Some people don’t vote for policies, they vote for a brand

Branding is insidious. It’s used by people as a shorthand for aspiration and to show others how they define themselves.  We see it with the popularity of iPhone, Nike and the other big names in the commercial world but did you realise that politics is a brand too?

This clip comes from the BBC’s One Show.  The reporter has gone to Guildford to ask people a set of questions:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7lsRbDKOXg&w=560&h=315]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7lsRbDKOXg

Did you see the looks of revulsion when they were called “secret socialists” or Corbyn supporters?  The refusal to accept they’re not Tory?  Brushing it aside saying they’re “a Tory with left leanings”? That’s the result of the last 35 years of near constant media briefings against the idea of socialism.

Tory is a brand, it appears to mean success, money and class. The resultant poverty, inequality and privatisation are never mentioned. Tory electoral fraud allegations are all but ignored in the media, the underpricing of assets to be sold is ignored, the connections to the corporate world through funding and influence are accepted and even the outrageous honours list of departing PM David Cameron is not really considered newsworthy.

Labour on the other hand appears to be toxic. The reputation of Labour financial profligacy when in power is demonstrably false, yet is accepted as fact. Whilst the Tory handling of the country’s finances has been woeful – the last two times in power (pre 1977 and post 2010) they’ve run down the NHS to shocking levels, have increased both the debt and deficit and still managed to cut public services. Inequality was beginning to narrow under Brown but then the Tories took over and all indicators reversed.

Corbyn is derided for refusing to countenance the launching of trident or involving the country in any armed conflict. He’s also been smeared with the allegation he consorts with terrorists, when the current government is selling arms to Saudi Arabia to use in its war in Yemen and to keep domestic order.  We won’t speak of Mrs Thatcher’s consorting with dictators like Augusto Pinochet. 

What does it all mean?  It means that logic doesn’t apply to a lot of voters.  This isn’t a new lesson and the first Blair government applied the lesson well.  They portrayed themselves as aspirational, middle class and more importantly, were united.  They kept their internal divisions away from the media, unlike the current PLP who are blaming each other (and the Head of Communications) for leaking the internal divisions to the media and leaking Corbyn’s PMQ questions to the government prior to the session.

It’s pretty apparent the the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on the whole are undisciplined and unprofessional, they’re behaving like rabble as they claim a lack of managerial structure is the reason Corbyn must go.  Perhaps the PLP has always been more of a group of unmanageable enthusiasts rather than a professional political party and it’s only now, with the ideological struggle between left and right resurfacing, that it’s becoming apparent to the more sophisticated voting audience.

In the end, the 2020 election will only be won if the party is united and on message. For the first few years of the Blair government, that was the worst thing that was really said against them.  Once this leadership election is over, I hope they can finally remember this lesson and deploy it.  Even with the current overt and media front page disunity, the Labour party is within 5% points of the Tories.  That’s no mean feat and is testament to how the policies of labour are resonating with the electorate.

If I were Jeremy Corbyn, I’d put in a decent PLP management team (call it what you will but internal communication process and PLP discipline seems to be the crux of the complaints), sort out the Media/PR team’s process woes and then get on with convincing the electorates that making the UK a better place is achievable and desirable, so people want to be part of the brand.

Of course, it relies on the goodwill of the currently disaffected PLP who are doing their best to undermine the leader and the party but anything is possible.