Why are Labour's presentational skills so bad?
Reflecting on last night's bad results it strikes me just how poor and out-dated Labour's presentational skills are compared to the Tories. What's the reason for this?
A few examples are the following:
- Party election broadcasts for Labour look like the same ones used in the 1990's - the Tories' ones look clean, bright and uplifting. Ours (particularly in Scotland) focus on the negatives of rival parties rather than the positives of Labour.
- The tools used by canvassers in local areas are poor. The Tories have large placards with clear, catchy messages on and manage to come up with thoughtful stunts like those 'Bottler Brown' costumes. What do we have? Just a few little signs with 'Labour' written on them.
- Look at this photo on ConHome at 3.45pm yesterday - the Tories strategists planning everything on their multiple laptops with the Labour strategists still using pen and paper.
- Even our conferences look dated - with the same kind of staging and set-up used in 1996.
- The blogosphere (the political tool of the 21st century) - Tory sites like ConHome and Iain Dale dominating. All use a wide range of modern features, all look modern and bright, all have high traffic figures. I know ConHome gets funding for this, but how can we go about getting similar funding? Why is our half of the blogosphere so poor?
- Labour at the moment is useless at utilising the internet - even things like WebCameron, whilst tacky - still make the Tories look more modern and more in touch than we do.
- Our politicians. I'm sorry to say that Gordon Brown this morning looked smug and came across as irritating (as a lot of Labour ministers tend to do). Cameron strolled around the country as though he's the Prime Minister - and people now feel that he's a PM in waiting.
To be honest, our presentation is appallingly bad. It never used to be like this. In the 1990's we looked the modern, dynamic party utilising the new technology of the day. Today we just look old-fashioned and out of touch.
I don't know whether this is down to a lack of money, lack of resources or lack of ideas but something needs to be done about it. Although unfortunately I can't see that happening until it's too late and we're out of power.
I don't know whether this is down to a lack of money, lack of resources or lack of ideas but something needs to be done about it. Although unfortunately I can't see that happening until it's too late and we're out of power.
Why are Labour's presentational skills so bad? | 24 comments (24 topical)
Why are Labour's presentational skills so bad? | 24 comments (24 topical)


