Former Times journalist Nick Wood was a media adviser to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. He now runs Media Intelligence Partners.
Politicians
face two key imperatives – to be right and to be popular. David
Cameron’s biggest mistake has been to elevate popularity over being
right.
He has become a political fashion victim, striking
attitudes calculated to appeal to the chattering classes who dominate
the Westminster village. But fashion is by definition ephemeral. During
the dying days of the disintegrating Blair regime, it mattered little
that Cameron was to be seen parading his concern about climate change
by posing with huskies in the Arctic or warning about the perils of
chocolate oranges. But while he fretted about distant reefs he failed
to spot the more immediate threat posed by the shift in the political
weather from Blair to Brown.
A big chill has descended upon the
Conservatives, triggered by Brown’s eclipse of the tawdry glitz of the
Blair era and the advent of “serious” politics with a socially
conservative wrapping.
Cameron’s quest for popularity – his ‘Hug
a Hoodie” phase – has had a doubly damaging effect. He has dismayed his
natural supporters but he has also made himself appear lightweight and
insubstantial alongside the Stakhanovite Brown.
Cameron must
start to campaign for what is right and stop worrying about whether the
BBC and The Guardian will judge it popular – a lot of the time they
won’t.
By demonstrating that he is prepared to fight for what he
believes in – and what his supporters believe in – he will at least
start to improve his ratings and reputation in the leadership stakes.
He will gain respect, even among people who don’t agree with him,
because he will be perceived to be sincere. His biggest handicap as he
anxiously contemplates the prospect of an autumn election is that Brown
is viewed by the public as strong and as capable of leading the country
through difficult times.
Let’s leave policies to Cameron. Suffice
it to say his position on tax is muddled, his position on reform of
health and education is too timid, and his profile in areas such as
youth crime, Europe, immigration and waste of public money is almost
invisible. He needs to do something about all of them fast.
But first he has to tackle the Brownite glacier that threatens to engulf him and his party.
Brown has brought off an extraordinary coup. Despite being the chief
domestic architect of the last 10 years – 10 years in which billions
have been poured into to public services to no avail, violent crime has
rocketed, gangs of feral kids have terrorised the middle classes, taxes
have rocketed, border controls have collapsed, bureaucracy has
spiralled (£167 billion a year spent on quangos – seven times more than
1997) and pensions have withered – he appears to have persuaded the
media and the public that Blair’s disasters have been remedied
overnight.
So the first thing Cameron must do is to launch a campaign – to run
right through September – to demonstrate that nothing has changed: that
the government the public viewed with distaste verging on contempt
under Blair is the same government under Brown. “Same old Labour, same
old Gordon” should be the Tory refrain from now on and the
counter-attack should be backed by facts and figures showing that
beyond a bit of window-dressing (like scrapping the super-casino) Brown
is the no-change option. He should certainly nail Brown over his
u-turn on a referendum on the EU Constitution.
He also needs to inject some passion into his campaigning. He needs to
convey a real sense of anger about the failures of the Blair-Brown
regime and a determination to put things right. He needs to put across
a clear picture of how things would be different under a Conservative
administration to counter the growing impression (among Conservatives
as much as the public in general) that no one knows what he stands for.
Iain Duncan Smith’s “Breakthrough Britain” report with its 200
recommendations on mending our broken society offers him a way forward
– a way of generating a sense of moral outrage about the state of our society and the need for
tough but practical solutions. Cameron badly needs a sense of mission,
staking his leadership on a crusade to rescue the underclass from the
liberal ideology that has betrayed them. And this way he might secure
the respect and support of floating and uncommitted voters.
But even that is not enough. How is Cameron going to motivate his core
voters? How is he going to get them off the sofa (or out of the office)
on polling day? What reasons is he going to give them for voting
Conservative? He will have to relearn some old Tory tunes and quick. It
is just a pity he has scorned them quite so vehemently in the past.
The beauty of politics is its unpredictability. Brown may funk an
autumn election giving the Tories time to regroup, or events may
intervene to destroy him. The challenge for Cameron is to confront his
opponent, deny him the mantle of change and to articulate a mission
that will energise the Tory tribe and the uncommitted alike.
NEXT IN THIS ‘WHAT DAVID CAMERON SHOULD DO NEXT’ SERIES: JOHN O’SULLIVAN, TOMORROW AT 9AM
Former Times journalist Nick Wood was a media adviser to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. He now runs Media Intelligence Partners.
