Tag: Spin

McSweeney’s resignation statement eases the heat, but spin culture holds on 

Number 10 Downing Street

After days of pressure on the government, Morgan McSweeney’s exit as Number 10’s chief of staff felt inevitable.

As resignation statements go, it made a fair attempt to own his part in a scandal that could still engulf his boss.

It admits his role in advising the Prime Minister to appoint Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador, acknowledges the damage caused, and owns the failure.

It stands up well against a political culture that too often denies responsibility at all costs, even when the evidence screams otherwise.

Other parts of the statement – included here and in full below – landed less well though.

Statement on Morgan McSweeney's resignation which is also available online here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c74wd01egvyt
Statement from BBC online https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c74wd01egvyt
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Britain isn’t broken, but Jenrick shows that politics is bust

Broken Britain flag

If you want to know what’s wrong with British politics and the media’s relationship with it, Robert Jenrick’s bumpy landing at Reform UK offers a solid starting point.

“It’s time for the truth. Britain is in decline,” he said on Thursday, after arriving late to announce his defection to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK from a Conservative Party he once aspired to lead.

Opportunistic, noisy, and clumsily handled, his announcement and the media reaction to it neatly sums up the Westminster bubble’s failure to look beyond personalities that increasing numbers of people can’t stand.

It farcically followed Jenrick’s sacking from the shadow cabinet after Conservative aides found a draft speech announcing his defection lying around before he had a chance to use it.

This was the ‘irrefutable evidence’ of Jenrick’s disloyalty Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch cited when confirming Jenrick’s sacking on social media.

Jenrick went silent for hours. Badenoch scuppered Farage’s plan to publicly welcome him to an ‘insurgent’ party which increasingly resembles a failed old guard that Reform’s leader eagerly sets himself against. 

And the media lapped it up.

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National Service spin sidesteps today’s challenges

Broken plate strewn across a floor.

Less than a generation ago, students could get a degree without accruing a lifetime of debt. Some received maintenance grants to give them the confidence to go university, often as the first members of their family to do so.

House prices were around three times average incomes, or maybe four at a push. I remember writing stories in 2003 about housing in parts of Sheffield costing more than £100,000 for the first time. Saving for a deposit was possible within a year or two.

More recently, young people could travel, work and live all over Europe.

These basics are much harder to get today, thanks to the actions of a generation of leaders who benefitted from them and compounded the interest.

Rather than understand, or even acknowledge, these challenges, the beneficiaries feed a sense that if young people stopped protesting and worked harder (like we did) all will be fine.

Worried about the climate crisis? You’re a snowflake! Need a £50,000 deposit to get on the housing ladder, on top of your £1,500 a month rent? Stop eating avocados! And so, it goes on. Statements and sponsored social ads speak to an older, home-owning group of voters but don’t get near addressing the challenges facing an entire generation.

This is the lens through which I see Rishi Sunak’s weird and hurriedly compiled weekend announcement about rolling out National Service for 18-year-olds.

Whether the policy would work, and others ask questions here, here and here that I won’t repeat, is barely relevant. This is part of a pattern of behaviour from a political class that appears to prize spin above delivery.

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New slogans, same old spin: Sunak’s net zero PR problem

London, United Kingdom. The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak holds a 'Net Zero' press conference in Downing Street. Picture by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street

Criticising sloganeering, with a campaign slogan strewn across a podium and a screen on the wall.

Lamenting ‘government by headline’ while sharing several social media posts designed to drive (no pun) the net zero narrative.

Decrying how politics is done as political aides feed MPs attack lines in readiness for battle with opponents.

As a comms professional, these inconsistencies stuck after the substance of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s net zero speech sank in.

The way politics is done today – short term, obsessed with headlines, shrouded in spin – fails the country, he said. Who, honestly, would disagree with that?

Therein lies the problem, because it made what followed Mr Sunak’s opening remarks a travesty. In setting a dividing line for Labour ahead of the general election, he can’t credibly claim to be thinking long-term at all.

More than ever, it demonstrated that the old way of communicating is alive and kicking. Labour posted a mock-up of Sunak in Liz Truss’ pocket, but hasn’t charged into battle.  

We are already seeing that the facts around the impact of these policies get lost in the noise. Few people seem persuaded as advocates and opponents double down on their views.   

Far from bringing in a new approach to politics, I fear we can expect more of this in the coming months.

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Time to speed up spin’s decline

“Dominic Cummings faced an agonising decision. But he made the wrong call, at a time when the government’s guidance to the public to stay at home was clear. I understand the public’s anger and have made this clear in my discussions with him. But I do not believe this error is serious enough to cost anyone their job. Dominic Cummings still has much to offer this government. I want us to move forward and focus entirely on recovering from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.”

[A suggested response].

You may disagree with the words used above, and there are many other things that can be said about Dominic Cummings’ breach of the government’s guidance by travelling to Durham. But if you heard something like this from the Prime Minister before this crisis engulfed his government, how would you feel?

You may be hacked off that the architect of the government’s ‘stay home’ message travelled 260 miles as the rest of the country followed the guidance.

Would acknowledging an error of judgement have ‘drawn a line’ under the issue? It won’t have stopped the negative headlines, it’s true. But it may have lessened the hit to its reputation, which has been severe. It could be lasting.

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