News of the Dave
The Guidoisation of politics continues with news of the appointment of Andy Coulson*, 
formerly editor of the News of the Screws, to become the new propaganda chief for Dave. He'll bring a more robust tabloid headline sensitive approach that is more likely to connect with people than a Letwin speech.
Guido suspects this will signal a much needed change in the tone of Tory propaganda. Trying, as Osborne recently did, to frame Gordon Brown as a leftie won't work. The approach to Gordon has to chime in with the truth that people instinctively sense. He is an unpleasant, difficult to work with, psychologically flawed, malevolent, grudge-bearing control freak. These aspects of his character are even more of a negative than his tax and spend, big government, micro-managing policies. Going with this grain of truth will resonate popularly.
The Cameroonies are set against negatively attacking Gordon's character and personality. They want to concentrate on policy and present an optimistic "change" agenda. Ordinary people are not interested in the details of policy wonkery, they just think there is something creepy about Gordon. Tapping into and co-opting that sense of unease is a key component of a comprehensive strategy to defeat Brown. If Coulson can navigate the somewhat dysfunctional CCHQ environment, he might be the man to formulate and project that media strategy. Once Gordon takes over his people will aggressively target Cameron with a negative class-based attack. To borrow a cricketing metaphor; the Tories will need to bowl bodyline. Coulson is a player, not a gentlemen, he could be their Larwood, they have far too many Jardines already.
UPDATE : Benedict Brogan reckons Andy is on £400,000-a-year.
formerly editor of the News of the Screws, to become the new propaganda chief for Dave. He'll bring a more robust tabloid headline sensitive approach that is more likely to connect with people than a Letwin speech.Guido suspects this will signal a much needed change in the tone of Tory propaganda. Trying, as Osborne recently did, to frame Gordon Brown as a leftie won't work. The approach to Gordon has to chime in with the truth that people instinctively sense. He is an unpleasant, difficult to work with, psychologically flawed, malevolent, grudge-bearing control freak. These aspects of his character are even more of a negative than his tax and spend, big government, micro-managing policies. Going with this grain of truth will resonate popularly.
The Cameroonies are set against negatively attacking Gordon's character and personality. They want to concentrate on policy and present an optimistic "change" agenda. Ordinary people are not interested in the details of policy wonkery, they just think there is something creepy about Gordon. Tapping into and co-opting that sense of unease is a key component of a comprehensive strategy to defeat Brown. If Coulson can navigate the somewhat dysfunctional CCHQ environment, he might be the man to formulate and project that media strategy. Once Gordon takes over his people will aggressively target Cameron with a negative class-based attack. To borrow a cricketing metaphor; the Tories will need to bowl bodyline. Coulson is a player, not a gentlemen, he could be their Larwood, they have far too many Jardines already.
UPDATE : Benedict Brogan reckons Andy is on £400,000-a-year.
*Dale got the scoop on the Dead-Tree-Press.
53 comments:
Hitting McGB anywhere above the belt should be banned. Go for it Screwsman
phwoar
that will take care of camerons knockers!
re 2:25 above
Must be Gordo!
How "right" you are.There are no prizes for coming in second
JH
re 2:25 above
Why are all the best comments deleted?
the hitch said...
Strange the real Hitch wont be back online until tomorrow and he uses a piccy .
Well, it will be an interesting test of Dave's educational theories. Coulson went to Beauchamps Comprehensive School in
Wickford, Essex, followed by Westminster Press Training Centre.
The official school website is pleasant, but much more interesting is the set of photos of the school prom. If you click on a picture entitled 'riding high' you get a splendid shot of a pair of mottled thighs and other attractions piled in to the back of a limmo, which can be purchased from the Echo. I am also advised by an advert on that page that Screwfix are recruiting in Basildon.
I can say this. My mum lives in Wickford.
I do apologise. The correct caption is 'riding in style'. Something about the picture misled me.
Ah, but the great Sulking Git probably likes batting off a bit of a sticky
Given brown's unhealthy interest in photographs of other peoples' children, probably a very apt appointment.
