Page 164 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

POLITICAL PUBLIC RELATIONS

with Mr Kinnock’s image problem by giving a higher profile to
attractive and able front-benchers. He should be protected from
hazards, particularly from contact with the tabloids, and should
appear in as many statesman-like settings as possible’ (Ibid., p.88).
Thus, he was seen touring the country in a distinguished, ‘prime
ministerial’ car, flanked by police outriders, and carrying himself
with the bearing of one confidently on the verge of real political
power. Slick, photogenic, and somewhat bland front-bench
spokespersons like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were preferred in
public campaigning work to the more radical voices of John Prescott,
Tony Benn, and Ken Livingstone.
Such tactics were again insufficient, however, to deliver electoral
success. Labour improved its position by comparison with the results
of the 1987 election, but failed once more to deprive the Conservatives
of an overall majority. In the aftermath of a fourth consecutive general
election defeat, an internal debate began within the party which
echoed earlier ambiguities about the value of political marketing.
Once again, senior Labour voices could be heard decrying the
pernicious influence of the image-makers, and asserting that Labour
should dispense with them, or at least downgrade their role in
campaigning. The SCA was accused of robbing the party of its
socialist identity, in favour of red roses and gloss.
Despite such criticisms, however, the election of Tony Blair as
leader in July 1994 signalled the ascendancy of Labour’s
imagemanagers; those like Patricia Hewitt, Peter Mandelson and
others who believed that a Labour victory was conditional on ‘moving
from a policy committee based process to a communication based
exercise’ (Heffernan and Marqusee, 1992, p.103). The astonishing,
and unpredicted landslide election victory of May 1997 means that
few will dare to challenge this approach in the forseeable future of
British politics.
The Conservatives, for their part, have also had problems with
internal communication. Despite the success of its political marketing
since the mid-1970s the party found itself in some difficulty in the
1987 campaign. Confronted, on the one hand, by an unprecedentedly
professional Labour campaign, their own efforts were hampered by
a lack of co-ordination between key elements of the communications
apparatus. Mrs Thatcher made a number of ‘gaffes’ during the
campaign including, on Labour’s ‘health day’, her insistence on her
moral right to attend a private hospital. Tory difficulties culminated
in ‘wobbly Thursday’, when it began to seem that Labour might win
the election. In the end, Tory fears were misplaced, and Mrs Thatcher

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