Page 158 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

POLITICAL PUBLIC RELATIONS

consciously presented ‘images’ to their constituencies. As with 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 to
successfully project a TV image was Harold Macmillan, who
pioneered the use of the tele-prompter, thus enabling himself 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 Reese’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

141