David Cameron looks slightly baffled. He is a good media performer, at ease in front of the camera and much more relaxed in major interviews than most politicians sound. After a difficult month he decided to do what he thinks he does best and get back on the front foot by doing the Today programme and being followed around all day by the BBC’s Nick Robinson. But the old shtick isn’t working.
Alastair Campbell is right, yesterday’s media blitz was precisely the wrong response to current difficulties. On his blog Labour’s Professor of Applied Spin says:
“The mood has changed, and what happens when the mood has changed is that what once was just absorbed and accepted as ‘nice pictures’ now just grates, frankly. But worse than that is the sense coming from the country’s PM that life is just one long round of media appearances. Sorry to repeat myself – but do more and say less. Being on telly from PMQs. Fine. Being on telly from summits and big speeches with big points to make. Good. But stop being your own spokesman on running stories of the day.”
This echoes a piece I wrote for the Telegraph yesterday: Voters have patience with the culture of fakery and spin. The old way of practising politics – rooted in Bill Clinton’s War Room, perpetual spin and image manipulation – is bust. People can see the wiring. There is a certain irony that Campbell, who played a leading role in bringing this stuff to Britain, should be pointing this out to the current Prime Minister.
Blair (with Campbell’s help) copied Clinton and then Cameron tried to copy Blair to win the last election. But in the Tory leader’s case it wasn’t, for reasons I explain in the column, enough.
The Telegraph piece was a shorter version of a long essay I’ve written for the next issue of Standpoint. You can read it here: Cameron should scrap his tired old script.
