Don't Waste The Gift Of Thatcher's Children Ed

One of the more delicious  embarrassments resulting from the Wikileaks Cables is the way that William Hague tried to reassure a US diplomat that the Conservative party were up to the job of government.

A report on the BBC website says:

In another cable from Mr LeBaron, from April 2008, he writes up a meeting with William Hague, in which the then shadow chancellor speaks of the "near death" experience for the Conservatives of the election that never was a few months earlier - and reassures the Americans about the "special relationship".

"Hague asserted that he, Cameron, and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne are all "children of Thatcher".

Then in today's Prime Minister's Question Time Cameron tried to rebuff Ed Miliband's jibe about it declaring "I'd rather be a child of Thatcher than a son of Brown."

This announcement is a real gift to the Labour party - if they exploit it hard and quickly.

I think that the usually slicker than slick Cameron miscalculated his PMQs response by assuming two things:

a. That his re-branding of the Tory party from nasty to compassionate conservatism is so complete that the mention of Thatcher is no longer the kiss of death to them.

b. His toxic rebranding of Gordon Brown is also so complete that it his name carries more (or at least as many) negative connotations as Thatcher's.

This miscalculation gives the Labour party a real opportunity.  The negative mental connections triggered for most people by the mention of Thatcher are much more deeply rooted than for Brown, which has only been active for a couple of years at most, and aggressively framed by the Coalition since May this year. 

The mental frames triggered by Thatcher's name have been in existence for over 20 years with over a decade to become established whilst she was Prime Minister and over a decade since of folklore and horror stories. 'Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher', The poll tax, the Miner's strike - her legacy is still strong and, largely, negatively framed (especially outside of the South of England). The Conservative party were acutely aware of this negativity. Why else would Cameron have spent so much time trying to detoxify the brand? His carefully crafted image of 'hug a hoodie', 'call me Dave' compassionate conservatism wasn't done for no reason. He knew just how negatively held the conservative party were in the British public minds. As Theresa May put it in 2002, 'You know some people call us the nasty party.' Yes, Theresa, we do.

 

Brown on the other hand is a relatively new negative frame. Whilst the Coalition have made a united and very concerted effort to paint him (and the Labour party as a whole) as a spendthrift who's left the country in the grips of a dreadful financial mess, this is still in it's infancy and therefore not as mentally deep rooted as Thatcher's. Before the General Election only 7 months ago, Brown was still seen as a competent pair of hands to handle the economy. Whilst his personal popularity was low, his image regarding his management of the economy was high.

The Coalition have done a good job at trashing this record and associating in people's minds the deficit and thus the need for cuts with Brown (and Labour's) mismanagement of the economy. Never mind that Osborne agreed with his management of the banking crisis, or that Vince Cable and Nick Clegg voiced their agreement with his approach to paying down the deficit - those facts are not mentioned by the Coalition. Unfortunately, because the Labour Party were tied up with their leadership contest, the newly created frame of Labour's financial mismanagement was left pretty much unopposed for many months. 

In this silence, the Coalition deliberately (and don't believe for a second that it wasn't deliberate) positioned the Labour party and Gordon Brown as its leader, as irresponsible spendthrifts whose mess they were unhappily having to clear up. It was rare an interview or speech didn't start with 'Due to the appalling mess left by the last government' or words to that effect.  Labour desperately need to repeatedly oppose this frame and create a new one that shows how well they managed the financial crisis. It needs to be said over and over, at every opportunity to counteract the frame that's already taken hold in many people's minds.

But there's time for that.  One of the few slip ups that PR man Cameron has made so far in his premiership is the acceptance of the Thatcher's children tag. He's probably hoping that Labour won't be savvy, aggressive or coherent enough yet to exploit it because if they did that phrase alone could start to seriously unravel the carefully crafted nice guy Dave image of the new Tory party.

It's a great opportunity for Labour. I just hope that they're willing to take it and run with it.

Ed Miliband and co need to remind the public at every opportunity that Cameron and Osborne are Thatcher's children and are therefore inexorably linked to the nasty, toxic Tory party of old. The party of high unemployment, high inflation, job losses, benefit cuts and uncaring statements telling the unemployed to get on their bikes.  All of those memories are still there for many voters in this country. Even younger people who weren't around to experience Thatcher's Britain will know the folklore. Thatcher is symbolic in many people's minds with a less pleasant time in British life. Linking Cameron and Osborne to these unpleasant memories as often and as loudly as possible is essential for Labour to regain some ground and begin to carve out a space for themselves as the genuinely caring party.

I would urge Ed Miliband and the rest of the shadow cabinet to start using this moniker as often as possible when referring to the Tories. It's not name calling (which may be a concern to some) but a reminder of what Cameron has said he'd sooner be. It's a chink in their very effective armour. It's an absolute gift to Labour and would be a crying shame if they don't exploit it fully. If the shoe was on the other foot you can bet the Coalition would take utmost advantage of it. Labour needs to be linguistically smart - associating themselves with positive emotions in the electorate's minds is something I think lots of energies are being spent on already. But being able to associate their opponents with negative emotional responses is something they're not so good at, but it's essential they do.

Comments

[Shibleyrahman]

Superb post Jo

I didn't actually understand the weird assessment commenced which appeared to say, "On a point of correction, my (=David Cameron) mother's still alive, unlike Lady Thatcher. who is".

Lady Thatcher is still alive isn't she? I mean she has a carotid pulse technically.

Best wishes

Dr Shibley Rahman

@shibleyrahman

[Anthillel.wordpress.com]

Great post jo!

It just shows how out of touch the Tories are with the normal of people of Britain, who like my family regard that "woman" with contempt and with expletives. Gordon Brown tried (and succeeded i may add, look at the growth in the first part of year before the tories did the spending review) to ease us out of recession by not swinging the axe, whereas that WOMAN swung it no matter the social cost! Shows that they are just as ideologoically minded and will reopen our 30 year old wounds.