Turning the air blue

Anybody who thinks David Cameron is cursing himself over his "unguarded" swearing antics on Absolute Radio yesterday is sadly mistaken.

It's misguided to believe the Tory leader blundered with his language (see below), especially as most utterances of our political leaders these days are micro-managed and carefully weighed to the nth degree for their likely impact by their communications teams.

Many believe Cameron's Achilles Heel is a belief among some sections of the electorate that he is an out-of-touch Eton toff who has no real idea of the pressures facing millions of Britons or any real hope of connecting with an increasingly alienated British "yoof."

So what better way of showing what a bloody good chap he is by dropping the odd expletive into a live interview with one of our edgier DJs? It certainly seemed to work for DJ Christian O'Connell who said Cameron was a "good bloke" who acted as if "down the boozer." 

Mission accomplished then? I sincerely hope not. What is it about our contemporary politicians that they think such transparent attempts to court popularity are effective? There seems to be a growing trend in British politics for this type of ridiculous behaviour whether it be Tony Blair banging on about Jackie Milburn, Gordon Brown grinning inanely on YouTube or William Hague donning his baseball cap.

For me, these grotesque gambits exhibit more about what our politicians think of the public's collective intelligence than demonstrating any clear idea of how to win over a sceptical electorate. If the recent expenses' scandal teaches us anything, it is that voters are increasingly cynical of the political class and their desperate manoeuvres to capture our hearts and minds.

A healthy dose of cynicism is what is required here - along with a robust V-sign to the Tory spin machine and any other political apparatchiks who believe such blatant attention-grabbing ruses are the way forward.

Comments

[Steve George]

Whilst I agree that watching contemporary politicians court the media can be a cringe-worthy endurance test, this sort of thing is nothing new. Margret Thatcher in a tank? The lady’s not for turning? – Manipulation of the press to grab headlines has been going on for years.

What you need to remember is that in the 2.0 world, headline grabbing can now be achieved via multiple channels of social media, so political spin is simply adapting to the new environment in which it finds itself.

The motives & methods haven’t changed but the medium by which spin is executed has.

[Kate Brennan]

Cameron's corroborated the "out-of-touch" view by using the wrong terminology to talk about Twitter. This might suggest that if his words are micro-managed, they're not done so very well.

[Paul Wolfenden]

I think the actual comments Cameron used in the interview were spontaneous and/or personal to him, although I agree that the general tone of the interview was a stage managed attempt at offering a more "in touch with the youth of today" type position.
He would not use such language on, say, a BBC 1 interview, so the choice of interviewer/programme/ media was carefully chosen.
All of this does lead me to conclude that what we heard overall was spin and micromanagement.

However, is there any alternative, when everyone is at it?
And....it`s worked, because it`s raised his profile still higher. Don`t forget too, the politicians are correct in their belief that the Great British Public are a pretty stupid lot.

[David Brown]

I hear what you say but it's very hard to believe that the "twits making a tw*t" remark was spontaneous.

It bore all the hallmarks of being a well-rehearsed, if very poor, joke.