Did Coulson take a copy of the Rocking Horse pics before he left NOTW? The Dirty Digger must be in possession of these. Any other dirt on Gordo and his crew, must be well known to Mr Coulson also.
"To borrow a cricketing metaphor; the Tories will need to bowl bodyline. Coulson is a player, not a gentlemen, he could be their Larwood, they have far too many Jardines already."
This is not fair: Jardine may have been a toff but he wasn't a gentleman. He was a ruthless player who hated Australians. The effete elite were people like Gubby Allen and Plum Warner.
As a Conservative voter I think Cameron is in real trouble, whatever you may think Guido. Brown's great strength is the economy and if he can go to the country next time with continuing low inflation, low interest rates and low unemployment he will be difficult to beat.
When you add to this the fact that Gordon is about to hang Blair out to dry (deservedly) for all his tawdry media-spun ego-centric sham, it spells trouble for Cameron. The latter is the heir to Blair, but this will be a curse, not a benefit, come the next election.
If Cameron doesn't show that he has real policies behind the song and dance ... he's toast.
Woman on a raft: 'mottled thighs' indeed! Meeow! Seriously, though, why is modern school 'culture' blighted by the American high-school 'prom'?
re 3:11
From the BBC - 'An average of 6.2 million viewers tuned in to watch the launch of the eighth series of Channel 4's Big Brother, according to overnight figures.'
In a 'democracy' the masses decide. And they don't do policy!
"The Guidoisation of democracy"? FFS!
So bye bye to Useless - back to Strawberry farming!
At least Mr Coulson will be well prepared for any outrageous suggestions that Mr Cameron took cocaine. Coulson, along with his former NoW columnist Rave Singh have absolutely no acquaintance whatsoever with the evil white powder.
Coulson fits the Dave image perfectly.What next...Edwina Currie as his deputy?
Remind me--did Coulson cover the "boy George and the prossie" story or was that one of the down market papers.
anon 3.11 So you think "Brown's great strength is the economy" do you muppet?
Don't believe all the New Labour spin, the economy is drowning in debt, unproductive and over borrowed.
Read this for a true picture:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/1845296052/ref=s9_asin_image_1-serq_g1/202-1699183-6016614?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1N99CYZW3BS0VA9YHJTY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=139045791&pf_rd_i=468294
Once the public hear about Gordon's rocking horse proclivities the nose-picking pervert is toast.
taxi for Mr Eustice!
anon 236
c'est moi
i dont have a secure connection until tommorow
so no passwords
im sat here nicking sombody elses bandwidth
and it feels good
With Coulson's appointment quite a few senior New Labour sleazebags are shitting their pants today.
The Tories can't oppose Brown on policy because his economic policy - his obsession with privatisation - is pure conservative dogma. This is why it's libellous (to lefties) to try and call Brown a leftie. The overall tax burden will continue to rise as more privatisation of the public services needs more and more tax to fund it. Why should all the main parties accept that further privatisation / PFI is the way to go, despite it being a massive diversion of public funds into the private purse?
Anonymous 3:12, I can't answer that, but it doesn't seem very harmful so long as the Echo don't take any more embarassing pictures.
In fairness it ought to be said that Beauchamps school is so popular that it applied to expand its numbers in 2003. The parents in nearby Basildon regarded their schools as failing so competition for the places at Beauchamps was becoming fraught. "Coming here, taking our school places etc."
In so far as he has spoken, Dave is right about the problem locally. The question has to be: 'why are Basildon schools so naff that people want to go trucking up the road rather than use them?'.
There are two immediate answers, both contentious.
A) People in Basildon vote Labour and then complain about what they get, and then have the gall to insist on sending their children to very much naicer Wickford for their education.
B) Basildon is the place with the larger stock of social housing and cheaper accommodation, so it has become the place, where, er, the people not born in Wickford go.
The pc wording for this is 'Basildon faces unique challenges' which is true enough.
I shall be interested to see how Coulson spins this, because if he tries to make it Wickford's fault that people in Basildon are poorer on most meaures of the word, then he will lose Wickford in an effort to gain Basildon.
Which means that Gordon will still be winning.
