Will this have the same impact as it did in 1979?

WBG

Anyone under 45 will probably not remember it and it is probably just as, if not more, apt today than it was then.

TrevorsDen

Its as good a way of reminding people what is happening.

In my 'ever so humble' opinion the seminal Tory poster this time is the one with the baby. "Mum's eyes, Dad's nose ... and Gordon's Debt"
Tories need to keep up with this theme.

Make no mistake - this reminder of the debt burden for a family's children will have real resonance. Its important because people not affected by unemployment need to be reminded that there will be a price to pay.

John Page

Well hm. The "still isn't" is saying that Labour has been continuously bad for all that time. This doesn't resonate. NuLab policies may have been reckless and wasteful, but lots of people felt prosperous for quite a bit of NuLab's time. Is it plausible for Tories to suggest that Tories were preferable for all of that time? No.

This poster suffers from the same Tory-centrism as William Hague's video after his PMQs. The Conservatives really have to try to seem to rise above slagging off a tired & discredited Labour government.

They need to offer an inclusive approach, 'one nation' in style. But that would take imagination and policies - or at least repeated, recognised soundbites. And they don't have them.

While the Tories continue not to crack Opposition against such a floundering, wounded target, Brown has every reason to think he may be in with a chance.

Verity

WBG - Agree and that's why I think it's a mistake. Whoever is promoting that poster is making the huge, and unjustified, assumption that everyone remembers that poster (and its very strong message). A huge tranche of people won't have been born, or, if born, politically aware, when it was such a success before.

The Tories, who seem to atypically inept, would be better off using the same poster, changed to reflect today's clothing, and with some extra tweaks and running it again. Those old enough will remember it and it will strike a chilling chord; and those too young will find it thought provoking. The word "still" sounds like a petty jibe from a fussy older person. Dump it.

TrevorsDen also raises a good point.

Thomas Cussans

Posters such as this, however memorable, are always incidental, background music at best.

What counts is the groundswell of opinion.

By definition, this is elusive – an intangible sniff in the air, a mood, a sense, an expectation, a hope rather than something charted by polls, however numerous and apparently exact. But its impact is invariably decisive.

I am easily old enough to remember that the Tory victory in 1979 was the clear product of a complete disillusionment, bordering on despair, with the Labour party. In exactly the same way, Blair's resounding win in 1997 was a product of a general sense, wrong as it happened but real enough for all that, that the Conservatives, apparently clapped out and sleezy, had nothing left. Their time had run out.

The Labour Party faces a similar sea-change.

That it will now lose the next election is a certainty.

Even in his dying days, Blair more or less still made Labour a credible electoral force. But Brown has killed this notion stone dead. It is his peculiar, poisonous gift to be able to turn any winning position into a losing one.

The zeitgest has changed surely as it did in 1997 and 1979.

Jenny

I agree with this: 'The word "still" sounds like a petty jibe from a fussy older person. Dump it.'

The reason I agree with it is because modern politicians should not be seen as too shrill (it's also why so many are so boring) and yet the clock is winding back to the days when politics was shrill and there were clear dividing lines.

There is so much anger at what is happening. That must be reflected somehow. It also adds to the message that this is part and parcel of what Labour always does: spends until we're all broke.

It might be OK as a one-off but the Conservatives have worked very hard to get the tone right on recent ads and they must stick to that in the long-term.

CS

Plus, having campaigned on that poster to win in 1979, unemployment just kept on rising.

Curiously I never remember Gordon Brown being that keen on a global recession as a reason for mass unemployment in the 80s. Maybe he's forgetful.

Thomas Cussans

Verity!

Enough!

I always enjoy reading your comments.

Sometimes – gulp – I even agree with them.

I also think you have a wonderful name, long one of my secret favourites.

But in this very imperfect and cruel world, you have to accept that second best, even third best (or worse), is as good as it gets.

I know Cameron, however likeable, is still wimpy, weedy and wet. But I also suspect he has it in him to get tougher, smarter and shrewder. You never know.

I know most of the rest of the Conservative front bench are, at best, soppy non-entities, a handful of obvious exceptions aside.

I also hate the fact that they aren't relentlessly laying into Gordo's government of all the corrupt, dishonest, hopeless and useless day after day after day.

But they are nonetheless the best we have as a government in waiting. And as such, they are infinitely more worth backing than knocking.

Compared to Gordo's hopelessly inept collection of half-witted hangers-on, they almost represent a serious reason to be faintly optimistic.

In other words, while it is clearly worth badgering them to smarten up – another way of saying to embrace the obvious – don't give up on them. They may yet get there.

If ours is a very imperfect world, that doesn't mean you can't still cling to a tattered fragment of hope. It may turn out to be something worthwhile.

MartSharm

Wrong, Verity. If you don't remember the old poster, using the word "still" brings forward the question "did Labour not work in the past then, I didn't know that." People will then realise that Labour has never worked, thus reinforcing the message. Double whammy.

PS Do you ever get bored of slagging the Tories? I sure get bored of it.

Stewart

Slightly off the topic of this thread but relevent to Brown's unpopularity there is a very good article at www.foreignpolicy.com by Alan Sked "Why Gordon Brown is Finished". It is written for an international audience less familiar with the domestic horrors for which Labour is to blame. It makes good reading and should act as a useful primer for anyone wishing to highlight Labour failings to potential swing voters and debates with Labour supporters.

Major Wally

Agree with Verity don't yer know: Dump it. Lions led by PR donkeys and all that.

Verity

Mart Sharm - given your simple minded post, I assume your trolly nomme de guerre is a little puzzle reading Harm Smart?

