Cameron is using the evangelist strategy - but we are not lost and the Tories are not our saviours

By Charlie Jones

After having just finished reading about evangelistic families sent to the Amazon to preach and covert the locals to the word of God it’s hard not to draw lessons from their persuasive strategies. In this book were lessons not of good, or righteousness and honour, but lessons of cunning and deceit driven by an irrepressible desire to gain followers and power, regardless of the real benefits to each individual.  

The strategy these missionaries were told to employ was simple: make your subject think that they are lost, and then show them that it is you and your beliefs that can save them.

Applied loosely to the Conservatives (not to imply that they have motivations or faults as extreme) it’s clear that Cameron has spearheaded the first part of the strategy by talking day after day of Labour sleaze, failure and bad judgement. Is it all justified? Some of you will think so, some not; but this is not an article to debate that. It’s about the strategy from Labour’s point of view to move forward with a unified and clear message. This is not an argument over whether the claims within their messages are correct; it’s about the shape that these messages take.

Convincing the public that the country is broken is a common tactic, used by all opposition parties, and it’s apparent how easy this is to do without the need to persuade most people with anything concrete or central to Government policy. The Tories are continually reiterating how Britain is bust and needs fixing and of course how people must ‘vote for change’ in order to do this.

However where the Tories may fail is part two: providing any evidence of exactly how they can save the nation. Floating voters must be filled with unbelievable frustration and anger as whilst the centre-right ensures people feel entirely lost, they offering nothing much in the way of a route to safety – or at the very least do not communicate a clear path.  The result is a political mess; distrust of government and a flight to the tabloid agenda rather than to more serious matters.

Labour could capitalise on this and make sure that some of the balls in the air settle on their side of the political divide. To do this, the first thing they must concentrate on is to emphasise that the people of the country are not adrift and doomed. They do not want to imply that any kind of saviour is needed (be it decked in blue or red) so a sustained message of continuation is vital.

Therefore by overly defending Labour policy they can fall directly into the hands of David Cameron. Their message should be built on the opinion that fundamentally there is nothing wrong with their policy – the party believes in it. If the party doesn’t believe in it centrally then it would not have been policy in the first place.

If mistakes have been made then apologies should also have been made. Apologising for deviation from core policy, be it due to errors or bad judgement, can help to reinforce the key messages that a party holds close. It can also be refreshing, increase accountability and lead more people to see their leader as strong.

The language used by the Prime Minister and Labour MPs in front of the press needs to change to reflect the feeling of strength in advancement through maintenance. Terms should be used such as ‘persist against poverty’, ‘lengthen our record on education’, ‘continue the fight against inequality’ or ‘progress and prolong Labour’s toughness on crime’. This needs to happen consistently across the party and without exception.

New initiatives are important, and a new manifesto inevitable, but there is plenty of room to prop up the fight with the past achievements of time in government. The opposition wants a scrap on an equal footing, holding up Labour’s weaknesses for everyone to see. But Gordon Brown has something the others do not – and that is Labour’s twelve years in power. The Conservatives will use this against Labour of course; but to fight back Brown can either start afresh and look for new headline grabbing initiatives, or leverage pride from what the government has achieved, simultaneously showing that a new direction, and new saviour, aren’t needed.

The party in power needs to convince the voter that there is no benefit in voting for change. Successes should be emphasised, mistakes admitted and true Labour policies continued. The message needs to be that an extension of the Labour term can mean progress from a developed, and in places very successful, base.