Page 155 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 134

COMMUNICATING POLITICS
so much that is part of political communication, however, it is in the post-
Second World War period, in the course of which television has become the
predominant mass medium, that considerations of style have emerged as
central to the political process.
Brendan Bruce argues that in modern Britain, where the policies of the
competing parties have gradually become more alike, image has taken on
added importance as a distinguishing feature. ‘When the parties’ ideological
centres of gravity are converging rather than diverging, personality is likely
to become a more important way for the voter to determine credibility’
(1992, p. 95).
In Michael Cockerell’s view, the first British Prime Minister successfully
to project a TV image was Harold Macmillan, who pioneered the use of the
tele-prompter, thus enabling him to address audiences with a naturalness of
style which his predecessors like Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee
could not achieve. His successor as Prime Minister, Alec Douglas-Home, was
in Cockerell’s opinion unsuited for television, coming across as patrician and
aloof. Labour’s leader at this time, Harold Wilson, on the other hand,
presented a populist, approachable image, which helped him to win and hold
on to political power for much of the ‘swinging Sixties’.
The pre-eminent image manager in post-war British politics, until the rise
of Tony Blair, was of course Margaret Thatcher. With the assistance of
public relations adviser Gordon Reece, in the late 1970s Margaret Thatcher
allowed herself to be ‘made-over’, i.e. made more appealing to potential
voters. When elected Conservative leader in 1976 Thatcher, like most
politicians when they first achieve senior status (Tony Blair is an exception
in this respect), paid little attention to her image. She looked as she wished
to look, and spoke in the way which apparently came naturally to her, with
a nasal, pseudo-upper-class accent. Under Reece’s guidance she took lessons
to improve her voice, deepening its timbre and accentuating its huskiness.
Her hairstyle and clothes were selected with greater care. Thatcher had
accepted the view that ‘clothes convey messages, because they involve
choice, and those choices express personality’ (Bruce, 1992, p. 55).
Personal image matters, for former Thatcher adviser Brendan Bruce,
because its constituents – clothes, hair, make-up, etc. – signify things about
the politician. Image can, with skill, be enlisted to connote power, authority
and other politically desirable attributes. All this Margaret Thatcher
understood. And just as the Tories led the way with their use of commercial
advertising techniques, so did their emphasis on personal image – and their
readiness to manufacture images where necessary – predate that of their
opponents. In 1983 as the Conservative government, fresh from the
Falklands victory, presented its leader as the ‘Iron Lady’, Labour fought an
election campaign led by Michael Foot. Foot’s intellectual qualities were
never in doubt, but his naivety and innocence in the matter of personal
image made him vulnerable to being constantly satirised and subverted by

134