and unknown across the pond. By recognising the worth of both the EU and of ‘tough’ rhetoric, Cameron has worked himself into an awkward ambivalence…a constitutionally empty ‘UK Sovereignty Act’ being symptomatic. That is laughable.

If the problem is not with the policy, it must be with perception. The truth is that it is ‘not what you do, but what you are seen to do’ that will define election outcomes.

There have been times when I have bitterly cursed our leader. I believe him to be an astute, strong and pragmatic man…but in dumbing down complex arguments to the electorate, he has misrepresented the party. If you do not trust the people, they will not trust you. Consider two examples from this summer: the investment ‘cuts’ saga; and the al-Megrahi palaver. These escalated from potential policy victories into unnecessary scandal due to Labour’s coalescence around faulted core messages.

Worse, a narrative has developed: Brown as ‘locked in his bunker’. This phrase has resonance as it speaks to the stubborn streak in Brown that has stopped him from conceding ground when it becomes clear that he must. It is a very damaging phrase, suggestive of a man that has lost touch with the world, a man that could not possibly construct affective ‘tough’ ‘decisive’ and ‘internationally reputable’ policy.

While structuring digestible core messages, we should be mindful that this is a narrative that the Labour Party must shake-off to turn the polls around.