Open Road

Tuesday Sep 18th 2007

Banking and the paradoxes of risk communications

The recent banking crisis has raised a whole host of issues around the public’s lack of trust in government and public authorities, crisis communications, what corporate responsibility can do, politics and regulation.

Thursday Sep 6th 2007

Put up - don’t shut up

The boy Dave came out fighting in the Sun today (6 September).  Unfortunately while scything down his opponents with a fine left hook, he also managed to knock himself out.

One of the good things about David Cameron’s incumbency has been the regularity with which ancient Tories who last held office of consequence in the Mesolithic era can be depended on to pop up and complain.  As has often been pointed out, defining yourself is difficult and sounds pretentious.  Getting other people to denounce you is much better, especially if they are (a) old (a guaranteed sin in today’s politics) and (b) right-wing (hence can be regarded as fair game by the laughably ‘impartial’ BBC).

So step forward the Marquess of Lothian (aka Michael Ancram).  Perfect.  He’s a toff.  He’s old.  He had to publish his pamphlet himself for God’s sake, the literary equivalent of buttonholing people in the saloon bar of the Red Lion (“Let me tell you what I bloody well think.  The whole bloody lot of ‘em should be strung up they should.  Mind you hanging’s too good…etc etc).

This enabled DC and his acolytes to look normal while Lord Loony had his rant.  Great.  But why the line about shutting up?  “I want all Conservatives to think carefully before they open their mouths”.  It’s a free country, innit?  Why should they?  Politicians who talk tough like that always end up looking weak.  Cameron should have remembered the example of Iain Duncan-Smith (snigger) who tried the same ‘hard man’ line, and instead told the world he loved hearing half-baked rubbish about returning to core Tory values.  Anyone outside the tiny circle of ultra-Thatcherites understands the lessons of the last two elections.  Core values don’t work.  They lose votes.

Wednesday Sep 5th 2007

The Silver Lining

Few Londoners will have been unaffected by the tube strike this week. ‘Misery for commuters!’ the free-sheets proclaimed as though coping with a slightly longer journey into work had suddenly become comparable to living with a terminal illness or in abject poverty. But every cloud has a silver lining. While tube maintenance engineers were making their stand on pension schemes following the collapse of Metronet, calories were burnt in record levels as office workers cycled and walked their way to their desks.

The prospective Conservative candidate for London Mayor, Boris Johnson, is well known as the closest thing that Westminster has to Lance Armstrong (just shading Eco-Dave on this count) and does his silence regarding the industrial action (in contrast to your friend and mine, Red Ken) indicate tacit approval of the health benefits associated with a suspended underground system for flabby Londoners?

If so, his candidacy should be welcomed and a heretofore unlikely alliance struck with the RMT’s Bob Crow to ensure that the transport system is brought to a crashing halt at least once a week and Londoners forced into their trainers and lycra shorts. It won’t be pretty to begin with but the benefits to the health service and employee productivity, let alone on the nation’s performance at the 2012 Olympics, will be on a grand scale. Go on Boris, you’re onto a winner here. 

The newspapers - an apology

In recent weeks we may have given the impression that Gordon Brown’s lead in the opinion polls represented some form of tectonic shift in the nature of UK politics.  Headlines such as ‘Brown brings new age of seriousness’; ‘Era of Spin ends’ and ‘Dave’s rubbish and we hate him’ may have inadvertently given our readers to understand that the usual improvement enjoyed by prime ministers who replace unpopular and discredited predecessors was in fact a matter of great significance and that Labour would be in power for the next 1,000 years – minimum.

We now wish to make it clear that this was a misinterpretation of our position which has always been that the polls cannot be trusted, opinion is volatile and the most likely outcome of the next election is Brown sweeps back/Britain in the Balance/Cameron triumph (subs please use as applicable).

Please note that nothing in the above apology will prevent us from all writing the same old rubbish based on a couple of stray polls from now until the next election and beyond.

Wednesday Aug 29th 2007

An unexpectedly serious silly season

In April this year, Gordon Brown, announced in the Guardian that the public was moving away from an obsession with celebrity towards a new-found seriousness. Obviously, this was an expedient comment – in spite of the ‘bounce’ he is currently enjoying, Brown hardly has a reputation for lightheartedness.

But perhaps he is a better reader of the public mood than we have suspected until now. Because this summer – the time when even the broadsheets usually go to town on more frivolous stories – has been notable for its seriousness.