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Cameron has an army of spin doctors - aka journalists
2009-09-18 10:07:06
For those of you who don't get the New Statesman, here is the piece I have written for this week's issue, on the media's love-in with David Cameron. Have vlogged on similar subject.
Accustomed though I am to occasional populism, I found myself having to squirm away from the TV when David Cameron came on to announce his post-summer holiday Big Idea -- lower salaries and more expensive chips for MPs.
It was not just the piddling nature of the proposals - even Cameron called them a 'pinprick' - more striking was the fullscale bells and whistles media operation, complete with BBC cameras popping in to watch him clear away the cereal boxes and urge his wife to 'trust me' as he kissed her goodbye.
A former spin doctor, Cameron will have been happy with the outcome. Leading BBC bulletins, not bad print coverage, a bit sniffy in places, but hey, all things considered ...
All things considered, it was but the latest evidence of the media double standards applied to the two main party leaders. For Gordon Brown, any excuse for any abuse will do. For Cameron, 'easy ride' does not begin to describe it.
Pot. Kettle. Black, say some, I having been involved in the odd successful media hit. But - book plug essential here I'm afraid - read my diaries. Every day of Opposition was hard. And every day, the demands, expectations and intensity of scrutiny by the media were greater than anything Cameron has had to endure. His Bullingdon club antics - evidence not of elitism, privilege and weird values, but a sign that the public (as defined by the press) are ready to be ruled by toffs again. Drugs? He's decided not to answer, so let's stop asking. Expenses? Let's cover the tough noises he makes about others, and park his own taxpayer-funded mortgage.
As for policy, why should we press him to spell it all out? Doesn't it just show how clever he is, not to open himself to scrutiny? So let's not worry too much about what might have happened had Britain adopted his do-nothing approach to the global financial crisis. Take as read his desire to help middle income families, and don't tell anyone he wants to remove tax credits that might help them. Keep trotting out the pictures of him leading his huskies in the Arctic and overlook Tory councils turning down application after application for 'bird blenders', as Cameron calls wind farms. As for Europe, ok, he has got into bed with a bunch of racists, homophobes, climate change denyers and extremists, but it won't damage Britain's influence in Europe ... er, will it?
The Tories like to say they model much of their strategy on what Tony Blair did in modernising the Labour Party. But important though words, branding and pictures for the Beeb may have been, the hard yards were won not by PR puffery, but by difficult strategic and policy decisions to show the public we had got the message of successive defeats, and had changed.
Ask Tories how Cameron has changed the party and they tend to say he's got them ahead in the polls. Fair enough. Ask journalists and they will happily regurgitate the line from Central Office about detoxifying the brand. Ask a member of the public what if any policy proposals have been made to indicate change, and they could be forgiven for knowing of none. I don't mean not many. I mean none.
Scratch beneath the poll headlines a little, and his main problem with the public remains lack of substance. His strategy seems to compound that, yet still the analysis remains soft.
Now go back to Neil Kinnock. Try to imagine what the media would do to a Kinnock-led Labour Party that was unable to say what it intended to do on tax, or how much it intended to spend on which public services. Imagine a Kinnock-led party whose European policy was seen as misguided by virtually every major power in the world. Imagine a Kinnock-led Labour Party whose shadow cabinet was as unknown as this one.
This is not a call on the media to be anti-Tory in the way the press was virulently anti-Labour then. But it is to ask why so many of them appear to have suspended the kind of critical analysis normally applied to the Opposition.
General support from papers like the Mail and the Telegraph, given their avowed right-wing position and hatred of new Labour, it is at least explicable; and for the Murdoch stable, not only is there the usual pragmatic analysis of who they think might win, but their basic worldview tends to be on the right. Much odder is the way parts of the left press have fallen under Cameron's spell, buying the line that he has progressive goals, when in speech after speech, once you get beneath the cutesy headline, and in Commons vote after Commons vote, the opposite is revealed. Even more striking is the way the broadcasters cover him as though he were PM-elect, not an Opposition leader whose words and actions should be covered with at least the same level of scepticism and inquiry attached to the government.