Politicians
face two key imperatives – to be right and to be popular. David
Cameron’s biggest mistake has been to elevate popularity over being
right.
He has become a political fashion victim, striking
attitudes calculated to appeal to the chattering classes who dominate
the Westminster village. But fashion is by definition ephemeral. During
the dying days of the disintegrating Blair regime, it mattered little
that Cameron was to be seen parading his concern about climate change
by posing with huskies in the Arctic or warning about the perils of
chocolate oranges. But while he fretted about distant reefs he failed
to spot the more immediate threat posed by the shift in the political
weather from Blair to Brown.
A big chill has descended upon the
Conservatives, triggered by Brown’s eclipse of the tawdry glitz of the
Blair era and the advent of “serious” politics with a socially
conservative wrapping.
Cameron’s quest for popularity – his ‘Hug
a Hoodie” phase – has had a doubly damaging effect. He has dismayed his
natural supporters but he has also made himself appear lightweight and
insubstantial alongside the Stakhanovite Brown.
Cameron must
start to campaign for what is right and stop worrying about whether the
BBC and The Guardian will judge it popular – a lot of the time they
won’t.
By demonstrating that he is prepared to fight for what he
believes in – and what his supporters believe in – he will at least
start to improve his ratings and reputation in the leadership stakes.
He will gain respect, even among people who don’t agree with him,
because he will be perceived to be sincere. His biggest handicap as he
anxiously contemplates the prospect of an autumn election is that Brown
is viewed by the public as strong and as capable of leading the country
through difficult times.
Let’s leave policies to Cameron. Suffice
it to say his position on tax is muddled, his position on reform of
health and education is too timid, and his profile in areas such as
youth crime, Europe, immigration and waste of public money is almost
invisible. He needs to do something about all of them fast.
But first he has to tackle the Brownite glacier that threatens to engulf him and his party.
Brown has brought off an extraordinary coup. Despite being the chief
domestic architect of the last 10 years – 10 years in which billions
have been poured into to public services to no avail, violent crime has
rocketed, gangs of feral kids have terrorised the middle classes, taxes
have rocketed, border controls have collapsed, bureaucracy has
spiralled (£167 billion a year spent on quangos – seven times more than
1997) and pensions have withered – he appears to have persuaded the
media and the public that Blair’s disasters have been remedied
overnight.
So the first thing Cameron must do is to launch a campaign – to run
right through September – to demonstrate that nothing has changed: that
the government the public viewed with distaste verging on contempt
under Blair is the same government under Brown. “Same old Labour, same
old Gordon” should be the Tory refrain from now on and the
counter-attack should be backed by facts and figures showing that
beyond a bit of window-dressing (like scrapping the super-casino) Brown
is the no-change option. He should certainly nail Brown over his
u-turn on a referendum on the EU Constitution.
He also needs to inject some passion into his campaigning. He needs to
convey a real sense of anger about the failures of the Blair-Brown
regime and a determination to put things right. He needs to put across
a clear picture of how things would be different under a Conservative
administration to counter the growing impression (among Conservatives
as much as the public in general) that no one knows what he stands for.
Iain Duncan Smith’s “Breakthrough Britain” report with its 200
recommendations on mending our broken society offers him a way forward
– a way of generating a sense of moral outrage about the state of our society and the need for
tough but practical solutions. Cameron badly needs a sense of mission,
staking his leadership on a crusade to rescue the underclass from the
liberal ideology that has betrayed them. And this way he might secure
the respect and support of floating and uncommitted voters.
But even that is not enough. How is Cameron going to motivate his core
voters? How is he going to get them off the sofa (or out of the office)
on polling day? What reasons is he going to give them for voting
Conservative? He will have to relearn some old Tory tunes and quick. It
is just a pity he has scorned them quite so vehemently in the past.
The beauty of politics is its unpredictability. Brown may funk an
autumn election giving the Tories time to regroup, or events may
intervene to destroy him. The challenge for Cameron is to confront his
opponent, deny him the mantle of change and to articulate a mission
that will energise the Tory tribe and the uncommitted alike.
NEXT IN THIS ‘WHAT DAVID CAMERON SHOULD DO NEXT’ SERIES: JOHN O’SULLIVAN, TOMORROW AT 9AM