As the Top Tory Spin Doctor said in his genius briefing to my new best friend Nick Watt of The Guardian earlier this week, authenticity is the key in modern communications.
It explains why, despite the extraordinarily tough hand Alistair Darling had to play yesterday, and despite (perhaps because of) the overshrill Tory response, personally he emerged well from the Budget.
I have no idea whether the latest poll showing the Tory lead down to two is accurate or not. But I do know the polls have narrowed, and I do know that the choice of who people trust with the economy has been central to that.
Alistair has been around a long time, one of a tiny handful to have held ministerial positions since May 1997 to the present day.
The authentic AD is not dull, as often stated, but sober, serious, with a sometimes gloomy disposition often pepped up with self-deprecating humour.
He is also someone who finds much of politics, in particular factionalism and infighting, rather tiresome. He has spent most of his career being defined, when TB was in charge, as a Brownite. I would say he defied that easy separation. Rather than ever being a fully paid up member of any grouping, I always found him a fully paid up member of the Grown Up Tendency, a team player.
His credibility and authority, and his contrast with George Osborne, make him an absolutely key campaigner in the forthcoming election. Frankly the more we see of him the better.
Talking of people who defy easy Blairite-Brownite labelling, (these days at least) the same goes for Peter Mandelson. It is possible to detect in the Budget the development of some of his ideas for a new and exciting industrial strategy. And whereas I know there are still some who shout and scream every time he comes on the box, the people who like to see him least are the Tories. At his best, he reminds me a bit of Michael Heseltine in his pomp, and (technically speaking) I can’t say fairer than that. The Mandelson-Ken Clarke debates of the coming weeks will be splendid.
On Monday we have a Channel 4 debate involving AD, Osborne and Vince Cable, which unfortunately I will miss as it coincides with a long-promised fundraiser in Yorkshire. A year ago, the prospect of such a three-way debate might not have filled Labour activists with glee, not least because of the chatterati’s love-in with Vince Cable, and the Tories’ sizeable lead in state of the parties polling as well as ratings on economic competence. Now the chances are it is an ace card, which Alistair is likely to play well.
Ps … Nick Watt and I are loving the spin by TSD on their decision to hire a second ad agency, M and C Saatchi, to ‘work alongside’ Euro RSCG. Here are the explanations quoted by Campaign magazine…
A Tory spokesman said: ‘We’re delighted with the contribution Euro has made and will continue to make as we near the election.’ Come on Nick, take it down …
David Jones, the global chief executive of Euro RSCG, said: ‘There are a lot of people in the ad industry who would like to see the end of Brown’s regime. All great ideas that help us achieve that are welcome.’ Aw sweet … and so typical of the ad industry’s non-competitive, teamwork-across-the-companies approach to advertising.
And absolutely nothing to do wih the airbrushed poster disaster/Belize dosh down the drain drama. No, not at all. Come on Nick, what about ‘Poster wars — Tory turmoil over how to waste Ashcroft cash.’ Come on, just for me.
*** Buy The Blair Years online and raise cash to fight the Tories, Euro RSCG, M and C Saatchi and Lord Belize http://www.alastaircampbell.org/bookshop.php.
Darling played a blinder yesterday. He has grown in stature considerably since his appointment in 2007. He encompasses trust, stability and a firm grasp of the challenges at hand. And most importantly of all…HE WAS RIGHT!
If Gordon Brown has the privilege of forming the next government he should seriously consider keeping Darling exactly where he is regardless of any promise to the likes of Ed Balls (I mean, come on, a guy with the surname ‘Balls’ will just have headline after headline in The Sun at the slightest hint of a financial wobble). Now is not the time to be promising posts to your mates. The best man for job is what’s needed.
Let’s just say there is a hung parliament. How about the creation of a vice-chancellor position and invite Vince cable along for the ride. Now a Darling/Cable collaboration would trying make for an interesting few years at No.11.
Keep AD out there as much as possible. This election will be all about the Chancellors. Osborne was lamentable on Today; he can’t give us details of his own deficit plans, he says, until he ‘hears from the Institute for Fiscal Studies’. Can’t he do his own sums?
I 100% agree that Alistair Darling has played this budget superbly well.
The freaking out by the Conservatives only makes them look silly and desperate.
Alistair D. has exactly the right personality for seeing our way out of this period of financial difficulty.
I think that the Conservatives face a problem with the forthcoming election in that they must do something to get ahead in the opinion polls, but their excess criticism of Labour now only further undermines their credibility.
