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PROFESSIONALISATION IN THE BRITISH ELECTORAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT | 51

power. Significantly, the publicity group began to feed findings into ‘general matters of
tactics and presentation’ (Butler & King, 1965, p. 70). The difference between this
structure and that of the Conservatives was highlighted in the study of the 1964
election: Labour’s publicity advisers were ‘an integral part of (its) election planning.
Neither Colman, Prentis and Varley (or anyone else working for the Conservatives) were
regarded as performing more than ancillary services…’ (Butler & King, 1965, p. 91). A
fourth, and related factor, was that the Conservative party was suffering from a lack of
direction, whereas the Labour party ‘was remarkably unquarrelsome in 1963–64, and its
propaganda effort was not upset by internal party wrangles’(Rose,1965,pp.378–9).

As we shall see presently, the ‘integrated’ model – a publicity organiser aided by
professionals (usually but not necessarily only volunteers), feeding into a campaign
committee, and under the control of the party leader – has some interesting parallels
with the ‘Mandelsonian’ model of the 1980s and 1990s (discussed below). In other
respects,it highlights two issues of concern here:

n the first is that it is possible to argue – on the evidence drawn from the above
examples – that the better organised a political party becomes, the greater the
likelihood that it would seek to exploit expert/professional (outside) help. We can see
this in the context of both the Conservative and Labour Party’s actions in the 1950s
and early 1960s, although one has to concede that the Labour Party was less
comfortable with using the means of modern advertising within its campaigns.
Nonetheless, those who wished to make it a successful party did not shy away from
using all the tools that could be made available. As Socialist Commentary forcefully
argued, in the policy-making process one needed not only to generate policies but to
understand their consequences in the public world,and that required analysis,surveys,
projections, and the like; that is, a professionally informed overview of policies and
their implications.(1965,p.xv).And if publicity was to be ‘engaged in at all,this must be
done professionally;it must take advantage of all the appropriate media’(1965,p.xviii).
n the second point is more complex but perhaps more significant in relation to the
broader discussion of professionalisation and changes in political party
organisation. The outside experts employed – at least in the 1950s – worked under
the direction of both political actors (e.g. party leaders) and paid party officials.They Professionalisation in the British Electoral and Political Context
did not direct the nature or content of campaigns, except that there were often fine
distinctions to be made between the formation and communication of policies.
Having examined the ‘communication of policy’ in the Conservative Party in the late
1950s,Lord Windlesham makes the following observation:

… in political communication as well as in commercial advertising the way in
which a message is presented may alter the effect it will have, those who have a
professional skill in methods of presentation may come to influence or even
determine the form and content of the political message as well as the way in
which it is presented (1966,p.53). 53