Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it was Andy Coulson’s bad luck that the Conservatives’ popularity plummeted soon after be became their director of communications following a run of bad press stories.
So where does the buck stop? And, as a PR Week report suggests, does his future depend on whether he can recapture the magic of David Cameron at the Conservative Party conference? I hardly think so, please give the man a chance.
The article quotes an anonymous lobby journalist as saying:
“Since Coulson started, the whole political situation has changed. He came in just after the grammar school fiasco and that sparked a massive decline in Cameron’s fortunes.
“If it’s a good conference then Coulson will be seen to have done well. If it’s a bad conference, it may not be his fault but he’ll get the blame.”
I’m sure Cameron won’t see it that way, that he has confidence in the former News of the World editor. And I believe in presenting a more balanced report and highlighting recent positive stories about Coulson too, such as this one in the The Telegraph, entitled: “Who Helped Cameron to outfox Brown”, as well as this one in The Times, where it was interesting to learn that Coulson tried to persuade Cameron to postpone his trip to Rawanda.
It’s still very early days and everyone is watching/hoping Coulson will make some huge gaffes. I can’t help wondering if the author of the PR Week article, a David Singleton, is a Labour supporter, his tone is very critical of Coulson, quoting anonymous sources which I always take with a pinch of salt.
However, here are what some credible named sources had to say about Coulson, it’s much fairer and spoken with common sense:
The ex-press secretary…
Bernard Ingham, press secretary to Margaret Thatcher: My sympathies are with Andy Coulson, even though the Conservatives are staring at an open goal after ten years of Labour profligacy and incompetence.
Unless they are flash-in-the-pan, snake-oil salesman, PROs are only as good as their product. Coulson still lacks a product to sell.
David Cameron’s achievement has been to make the Tories electable again by making them seem more touchy-feely. Coulson has to complement this with an impression of Cameron being nice, with-it and competent.
He must hope that by the end of the winter the Conservatives have established themselves not just as being concerned about Britain’s creaking social fabric, but have persuasive practical ways of combining social regeneration with a strong economy.
Coulson needs to see policies, hunger for government, energy and more common sense to avoid grammar-school own goals.
The political editor…
Philip Webster, political editor, The Times: Coulson’s presence has changed things in that there now is a figure within the set-up who senior editorial staff can contact to find out what’s going on. So in that sense there is an obvious difference. But I think it’s too early to judge whether the Conservatives’ press operation has taken a leap forward.
His initial task has been to get to know about the running of his own and the opposition leader’s office. There had to be a learning curve where he saw the way the decisions were made in David Cameron’s office. To be effective, Coulson needs to have complete access, and I’d be astonished if he didn’t make it a condition of his employment that he gets briefed on all decisions.
He’s said from the start that he’s not going to do day-to-day briefings. His job is about the big decisions – they sit around and say ‘how do we play this report’ and ‘how do we respond to Gordon Brown’. That’s where with his ability lies, with his knowledge of the way papers work.
The lobbyist…
Kevin Bell, regional president, Fleishman-Hillard: ‘I’ve cancelled that trip to Rwanda, and I’ve told the shadow international development minister, Andrew Mitchell, that you’re not going’ should have been Coulson’s first utterance in charge of the Conservatives’ comms operation. Instead, Cameron was given the green light to go, only to arrive at the nadir of his leadership. (I suggest Kevin Bell reads The Times article I linked above with reference to this).
One hoped that Coulson would fill the gap that was lacking on the Tories’ media team: a respected media heavyweight with a hotline to the editors.
Right now, any resurgent popularity is being questioned, and the foundations of Cameron’s Conservatives are wobbling. Since Coulson arrived, the party has lurched from one PR disaster to another.
Coulson needs to stamp his authority on the interminably cliquey Central Office, take charge of the news agenda and pave the way for communicating substantive policies. Otherwise, no amount of editor pals will bring the kind of headlines that he was brought in to achieve.
Update 11 September: The Daily Mail’s Benedict Brogan has picked up on this post, it was also highlighted on ConservativeHome. Since writing it, David Cameron has had a sensational splash in The Sun – this is exactly the kind of fixing we need to see more of from Coulson.
Not being a PR expert and being in another country, this is a difficult one for me to judge. I’d say, though, he’s hardly been in the job 5 minutes and he’s had the silly season to contend with! [And I’m not a defender of the Tories as you know, Ellee.]
I’ve been reading the abridged version of Peter Obourne’s book about the political class – oh dear.
Actually, what I would like Coulson to do is focus on the basics, like how their researchers and press office should be 100% of any facts they issue, any mistakes and it backfires on one person – Cameron.
I am with Wleshcakes on this, it is far too early to judge.
What I would say is that surveying the current newspaper and media approach, the Tories don’t stand a chance.
Murdoch backs Brown, The Telegraph leads with anything that is anti-Cameron (see its spin re Michael Ancram). Paul Dacre at the Daily Mail supports Brown. The BBC has been shown recently to be anti-Tory, as we all know anyway.
Facing this situation must be a nightmare. The PR is key here, to get more of the media on side or else the project will be lost.
Note how differently Blair/Campbell/Mandelson controlled the media from their early days.
Andy Coulson has made a difference, so far. It’s about distilling the message and getting across how the party wants it written rather than an opinion piece by a BBC journalist that should be reporting facts and not opinion.
This is only half the story. The BBC is institutionally biased and needs taking to task. I have encouraged Tory activists to call the BBC and other media when reporting Tory stories in a sneering or biased way. It worked with the John Redwood story when they used a 10 year old piece of film showing him in a bad light. They issued an apology.
The Today programme’s reporters – Naughtie and Montague are the worst offenders, quickly followed by Guito Hari on the 10 o clock news. CCOHQ needs to get to grips with these people to remind them that they are public broadcasters and should report fact not sneering personal opinion.
Not only do we need to control the national media but the party needs to re-instate the regional press officers asap – Ellie included – to push the message through to the regional and local media. This is a vital piece of missing armoury. Local papers sit around for many days longer than a national daily and read more widely.
Coulson has been brilliant, particularly the reaction to the social breakdown crisis etc.
What people seem to forget is that Coulson’s arrival coincided with BLAIR LEAVING & BROWN BECOMING PM.
Then there was the short-lived Brown Bounce. Polls are showing the Tories and Labour level-pegging, so it shouldn’t be long until the Tories take the lead again.
“I’ve been reading the abridged version of Peter Obourne’s book about the political class – oh dear”
So, Elektro what did you think of the book? Saw two reviews on it that were ambivalent. What did you think?