Fishburn Hedges

18.08.2010

In the heady days of late April and early May, the political world was easy to understand and even simpler to communicate.  

You didn’t need a PR professional to tell you that David Cameron and Nick Clegg were sworn enemies, they led two political parties locked in a century long power struggle and were less than glowing about each other on a personal level.  Our new PM famously called his Deputy his ‘favourite joke’ and just two days before polling day Nick Clegg was touring the country accusing his boss of ‘breathtaking arrogance'. 

You know the rest.  A hundred days ago, Britain’s first coalition in 60 years was forged and in that press conference all the years of animosity were swept away with a glint in the eye and a promise to work in ‘the national interest’.  The question that burns in the communications industry is that when you strip away the policy detail, how effective has the government been in communicating a common purpose.  Do we really believe that this is a project borne in our interest, or a stitch-up between two men who had both failed to win the election? 

Finding common ground

The first challenge in every communications brief is authenticity; if the audience don’t believe you are genuine you stand no chance of influencing them.  

To meet this challenge, strategists on both sides of the coalition quickly decided that the financial crisis presented the best means of justifying their agreement.  It is a tired political cliché to ‘never waste a good crisis’ and that is exactly the mantra the government has followed.  By continually telling us how grave the economic situation is, the coalition serves to reinforce the message that the two parties have been drawn together out of necessity. 

It is an obvious tactic, but the evidence to date is that it has been a successful one.  A clear majority of voters continue to tell pollsters that the health of the economy is the greatest issue facing the country and that the government has got the strategy right.

New communication challenges

The coalition might be winning on the economy, but the subtleties of partnership government lead to a myriad of other communications challenges; the most obvious being the retention of separate party identities.  As the junior partner, the Liberal Democrats have repeatedly come under fire for ‘betraying’ their principles for a shot at power.  In many respects this is a hard charge to rebuke, as it’s true that many Lib Dem (and Conservative) pledges have been dropped to shape a united coalition agreement.  

The strategy to combat this is less clear, the Lib Dems have tried to play up their ‘wins’ in office, but for every win your opponents can always find a loss.  On this the party arguably needs to think again and should perhaps be more honest about internal disagreements.  Take Trident as an example, whatever the final decision it will always be known that the Lib Dems would have liked to scrap the project.  The question the coalition needs to answer is whether it’s better to share disagreements in public, or deny rifts only for them to be reported anyway…

The problem of managing disagreement manifests itself in each Department and arguably provides a particular challenge for Vince Cable and Chris Huhne.  At BIS and DECC they have powerful individual remits, but have to tread carefully when defending a coalition position.  Up to now, both have arguably taken a pragmatic approach and are aiming to fight the battles they can win.  Ideally for the Lib Dems, Cable would have scrapped university fees, but he’s willing to settle for a graduate tax.  Huhne remains a nuclear power sceptic but looks set to give the green light to a new generation of plants without public subsidy. 

Coalition compromises 

From a communications perspective, compromise is difficult to shout about, it’s far easier to sell black and white than shades of grey.  Yet to prosper in this new environment, Ministers from both sides need to be confident in selling policies that they might once have derided and opposed.

Little is certain in the world of Coalition politics, but we can be assured that partnership government will continue to throw-up deft and complex communication challenges.  The ability of Messer’s Cameron and Clegg to master these will ultimately be just as important to the government’s success as the policy decisions made in Whitehall.  Expect some bloopers, expect some heated disagreements but don’t expect the next 100 days to be any less exciting than the last. 

Posted by Andrew Lewin