What to do when the audience turns its back

Dougal Paver

I'm often asked for my views on our Labour government and can usually be relied upon to engage in debate on the subject.

Of course, I'm interested from a professional standpoint in how government communicates its messages and whether or not its strategies and tactics work.

This, after all, is the institution that brought planned communication in to disrepute. They gave us the word 'spin' and introduced us to 'spin doctors'.

So I've been following Gordon Brown's current challenges with particular interest. And you know what? No-one's listening any more. He's like a poor comedian on a stage ignored by an audience who've taken to talking among themselves until he leaves.

No amount of new gags (5,500 new council houses, anyone?) will regain their attention. They just wait with increasing impatience until he admits that he's lost the audience and leaves the stage. And then they cheer and holler in relief as the next comedian arrives.

In communications terms, of course, that poses a massive challenge. The chatter and noise of a disinterested audience is very difficult to break through. You need a loud clap of thunder to stun them in to silence but in the day-to-day business of government such claps are rare.

The reality of this is sapping morale within the Labour party and indiscipline is now the order of the day (witness Charles Clarke's outburst). For communications advisers seeking to present a unified, disciplined and cohesive face to the electorate that just makes the job a whole deal harder.

And so it is that this current government's narrative has now lost all thread. Like the poor comedian on the stage, it will be impossible to knit it back together again to form a coherent backdrop that holds the audience's attention.

If I were advising him? Either find a thunderclap - and quick - or step down from the stage with sufficient dignity to get some polite applause.

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