This is not just about the media. Labour too needs to do a far better job of getting after him. It is not simply what happens at PMQs that matters, hugely important though those exchanges are to setting the strategic lines for the election. He and his colleagues have to start feeling pressure from every level of the Labour Party. That task would be easier if MPs with an eye on future leadership elections rather than the general elections stopped spreading the message that nothing has been achieved, that the country hasn't changed, that effectively we have failed. It helps nobody but Cameron. And it's not true.
People say they don't like negative campaigning. But there are three planks to any campaign - the setting out of a forward agenda, defence of the record, and attacks on your opponents. All are essential. All have to be done with verve and vigour. And on all three, Labour have the makings of a strong position. So as Andrew Rawnsley rightly said at the weekend, if the media won't do its job properly (I paraphrase) Labour needs to do even better at carrying out those tasks. Policy. Defence. Attack.
Journalists, particularly after so-called Labour spin, like to pride themselves on their refusal to be spun. They are being spun big style, coverage driven by their view that Cameron has won, and that is the story. Anything that points in that direction, it is news. If it doesn't, it's not. If he does win, he will do so as the most under examined, under scrutinised, untested, policy-lite leader in history, aided and abetted by an army of willing self-spinners, dotted around the papers and the broadcast stations, who by their indifference to genuine scrutiny help him every day.
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White House whack at UK media well-timed but sure to be ignoredPublish date: 2009-05-30 13:41:00
Elvis has a plan to make MPs King againPublish date: 2009-05-29 12:09:44
At least there's a campaign on in ItalyPublish date: 2009-05-28 09:04:32
A blow to gay rights and a boost for Cameron's short-termismPublish date: 2009-05-27 11:27:41
It's my blog and I'll be a big kid if I want toPublish date: 2009-05-26 23:25:58
Highs feel better after so many lowsPublish date: 2009-05-26 10:13:12
Only one present countsPublish date: 2009-05-25 11:05:46
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Sex (or at least the female form) obsessed BritainPublish date: 2009-05-23 20:49:57
Sport at both ends of the financial spectrumPublish date: 2009-05-23 09:57:23
Stronger together - whether Scotland or expensesPublish date: 2009-05-22 10:22:36
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Peace in the Middle East - yes he canPublish date: 2009-05-19 09:37:35
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How do you solve a problem like Silvio?Publish date: 2009-05-16 09:32:21
It was the internet wot won itPublish date: 2009-05-15 10:04:57
There now follows ... a good whack at CameronPublish date: 2009-05-14 17:21:28
They got their kit off - so you get your cash outPublish date: 2009-05-14 07:41:11
Expenses row must not obscure Tory intentions on minimum wagePublish date: 2009-05-13 16:12:08
We love you Burnley, we do ... what a nightPublish date: 2009-05-13 02:37:17
A tweet cannot express the wonders of TGVPublish date: 2009-05-12 08:48:31
It's Mind week - Get it off your Chest with me and Stephen FryPublish date: 2009-05-11 06:29:15
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MPs expenses - time for party leaders to meet againPublish date: 2009-05-09 09:50:19
Should happiness replace prosperity as national goal?Publish date: 2009-05-08 08:43:23
Musings from a sleepless nightPublish date: 2009-05-07 07:33:49
Darren Fletcher - an injustice that has to be rightedPublish date: 2009-05-06 09:52:29
Maggie's legacy not as great as she thinksPublish date: 2009-05-05 08:33:02
Here's hoping Cardiff is metaphor for CameronPublish date: 2009-05-04 09:38:30
More Mr Benn and Co pleasePublish date: 2009-05-03 10:03:00