We get lots of veiled references to pictures of Gordon Brown and a rocking horse. Can someone explain the precise nature of the allegation?
Just when Gordo thought he had to only get past Campbell Dishing His Diary Dirt, he's now got to put up with Dave Dishing the News of the World style Dirt.
Are Questions on Rocking horses allowed at PMQ's?
Coulson isn't the hard-nosed tabloid hack that people here seem to imagine. He's a youngish Blairite/Cameroonie liberal managerialist. I'm not convinced he is the man to do the negative, personal campaigning that you seem to be salivating for.
Also, I wonder if Cameroon's messages are readily reducible to NotW-type headlines. Unnuanced rightwingery tends to work better in redtop land than angusihed liberalism. Still, wwe'll see.
"He is an unpleasant, difficult to work with, psychologically flawed, malevolent, grudge-bearing control freak."
Yeah, but enough about Gideon Osborne. How will he tackle Gordon Brown?
Hearing rubbish from Osborne about them being the "heirs to Blair" made me think they were all sniffing the devil's talcum powder at Central Office!
Fantasy island is absolutely right - how can any Conservative voter (rather than the brainwashed BBC) really believe the economy is in a good state? He has mortgaged the economy, and hidden it for years. The estimated PFI debt is beyond belief. We have shiny new hospitals and schools, yes, but they were bought on the "never never". People are spending money they don't have giving a false impression of a successful economy. This is only just coming home to roost - in particular with the NHS which cannot afford the PFI repayments.
As regards the appointment of Andy Coulson, this could not come too soon. If listening hard to David Willetts and co, the education arguments do tie up and there is no contradiction or U-turn. However, the presentation was not good at the beginning, and the channel 4 interview I just heard was not good at all. Conservatives have the best policies, we just need to communicate them well to the public and also to the grassroots - something that hasn't worked well this week.
It seems Conservative Central Office has been taken over by a little incrowd which is alienated from the people it hopes to serve. They need tobring in some wiser non OE heads otherwise the Tories are washed up.
How does Cameron ever think that a little clique of silver spoon OE's and their young Oxbridge assistants are ever going to understand what is required to turn this country around?
Why don't they realise that they DO NOT KNOW because they have NO EXPERIENCE of what it is like to BE UP AGAINST IT. Why don't the stupid tossers realise that?
You kow we pay these politicians shit loads of money and we expect more professionalism from them.
Don't delude yourselves - Cameron is going nowhere, with or without his Campbell lie-a-like. Brown, useless as he is, isn't John Major.
Can I say that David Cameron is a nice guy is trying very hard, mostly making the right moves, is the best we have and more then this country deserves?
I would not want his job for all the tea in China. He looks young now but by the time he is finished he will look and feel a million years old.
Give the guy a chance, he is not even in power yet. I hope you are not as hard on your children as you are on DC. Because child abuse is not just a criminal offence, it is the act of sick cowards with inferiority complexes.
Do you overcritical egotists really think you could do better?
Not one of you would last ten days in Camerons job still less being the next Conservative PM.
Store up the rotton eggs untill after polling day. They will smell more by then and there might be at least some kind of point in throwing them by then.
I sorry to hear that David Cameron is employing some to do his talking for him.some one to get is story right.well I would rather he get it wrong from time to time,his selling point is hes a bloody nice bloke. We v had enough of smart arses.David started right listing to people and looking like hes going to do something about what the hears.If the Torys are going fore spin,then the voters should be, buyer be where.
"The Guidoisation of politics continues".
Christ almighty. Guido's head vanishes even further up his own arse, no doubt in a vain attempt to find what the executioner did with his entrails.
If this Brown/rocking horse story is such dynamite, why don't you publish it before the Sunday tabs do?
As the anonymous Conservative voter who commented on the economy being in good state, and responsing to Rachel above ... compared to many of the years we were in office Labour have done brilliantly with the economy. It is pointless pretending otherwise. Yes, it's true that a lot of it has been built on the 'never never' (both on macro and micro levels) but this has worked because of the outstandingly successful sustained period of economic growth. That has been the key. When I think back to the boom and bust, the high inflation, the use of interest rates as the sole fiscal weapon, the destruction of our manufacturing base ... I'm afraid Labour has won hands down on economic management. This is not to say it will continue, and there are signs of trouble (though the doom-mongers have been saying this every month for the past 10 years).
