Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
Communication
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Hamish McDouall
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Jacinda Ardern
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Labour Party
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Mike Smith
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Negativity
Mike Smith was general secretary of the Labour Party up until mid-2010. You don't get to be much more of a party insider than that. He now blogs from time to time at The Standard.
And in his most recent post, he is scathing about Labour's message. Under the headline Communication upgrade needed Smith opines:
David Cunliffe badly needs a new stump speech. On Thursday in Whanganui I heard him depress a large and sympathetic audience for ten minutes with tales of national woe, then promise a positive campaign but give no details. It is good to know that a positive campaign is proposed. Labour has promised an economic upgrade; it also needs a communications upgrade, and besides being positive it must be relevant. That could shift the polls.
The policy bones are all there – they’re just not connected in a narrative that relates to voters. Because they are not connected they can’t be repeated, so too much communication is undisciplined and unfocussed, as we saw last week from several players. Focussed and disciplined communications are necessary for voters to have a clear idea of what is on offer, how it relates to them, and why Labour’s alternative is best for them and for the country.
Now far be it from us to give the Labour Party advice, but Mike Smith is dead right. We were invited to Hamish McDouall's campaign opening, the speech referred to above; we're Facebook friends with Mr McDouall, and he invited us all! We chose not to go, but from what we've heard from a couple of people who did (both of whom lean to the Left), Smith's description of Cunliffe's performance is accurate.
Now sure; one of the key functions of the Opposition is to oppose. But Labour has now spent almost six years in opposition, and as of this moment is failing to present itself as a credible alternative to the John Key-led Government.Three months and nine days out from the General Election, Labour is running out of time.
And Smith makes it clear that this problem is not confined to David Cunliffe and his caucus; here's how his piece concludes:
Too much of Labour’s communication has been relentlessly negative, coming from what appears to be a pervasive view that “the purpose of opposition is opposition.” That’s fine if your purpose is to stay in opposition; my view is that the purpose of opposition is to get into government as soon as possible. To do that people have to know what is on offer, have a sense of hope and purpose, and that can’t be done with a negative approach.
Finally if Labour is going to run a positive campaign, the its media unit needs to get with the programme. We’ve been getting their feed for several years, and endless series of negative or critical straplines is very off-putting. They also all follow a similar pattern; gripe followed (sometimes) by alternative. I suspect many of them by now don’t even get opened.
Hopefully David Cunliffe will kick-start Labour’s positive campaigntomorrowtoday in Christchurch. I can’t wait.
Now we saw this piece on Monday, but other commitments have prevented us getting to it this morning. Sadly for Mr Cunliffe, gallons of cold water have already been poured on his Earthquake Courts idea. When Christchurch lawyers start saying there's no need for it, you'd have to wonder who was telling Mr Cunliffe this was a game-changing.
Footnote: Someone should tell Jacinda Ardern to focus on the things that matter too...