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Journalism - print first, think laterPublish date: 2009-05-02 09:10:01
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JP hits the road againPublish date: 2009-04-29 18:52:11
My night with Eddie IzzardPublish date: 2009-04-29 10:53:25
Explaining the 50p top tax ratePublish date: 2009-04-28 09:22:53
George Best and Martin McGuinnessPublish date: 2009-04-27 09:02:35
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Guide ro Marathon running part 2Publish date: 2009-04-25 11:01:34
Good signals on coal and the OlympicsPublish date: 2009-04-24 10:45:28
Tips for the London MarathonPublish date: 2009-04-23 17:29:27
Missed the Budget, saw why it matteredPublish date: 2009-04-22 23:09:31
Football good, politics bad. AllegedlyPublish date: 2009-04-22 00:00:24
The Great Wall gets greaterPublish date: 2009-04-21 09:55:22
Two sides to police storyPublish date: 2009-04-20 11:39:54
Budgets, Balls, billionaires and Susan BoylePublish date: 2009-04-19 12:31:45
Do muscles have memories?Publish date: 2009-04-18 09:44:44
Bring back standing at footballPublish date: 2009-04-17 14:50:22
When Facebook friends fall outPublish date: 2009-04-16 12:29:16
Guardian sightings and the email and bath plug agendaPublish date: 2009-04-15 11:32:16
The spin is all in the prismPublish date: 2009-04-14 09:22:41
A setback, not a crisisPublish date: 2009-04-13 12:55:19
The real lessons from Damian McBridePublish date: 2009-04-12 10:49:47
Will English always be the dominant language?Publish date: 2009-04-11 10:02:02
On the pipes and what makes a ScotPublish date: 2009-04-10 11:06:20
John Prescott lazy? NO WAYPublish date: 2009-04-09 09:11:31
David Frost is seventyPublish date: 2009-04-08 08:48:38
The Speaker, BBC2, tonight and tomorrow 8pmPublish date: 2009-04-07 14:25:31
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When a call matters more than protocolPublish date: 2009-04-05 11:33:42
Green Cities Champions LeaguePublish date: 2009-04-04 10:19:53
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Of Benn and BonoPublish date: 2009-04-02 08:21:16
Memo to Sarko - allez vite a LondresPublish date: 2009-04-01 08:46:17
Happy April Fool's DayPublish date: 2009-04-01 01:44:05
Eurostar, Le Monde and a thought for the G20 sherpasPublish date: 2009-03-31 09:17:22
Why Kevin Rudd made an impactPublish date: 2009-03-30 10:24:41
Pre-G20 hype matters less than post-G20 processPublish date: 2009-03-29 13:17:28
The Damned UnitedPublish date: 2009-03-28 10:37:04
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Learning the right lessons from ObamaPublish date: 2009-03-24 08:53:15
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Farewell favourite restaurant, hello hometownPublish date: 2009-03-22 08:18:09
Dave, Danny and have the Tories really changed?Publish date: 2009-03-21 08:55:13
Life beyond Dover ...Publish date: 2009-03-20 10:11:21
My friends in The New Statesman - Fergie, Fiona, Tony, Sarah, Kevin, 'Dacre,' and a great GB idea for the G20Publish date: 2009-03-18 10:38:22
Iraq, Iran, GB, Obama and diplomatic chessPublish date: 2009-03-17 10:07:13
The Age of StupidPublish date: 2009-03-16 08:27:13
Is all change good?Publish date: 2009-03-15 10:00:06
The pressure of being a post-modern sex godPublish date: 2009-03-14 10:00:55
Cameron still hasn't sealed the deal with businessPublish date: 2009-03-13 09:21:49
Stand up for social workersPublish date: 2009-03-12 08:31:17
Surely Malcolm Tucker could have told Armando Ianucci ... You can't spin a spinnerPublish date: 2009-03-11 10:58:25
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A day in the life of the self-obsessed TV reporterPublish date: 2009-03-05 07:55:47
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She may be my 'wife' but it is time to rebut!Publish date: 2009-03-03 10:52:59
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Why oh why are the Tories not home and dry?Publish date: 2009-02-24 09:44:59
Me, Dermot and ten top songsPublish date: 2009-02-23 10:02:19
Names round-upPublish date: 2009-02-22 08:43:39