The essential point though is that Gordon Brown is no mug, and Tories under-estimate him at their extreme peril. He's a heavyweight. If he looks to represent a bit of realpolitik after the shamster about to leave then Cameron is in trouble. I'm afraid Dave is looking more and more like Tone. And that is going to be soooooooo yesterday.
Fuck off! Anonymong you Labour astro-turfing wanker.
Labour hasn't done brilliantly you fuck-wit. GENUINE Tory voters actually know this. Bankrupting the economy for short-term popularity is not popular with Tory voters, they are also aware that very benign international economic conditions have helped the government to bullshit the inflation figures along with flooding the labour market with cheap migrants, and that the CPI is unreflective of true inflation anyway. If you take the economy in it's international context, not the bullshit historical context that Labour wankers try to hood-wink people with, it is doing very badly, in terms of public and private debt, productivity AND inflation (Italy has a lower inflation rate than us FFS! as do many of our European competitors) "Tory" voters know the difference between real success and debt fuelled idiocy of Brownite wankdom.
Geezer - more foul language I see.
I'm not Labour: I have voted Conservative since 1992 (yes even then), was a party member, worked for Michael Heseltine, and made money on Cameron becoming leader.
A straight comparison between 1997-2007 and 1987-1997 shows a much more stable period of sustained economic growth, low inflation, low interest rates and low unemployment under Labour than the Tories. I don't really think the 'short term' tag works after 10 years of this sustained success.
It behoves Tories ill to claim that Labour has mucked up the economy, and makes me deeply worried about our prospects. It shows many Conservatives are still fighting yesteryear's battles.
Anonymong 9:44
You seem to make me want to swear for some reason!
You truly are a cock! Genuine Tories know what a basket-case the economy was in 1979 and how much sodding better it was in 1997. Labour inherited the best economy any government has ever inherited in this country, that coupled with the favourable international conditions have meant that they have been able to borrow more for longer and bullshit the "success" story for so long. If it wasn't for all the money spent on job creation in the non-productive public sector, The unemployment figures would be very shit, and if you include the 5million+ economically inactive people, who don't appear in the unemployment figures, such as 2.7 million on incapacity benefit, for instance, unemployment is very poor. But of course, Tory voters know the real score, those with half a brain do anyway. If you get all your information from the Labour propagandists at the BBC, you will think that everything is rosy. For those of us who spend just a little time to get ourselves better informed, it isn't rosy and it isn't successful.
All you Tories salivating over the idea of having a disgraced former tabloid editor on the team are hilarious. At least Campbell only became a PR liability after Labour got elected (odd theres no mention of the phone tap scandal anywhere on this blog!)
geezer - I remember 1979 very well, and yes indeed it was a mess. Quite a long time ago now though, don't you think?!!!!
But I'm afraid your revisionist approach to the Tory era doesn't wash with the British people. We all remember Black Wednesday far too well. 15 years later the Tories are still nowhere near the trust levels on running the economy that they were once. We all remember too well the disastrously high interest rates (double figures and more) as if this was the only successful way to control inflation, the crazy boom and bust, the idiocy of the ERM fiasco. All that 'a little pain for gain' proved, in retrospect, to be nonsense. A little Keynesian economics according to the golden rule, and the vesting of interest rate control to the BoE, and Labour pulled off the unthinkable: sustained economic success. It's why they got in last time (despite Iraq, remember) and why they stand an excellent chance again next time.
