You’ve got to hand it to the Brownite spin operation – for once, their bludgeoning approach seems to be working. The terms they’ve coined, and which are repeated ad nauseum by Labour figures – “Global financial problem which started in America”; “We’re meeting with world leaders”; and even that “Whatever it takes” chestnut – really do seem to be filtering down to the national consciousness, if some of the latest polling on economic competence is anything to go by.
Why? Well, it’s not because our Dear Leader is economically competent – the past eleven years have put pay to that idea. I rather suspect it’s because the financial problems we’re facing are so mysterious to all but a Warren Buffet-esque few, that voters – and, crucially, the media – are latching onto the most straightforward representation of it that they can find. And that means the same blunt phrases they’re hearing again & again & again.
Thing is, Labour are cornering the market when it comes to these blunt phrases. What are the Tories’ alternative offerings? I certainly can’t tell. Listening to Cameron’s speech and George Osborne’s Today programme appearance from the other day, I was struck by how they managed to say both too little and too much. Too little – because they couldn’t flesh out anything like an alternative policy approach to the Government’s. And too much – because their attacks on Gordon Brown’s record, whilst correct in spirit, were just too multi-pronged and convoluted to register. It all came across as so much waffle.
So what should the Tories’ insta-responses be? The simple one-liners that they should have memorised for all occasions; which can be trotted out in response to any question, regardless of the question; and which could hit home with voters? Iain Martin’s excellent article in today’s Telegraph implicitly suggests a few, among them: “This is all the fault of the regulatory system set up by New Labour”. Can CoffeeHousers come up with any more?
Team Cameron, look to the comments section…
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