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Editing the New StatesmanPublish date: 2009-02-20 11:42:36
Salute Peter M’s proper use of the F wordPublish date: 2009-02-19 09:58:58
Labour's communications challenge for the NHSPublish date: 2009-02-18 10:34:39
In praise of KeighleyPublish date: 2009-02-17 14:33:57
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When marriage is testedPublish date: 2009-02-16 13:36:35
Spare me the myths and the whiningPublish date: 2009-02-15 13:29:50
Dave Cameron - is that all there is?Publish date: 2009-02-14 11:11:55
Boris Johnson: F is for ...Publish date: 2009-02-13 07:55:10
The Cameron vacuumPublish date: 2009-02-12 14:48:33
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Eighteen interviews later ...Publish date: 2009-02-10 19:24:45
Time to talk about Time to Change on NewsnightPublish date: 2009-02-09 22:47:49
So that’s what they mean by online community?Publish date: 2009-02-08 12:12:51
First blogPublish date: 2009-02-05 15:23:57
gary Enefer
2009-09-19 10:44:22Dear Alastair
Wasn't it you and New Labour that created this problem? When Neil Kinnock fell in the sea off Brighton beach there was a clear divide between Labour and the Tories. Your strategy was - if you want to hide in the forest look like a tree,so you designed Labour to look like the Tories and nothing has been the same since.Both DC and GB seem scared stiff to keep up appearances only to me. Alistair Darling seems to be doing a good job.
best wishes
gary
Andrew BOD
2009-09-18 23:44:23AC
Surely this is how FPTP works. You get two or three attempts in Government, the public and the media eventually get fed up with you and want a change. And no matter how competent you are (not saying they are,) everybody still wants a change. This is how it works.
Labour got to play Punch for 13 years, and now they'll get a chance to play Judy.
Until we change this stupid system, and our politicians learn to collaborate, we will be having this same chat in another 13 years.
john
2009-09-18 19:06:54To take The Times alone, you boasted in your diaries of having their political editor, Philip Webster, in your pocket. You also fed stories to Tim Hames and Tom Baldwin.
Frankly, you're wasting your time whining about Cameron-worship in the media. It's a natural, cyclical force in politics - the yearning for change.
Ann
2009-09-18 16:21:14Great blog, even though I don't read newspapers, don't trust the media, not that interested in politics but really enjoy your blogs, even though I'm waiting for an email!! Have a great weekend.
ollie
2009-09-18 15:57:52Lol. You have to admire Campbell's incredible cheek.
Anyway, here's a quote I saw earlier on another site -
"There is no way Derren Brown is going to control the nation. It's bad enough that we have that Gordon Brown doing the same thing. We do not need another Brown trying to achieve something equally as stupid."
You know why Brown is so maligned? Simple - he has no style or substance.
@jlocke13
2009-09-18 15:18:14Stop Press.....Alastair Campbell complains about media spin....I find it amusing that AC accuses DC of doing exactly what he would advise him to do....
How about complaining about the labour bias of the so called unbiased BBC...
Alan Quinn
2009-09-18 15:11:53Interesting that no one really went after Osborne after he said he would cancel the Typhoon aircraft, the A400M transport plane and the new carriers.
When asked how much would be saved by axing them he "didn't know". He didn't again know if penalty clauses would be invoked by cancellation. Amateurish from a supposed future chancellor.
Imagine if Labour in opposition had said that...."Labour raises the white flag"...."100,000 defence jobs at risk" etc etc in the tory press.
The respected economist David Blanchflower who predicted the recession and was a member of the MPC has said we need to keep spending and historically the deficit isn't that bad and could be paid for by low interest loans.
Why Gordon and Co are now trying to out cut the tories is mystifying.