It impossible for The Conservatives to spin themselves like NuLab did/is, simply because of the hostility and lack of support in the MSM. What people have failed to realise, is that Campbell's success, was down to very compliant Mass Media. The BBC and Braodcast news were only too happy to help Labour get elected and stay elected, The Murdoch press were also kissing NuLab's arse. Cameron has almost no true supporters in the MSM at the moment. Even, so-called, Conservative newspapers spend many column inches bitching about Cameron and trying to undermine him. This is why Coulson will find it so difficult to make an impact. Political parties rely mainly on Third party media outlets to represent them, that poses very big problems if the media outlets are working for the opposition.
a different anon here:
I used to be a Tory Party supporter until Heath sold us down the river into the EU. Since then I have watched Socialism and Thatcherism working for the benefit of their Cronies. I joined the Labour Party in 1997 because I had had enough of Conservative arrogance and sleaze - however I left it when I realised that it was New Labour = Old Conservative.
Now 10 years on we are faced with an OE toff who thinks the peasants should be grateful for his Bullingdon cronies. We have on the other side a control freak who has not the nerve to stand in an election. Finally for the LDs we have a leader who comes over as being not quite there, but sharp enough to shaft his more successful predecessor.
What a trilogy. Yet some politicians have the nerve to womder why voter turnout is low.
Anonymous 10.33am
You are a Labour atro-turfing idiot. Saying that an important part of the electorate have believed a lot of NuLab propaganda forced on them by the BBC et al, is not evidence of success, being voted in with the lowest number of votes by an government ever, is not evidence of success, buying the votes of public sector parasites, is not evidence of success. Now go back under whatever stone it is you were under before.
Geezer, the irritability and foul-mouthing of you and some other pro-Conservatives on here worries me. It's a sure sign that there are problems.
I promise you I haven't voted Labour once since 1992, and have conversely supported the Tories. I even helped run Heseltine's campaign in Henley. So I'm not an astro-turfer (whatever that means).
I'm like a lot of Tories: deeply, deeply, disillusioned by Cameron's increasingly media-spun vacuity. Conversely, the thought of having a PM who isn't just a style junkie, but who has been very successful as a Chancellor, is appearing more attractive by the day. It's about time we got back to substance not style, and I do actually hope that Gordon Brown kicks Cameron into touch. With a bit of luck we might get a Conservative leader who means what he or she says, and who has some actual backbone.
If Brown can turn us back away from media-driven style over substance then William Hague might stand a chance, even without his hair.
to "woman on a raft"
Basildon people don't always vote Labour. For instance, the present council is Conservative and who can forget the great "chicken-runner" MP himself David "Is" Amess?
I must ask my friends at the Echo to dig out some of the gossip on Andy...
So we have a guy with TOP experience of getting good uncoverage for A WHOLE BUNCH OF TITS moving over to trying to get good coverage for. . .
Anonymous 12:35 PM, June 01, 2007 said...
"Geezer, the irritability and foul-mouthing of you and some other pro-Conservatives on here worries me. It's a sure sign that there are problems."
I like Geezer's foul mouthing - at least he engages with his brain and tells it like it is.
Geezer, what we need to do is to create a new newspaper which is delivered online which actually tells it like it is, in order to bypass the BBC.
We need to give all the dispossessed people in this country which don't have a voice a voice. All the people who are currently being talked down to and their plights ignored because 'the narrative' doesn't suit the BBC and other media wankers.
I know how to do it but I haven't got time to do it, anyone out there fancy giving it a try.
garypowell said...
Can I say that David Cameron is a nice guy is trying very hard, mostly making the right moves, is the best we have and more then this country deserves etc etc?
You are wrong dude. Cameron has shown himself to be a self serving little tosser who wants power for the sake of power and does not believe in Tory ideals.
He is surrounded by a little coterie of OE slimeballs who are not protecting this country.
Therefore he should be kicked out of the Tory party before he can do anymore damage.
See this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/newscomment.html?in_article_id=459352&in_page_id=1787
LETS GET RID OF CAMERON. Why should we spend the next n years feeling irritiate by this little slimeball and his half wit Etonian mates? They are not going to help the country, they just want to get onto the gravy train.
This country is crying out for real Tory values and action. So let's be honest about the current situation, which is Cameron has highjacked the Tory party.
Once Buggins overtakes Dave in the polls the silly sods at CCHQ will lower their punches, but it may then be too late for the cameronians. So they had better start the dirty campaign now. Anyway, it's more fun for the punters.
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