I think that when the country is facing a difficult period in the world’s financial affairs what people want is a figure who is confident, stable and reassuring, like Alistair D.
What they don’t want is the sense of conflict with the nation that I think the Conservatives keep putting out. Resurrecting Thatcher, describing Unite as the “new Militant”, apparently relishing massive cuts which will make so many unemployed, age of austerity etc. etc.
I suspect that with the new advertising company there might be some very aggressive advertising from them. However I wonder if that will do them any good?
I am biased and so it’s not easy to be totally (or even remotely) objective but George Osborne was embarrassingly woeful on Radio Five Live just after 7:30 this morning and even worse on Today a bit later. No wonder they rarely let him out.
As for Vincent ‘I saw it all coming and was a really important bloke once at BP’ Cable, does no one now remember that he was still calling for less regulation of banks pretty well up to the day before the start of the Great Disaster?
I met Mr Darling briefly once on the stairs and so can pontificate with great authority about every aspect of his character and abilities. Seemed a nice sort of chap to me who didn’t seem to mind that I couldn’t recall his name. He was lucky that I also forgot he was in charge of transport at the time and so he was spared any from my vast collection of British Railways anecdotes.
It could be an interesting debate…
AC Your myopically tribal stance is excusable in a free society.
But you have an extremely spiteful streak in you which is not attractive and probably accounts for why many people have no time for you at all (at best).
Today’s blog is a classic example.
You could be right but the Tories are banking on people just feeling Labour has had enough time and the problems are still there. Yes he did well and yes, lots of Labour things have been good, but Gordon Brown has not cut it as Tony Blair did and I do hear a lot of people saying time for change. That being said, the economy is always the main thing and I do trust Darling more than Osborne or Cameron who seem out of their depth
I missed it live but what I saw on the news last night impressed me. The figures are mindboggling which is why you need to be able to trust the person setting them out. I did not feel, despite Nick Robinson of the bbc trying to persuade me so, that Mr Darling had been hiding things. I thought he was very frank
Please please please make sure the Gay Times video you showed on your blog yesterday is seen by the masses. Talk about not being able to handle minor pressure. It was embarrassing. That man can not be pm
I agree with Ben G. Every time we see Darling Osbourne will have to respond. The more he responds the weaker he’ll look etc etc
Smoke ’em out!
Yes, a good performance from Darling, and, because he comes across as genuine and decent, he is a reassuring figure at the helm, unlike Osborne. As for Mandelson, not sure I’d buy a used car from him, but I certainly admire him razor sharp mind and feel the Party and the country would be all the poorer without him. Thus I consider them both electoral assets – AD because I trust him and PM – er because I don’t!
…Tories panicking…
It’s true.
No, really it IS true.
I have been posting mildly critical contributions to their website The Blue Blog and they have now barred me from it.
My remarks/observations, such as they are/were, have been polite, pithy, witty and humorous but the BB police don’t like them.
They’re in a bit of a panic.
Obviously they don’t like it when a reasonably educated Back Street Bard has a little dig at them. It stings. What’s wrong with challenging them on their own turf. Why, it would be the same as me exposing some of the Left oriented Westminster Wild Bunch to probing examination requiring response wouldn’t it. I’m sure that you’d all be up for that wouldn’t you, Mr. Campbell?
Silly buggers. The Blues that is.
I ain’t sure about you lot yet.
I think the polls are narrowing because although the Tories have been playing against a weakened team over the last 18 months, they’ve failed to capitalise and win public support. Even as a committed Labourite I’d feel that time hasn’t been our strongest.
So, (apols to all for the football analogy) even with no one in goal at times, the Tories have failed to make an attack stick, or score. They’ve missed penalties. They’ve just flailed about in midfield doing some fancy footwork & shrieking for the ref to do something.
Now the Labour team are strengthening, they’re not going to win the big match.
Why did Alistair Darling avoid the Today programme?
Why did Alistair Darling not raise the income tax thresholds now that inflation is at 3%? This is a tax on every worker in Britain. Is this a clear sign he doesn’t care about putting income tax up for us all in the future?
Why does Alistair Darling believe that we will have 3.5% growth next year and for the following years? He is relying on this for two thirds of his deficit cutting. This is not something anyone is prepared to rely on. It seems to be an excuse to avoid having to talk about difficult decisions ahead. It makes him non-credible.
Why did Darling raise tax on Cider (Westcountry of England) and not on Whisky (erm where’s this made again????). I am not the only person who is sick of the deal Scotland gets from the union. This needs to be rectified.