On the economy Brown and Darling have got it about right, bailing out the banks, quantative easing and spending.They have made sure that the worst financial crisis in 60yrs has been averted. Cameron and Osborne got it wrong, opposing every Labour decision.
Ally have a word and tell them to show up that pair of jokers for what they are. Attack! Attack!, Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack..... as we used to chant at Man United.
geordieblue
2009-09-18 14:55:09there is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads onto fortune...GB had his chance and ballsed it up. I've got more chance of going under 3 hours for the marathon than he has of getting in next April. Shouldn't he step down now with honour?
Stu
2009-09-18 14:02:18Bit rich you whining about spin doctors
Charlie
2009-09-18 13:30:35@EM "What I find heartening is the possibility that the electorate won't be able to stomach this DC-media luv-in for another six to eight months. For how long can people look at the self-satisfied look on DC's face and run to the medicine cabinet for anti-nausea tablets?"
You will get used to it. Many people felt exactly the same way about TB.
Scott
2009-09-18 12:40:13Hi from Australia. I am currently reading THE Diaries. It is quite apparent that TB and of course AC had to go through the gauntlet. Where I am it is currently the same albeit on a different side of the political spectrum. I recognise so many similarities with how the current Prime Minister of Australia was elected and how Cameron most likely will be. Anyway I also learning what needs to happen from a credible opposition in terms of policy work. For that I am indebted. Now worries!
Helene Davidson
2009-09-18 12:30:52Are you the same Alastair Campbell that worked, and spun, for Tony Blair? Just checking....
Em
2009-09-18 12:29:42The media want DC to be the next PM and that's all there is to it. I've noticed how they are treating him like "David Cameron PM-elect" already and I do think that part of their cheerleading particularly unprofessional.
What I find heartening is the possibility that the electorate won't be able to stomach this DC-media luv-in for another six to eight months. For how long can people look at the self-satisfied look on DC's face and run to the medicine cabinet for anti-nausea tablets?
Since we are talking about artifice, I'll describe my gut reaction to DC's "presence" or "aura" whatever you want to call it: to me David Cameron exudes some form of shady and weak charisma. He looks like an MBA who can barely contain his glee at just having sold a Ponzi to a poor old-age pensioner. I can't help but to read a combination of unwarranted self-love and sleaze on his face. I don't want that canary in his mouth to be the UK.
Aside: thanks to you for, Alastair, I've discovered Eddie Izzard's comedy which with I was not familiar. We were watching "Dressed to Kill" last night and there's this bit about the Italians inventing fascism only half-heartedly because what they really like to do is to ride on their mopeds and say "ciao". The cool, passing "ciao" is used throughout the routine and, not to associate Labour with fascism, but our troops do seem half hearted now, looking at all the hoopla around DC and more interested in riding off in a moped than fighting this.
I'm a firm believer in Freud's death wish and it seems individuals from the party, politicians and activists alike, are oscillating between half-heartedness (ciao) to a fervent (if unconscious) desire to crash and burn.
Liambyrne's teaboy
2009-09-18 12:11:37AC - you forget your own unique contribution to NuLab's downfall - there is a direct correlation between the public's alienation with your antics (dodgy dossier and all) and NuLab's slide in popularity - that combined with the incompetence of the primementalist and his mates in the bunker (economic mess and all) and the growing realisation that many of NuLab's so called 'achievements' were built on shifting sands, form over substance. Well done you - perhaps you should have just stuck to writing for porn mags.
If the media are guilty of bias its possibly because they are reflecting the majority of the public's view. (Funnily enough I always think Marr is a little too soft with labourite careerists like Milliband - god help Nulab if he ever became leader - like a lighthouse in the desert - bright but of no practical use to anyone).
Hey ho - Liam's calling - better go and make sure I've got the prima dona's coffee ready.
Best,
Teaboy (former labour voter)
stephen richardson
2009-09-18 12:02:25Hey Alastair,
That post has really made my week. Its a great summary of the media today.