Anyway, you're clearly not in marketing. You think readers are going to hang around long enough to figure out your message? Labour and 'undecided' are going to ponder and think, "Hmmm, what does this message mean?" So not in marketing, then.

Come back when you have a point to make. And a better blog name.

Verity

Thomas Cussans, I read your heartfelt plea ... wanting the unattainable. But if the Tories under the mightily ambitious Cameron won, it would not further the future of our country. He's a euro striver, like Blair and his wife, seeking preferment in Brussels. Were he not signed up to the greater "integration" of ancient European countries and our own United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, he would have adopted different stances all along the way.

He has been mindful not to annoy Brussels. Our master. The Lisbon "Treaty" (what a bloody insult!) The obliteration of our ancient England and the renaming of our amputated parts "regions" of the EUSSR.

Do not trust this man or think you can work with him, because you can't. Like Tony Blair, he puts himself, not his country, first.

JohnAnt

Never understood why that slogan was 'powerful' - it just seemed negative at the time. People voted for Thatcher because she was a genuine political alternative, with different policies.
Btw, a poster that shows only white faces wouldn't work now for the ad-persons. Most seem to think they've got to show us about 3/4 BME in any given poster - regardless of whether the context makes that likely or extremely unlikely - to try to convince us of its 'reality'. That too is off-putting

Alex

Verity.

Maybe you should have your own Tory hate blog?

You could then bore people with the same lines day in, day out.

... then again, we have LabourList for that.

Papa Moomin

Verity, you are Dolly Draper and I claim my £5 reward.

David Ossitt

It will work; it is a clever slogan, keep in the word still but then add.

'And nevet did'

It is a universal truth and I think would be recognised as such.

THX1138

Feels a bit old and stale to me

What about something more positive

The Tories will get you working!

RW

I'd go with those who think the "still" is unnecessary - as one who remembers the original.

"Still" makes it a bit of a historical throwback for older voters, many of whom are likely to vote Conservative anyway.

I think "labour isn't working" will be powerfully effective at election point, when unemployment will be, what, three, four million, and rising?Then, at the bottom "Time for a change - vote Conservative".

I also wonder if there's a way of tying together this message and the "Gordon's debt" one - "You're already out of work and your children are already in debt" fashion.

David B

I think it will remind people that when the Conservatives got elected on the back of this slogan they then tripled the unemployment figures within a couple of years.

MartSharm

Verity, wrong again! I'm starting to think you're losing your touch.

I use MartSharm because, believe it or not, it's simply a contraction of my name. I am comfortable in my views and don't feel the need to hide behind a pseudonym. So no trolling here. But goodness knows why you're picking on my name, maybe to deflect attention from your poor arguments?

Please credit the public with a bit of intelligence. Most people can understand a four-word sentence without their attention wandering.

John Lea

I don't think the poster will work this time round, because the UK is part of a global recession, and - thanks to Labour's PR machine - that message is being reinforced on a daily basis. My gut instinct is that people won't find Labour guilty (or even culpable) for the current economic malaise at the next general election. Also, the Tories need to be braver and attack Labour where it is weak and where it has a case to answer: uncontrolled mass immigration, an unsustainable (and insupportable) welfare state, rising crime, declining educational standards, etc.

Wily Trout

'The Tories Will Get You Working" will strike terror into the hearts of the NEET nation. But they all vote Lavour anyway.

Verity

Alex - You are clearly not familiar with my posts.

One more point about 'Labour's STILL not working': For 10 years Labour, in fact, to the naked eye, did seem to be working. People felt richer than they ever had. They loaded up their supermarket trolleys to the brim and then let half their things rot in the fridge and threw them out. They were having holidays overseas and weekend breaks in Europe. They were having face lifts and eye lifts and neck tucks and fat reduction surgery. They were buying £500 handbags and Jimmy Choo shoes.

To that tranche, the message that Labour's still not working just wont make sense. And as we know, the audience doesn't hang about trying to analyse your message.

"Labour's Not Working" will strike a chill in those who've lost their jobs and those who fear may be next.

At the same time, it will strike a chill reminder in those who doremember the original poster. They will automatically insert the word 'still' themselves and dread a replay.

I think it could be run in tandem with the 'Gordon's debt' meme.

It's a raw, powerful message and should be used again.

David B

Labour just needs to respond with:

"Remember the last time they said this?"

JONNY

Maybe Verity can follow Peggy into Don Draper's creative set-up as strategic copywriter.
Working on the Stop Cameron at Any Cost slime campaign.
Incidentally repeating the poster is a bad idea. Because it's unbelievable.
No one seriously thinks the Tories are good news for the unemployed.

David Ossitt

John Lea

Also, the Tories need to be braver and attack Labour where it is weak and where it has a case to answer:

That would be everywhere then?

THX1138

Willy Trout Hadn't thought of that.

I doubt the NEETs vote at all, too much like hard work.

S DEWER

A better slogan would be Labour isn't working - Again!

Robert

I thought of this months ago, but it would read: "Labour isn't working - again, and again, and............"

Verity

Jonny - You pretend to believe that I am not a Conservative because I don't agree with you that Cameron's better than nothing. Instead of countering with a rational argument, you invariably resort to abuse. Disagreeing with you is not, so far as I know, against the rules of this blog.

As Monty Python said, "Sorry! This is arguments! Abuse is down the hall". Meditate on it.

Alf Tupper

No of course it cannot have the same impact.

Nearly everyone could read English back then.

THX1138

Alf Tupper

"Nearly everyone could read English back then"

Thanks to Labour!