In terms of manufacturing – read Larry Elliott’s article in the Guardian today. Labour have destroyed 1 million manufacturing jobs in Britain since 1997. The rate of decline is greater than under Thatcher (I know Gordon & Tony are big admirers of the lady so they must feel immensely proud of this achievement). As to Lord Mandelson – he is a major reason why we are all so disaffected with politics and politicians. He is shameless.
I am sure Nick Watt is flattered by your interest in him. I am sure you have won him over with your usual highly resistible charm…..
…Tories panicking…
It’s true.
No, really it IS true.
I have been posting mildly critical contributions to their website The Blue Blog and they have now barred me from it.
My remarks/observations, such as they are/were, have been polite, pithy, witty and humorous but the BB police don’t like them.
They’re in a bit of a panic.
Obviously they don’t like it when a reasonably educated Back Street Bard has a little dig at them. It stings. What’s wrong with challenging them on their own turf. Why, it would be the same as me exposing some of the Left oriented Westminster Wild Bunch to probing examination requiring response wouldn’t it. I’m sure that you’d all be up for that wouldn’t you, Mr. Campbell?
Silly buggers. The Blues that is.
I ain’t sure about you lot yet, but I’m there for the convincing.
The Tories’ “not raising income tax thresholds = a tax rise” must rank as one of the feeblest political attack line since records began.
If my sums are correct, an increase of 3% on the basic threshold would have given every taxpayer just under 75p a week. Would that really have transformed anyone’s life?
No doubt they’ll trot out ‘thin end of the wedge’, ‘slippery slope’ and other assorted clichés from their Boys Own Guide to winning elections, but they’re fooling no one but themselves.
Kloff Kapp – I have been trying to find the web log that has banned you but keep coming across sites talking about knitting patterns.
All part of the Tory leadership’s cunning plan to keep their candidates confused about their policies:
Blackberry on doorstep to Coleshill: “What do I say about the NHS?”
Coleshill to Blackberry on doorstep: “Knit one – Pearl one.”
yes I suppose 75p a week is feeble when you compare it to the £92 a week debt we all have to stomach from this Govt.
I’ve never voted for the Labour Party before. I’m 41, I’ve voted five times, three times for the Tories and twice for the LibDems. The Liberals are, I suppose, the party who I most identify with but I’m not going to vote for them this time because And since Cameron and Osbourne are nakedly careerist and insincere, I could never vote for the Tories. So I shall be voting Labour because I genuinely trust Brown and Darling. However, I worry that the party isn’t fighting hard enough. I don’t think that they are capitalising enough on the successes of Darling/Brown’s economic stategy and I certainly don’t think that they’re doing much in the way of highlighting the deficencies of the conservative campaign. I see no policies just a lot of hot air coming from Cameron and co. And having seen the video of Cameron being interviewed by the guy from, I think, Gay Times, it is obvious that he isn’t capable of handling questions that aren’t scripted in advance. The labour party need to target the Conservatives for their lack of political direction and need to sock it to Cameron big time. The election can be won by Gordon but if there’s no fightback, he will lose.
Yep, let’s trust the economy to the two people who have run up a stupendously record debt and defecit, who plan to still be borrowing £80bn in 4 years time, who sold gold at an alltime low.
Yep, there’s a safe two pairs of hands.
You must have been watching a different budget speech and response to me! I’m not a fan of Mr Cameron – but I still thought his response to the budget was very good indeed. It’s rather unfortunate that EVERY political party and all the media I listened to agreed that the Government are being dishonest. I can’t comment on Mandleson because find Peter Mandleson’s presence in the Government (supposedly an elected body of representatives) highly objectionable. I actually like Labour policies more than the Conservatives’ however I refuse to vote Labour because of the continuing presence of unelected cabinet members who are in no way accountable to the electorate and most certainly don’t behave with transparency; a fact which your own diaries are evidence of.
Mr Tait – pls come down from Mars !!
You actually wrote that GB and AD’s economic policies have been successful !! Are you mad?
With respect,the 2 of them have ridden a debt wave over the last 10yrs or more that has left us in a black hole that is far worse than this country has ever experienced before – and needlessly so.Thats economic mis-management whether there has been a Global recession or not.
So after 12 years with people like you, Brown,Whelan, McBride, Mandelson et al in the Labour Party bringing this country down and trying to turn the country into a cemented, overpopulated, socialist state where it is considered “cool” to live on benefits – you actually think we are stupid enough to vote you in again!