I really appreciate the effort you put into the blog. Hope to see you some time on the regents canal near primrose hill.
Stephen
matthew bond
2009-09-18 11:27:31A great blog. You are right. TB faced a great deal of scrutiny and had to do a lot of work, for better or worse, reforming the Labour Party. Cameron has had to do nothing other than look posh and peddle platitudes. But I think the real problem has been the soft left and the BBC. Of course the Telegraph and the Mail are going to give Cameron an easy ride and the FT has been clearly pro-Brown. What I have been surprised at is how easy the Guardian etc and BBC have been on DC. I think it is because journalists are not randomly selected from all British social backgrounds and disproportionately represent the most privileged strata. They are hooked into Cameron's status mongering crap. The other factor is the monumental macroeconomic policy shift Brown and Darling introduced. They rejected the consensus that there was no alternative and the 81 Howe budget was good for the economy. You can still see guys like Andrew Marr blinded by 80s orthodoxy each time he has a love in, oops I mean interview, with George Osborne.
Charlie
2009-09-18 11:25:49@AC "Journalists, particularly after so-called Labour spin, like to pride themselves on their refusal to be spun. They are being spun big style, coverage driven by their view that Cameron has won, and that is the story. Anything that points in that direction, it is news. If it doesn't, it's not. If he does win, he will do so as the most under examined, under scrutinised, untested, policy-lite leader in history, aided and abetted by an army of willing self-spinners, dotted around the papers and the broadcast stations, who by their indifference to genuine scrutiny help him every day."
You may well have hit the nail on the head there AC.
It is the HUGE AMOUNT OF OUR MONEY that has been squandered on producing Labour's achievements that most people object to.
Gordon Brown, Mandy and their cronies are PROVEN mendacious, incomptent, untrustworthy, control freaks.
You can drone on all you like about the Record, but many of us voters are willing to gamble that Cameron and his lot can not possibly be worse than Labour......and if they are, I am sure that we can rely on Guido to take them to task.
Michael
2009-09-18 10:40:33Hmm. I do recall Mr Balir being pressed on his spending plans before the last election and saying he wasn't going to write a budget before it was necessary to do so. The Times. Independent, Guardian Sun and Mirror have been mostly New Labourish this past decade. Also, the Mail was rather keen on Gordon Brown from a time and disparaging of 'Call me Dave'. The press media can be very brutal - as you well know. Murdoch has seen the change in the wind and is re-aligning himself, as is his wont.
The problem is unemplyoment is on the rise again, youth unemployment is where it was 12 years ago, the public finances are in a terrible mess. The public sector has been tinkered with, showered with cash, but not radically reformed.
Austerity beckons and New Labour was formed in a happier, easier, more affluent time. When he came to power, Tony Blair said it would take 10 years to transform the country - very many people do not like the transformation. Despite his shortcomings, Cameron has Blair's gift for timing alright. To rail against the metropollitan, highly educated, environment loving BBC of Andrew Marr (so much of its cultural and comedy output is anti-Tory) is bizarre. You don't have a Conservative sympathiser to see the bizarre evasions over spending of Brown and Mandelson this past week and not be disenchanted.
Ronald Mizen
2009-09-18 10:36:17Could it be said that New Labour and the way in which you approached communications in the past has given rise to a new generation of lazy journalists who are more happy to be given a story and go with the flow, than research a story of their own? Maybe instead of relying on the journalists to find the bad news and print it, Labour could make the news for them. Surely spin goes both ways.
Andy Walker
2009-09-18 10:22:47Agree with you on the media love-in on Cameron, but when are we going to see any semblance of a fight back from the Labour leadership? At the moment they are sleepwalking to defeat at the next election. You yourself recognise that "Labour needs to do a far better job of getting after" Cameron but thus far there is precious little chance of that. Rather than trying to out-Tory the Tories over who will cut the most from the public purse, Labour should be targeting the real problem - the profligacy and greed from the Tories' friends in the city that got us into this mess in the first place.
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