This is a great analysis. Instant subscribe and restack!
It is possible to edit serious policy, even quite controversial policy into concise communication though, cf Mamdani, Polanksi as a recent examples. What you need is
(a) great comms skills
(b) an actual clear policy that you can describe in a few words (Greens are severely lacking beyond the big headlines, Reform will never have this)
(c) message discipline and endless repetition
(d) fair media coverage, or at least a chance to get some coverage
As a lifelong dues-paying Labour supporter it is pretty irritating to see them sh*t the bed on this so consistently, but to be fair to Starmer he is forced by media to spend most of his time discussing various scandals or relationships. However a good communicator can leverage hostile or irrelevant lines of questioning to promote policy. It's actually great for progressive taxation that mainstream media find it triggering.
This is not to say that I don't heartily agree with you that we have lost something, and it's worth fighting to get back the long debate, the public event, the non-soundbite. What is so compelling about Greens and Democratic Socialists is they want more civil discourse and community action as well... but they are also delivering the most powerful social content.
Spot on. It's largely the result of the mainstream news media being owned by a small clutch of oligarchs.
Couldn't agree more.
Mic Wright had a good piece on this yesterday: https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/polanski-is-painted-as-a-monster
This is a great analysis. Instant subscribe and restack!
It is possible to edit serious policy, even quite controversial policy into concise communication though, cf Mamdani, Polanksi as a recent examples. What you need is
(a) great comms skills
(b) an actual clear policy that you can describe in a few words (Greens are severely lacking beyond the big headlines, Reform will never have this)
(c) message discipline and endless repetition
(d) fair media coverage, or at least a chance to get some coverage
As a lifelong dues-paying Labour supporter it is pretty irritating to see them sh*t the bed on this so consistently, but to be fair to Starmer he is forced by media to spend most of his time discussing various scandals or relationships. However a good communicator can leverage hostile or irrelevant lines of questioning to promote policy. It's actually great for progressive taxation that mainstream media find it triggering.
This is not to say that I don't heartily agree with you that we have lost something, and it's worth fighting to get back the long debate, the public event, the non-soundbite. What is so compelling about Greens and Democratic Socialists is they want more civil discourse and community action as well... but they are also delivering the most powerful social content.
Politicians and political parties are destroying political debate in this country.
You start by doing a better job yourselves. You guilt of getting personal rather than discussing politics and specifically govt actions
Wasn't aware that I got personal?