Political Spin

How to redefine your stance if you make questionable choices.

 

The ability to take an interesting situation and frame it in the light best suited to your gain is a skill that few poses in a perfected manner. I, for one, much prefer to sit in the galleries and watch the actors on a stage than be the antagonist throwing a curveball into the mix. In political terms, we have what's known as a spin doctor. 

 

Commonly found in every political party, these people manage a candidate and the party's reputation, manipulating situations to give the public an allusion to what's happening and what's being said. The advertisement for such services may read something like this…. "Has your party leader lied so badly that they're facing immediate karma and the entire press team has quit? Well, the trick here is to hire a spin doctor to weave your way out and throw the blame onto literally anyone else". Although that's a joke, the general gist of it is relatively the same. However, this doesn't always work, and even the best spin doctors don't always get it right. As times have passed, we've seen a fair share of wins and losses. British politics can be an unforgiving game to play right; you have to keep all your best cards pressed to your chest.

 

The year is 2001, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is in Rhyl to speak at a Labour Party rally for the campaign trail. As he steps off the bus, an egg is thrown at him by the awaiting mob of protesters. He ignores this and keeps walking. As he passes through the crowd, a man lurches at him, which Prescott reacts to by punching the man in the face; that's not good in anyone's books. Captured on video by the media and multiple eyewitnesses to hands, things weren't looking good for Prescott. Here is where we experience the expertise of spin doctors. As Prescott faced imminent criticism from the media, his spin doctors manipulated the story to show him in the light as a working man merely defending himself from an unexpected attack. Did this work? Miraculously, yes. In fact, Blair's view at the time coining the term 'John is John' was very heart-felt for working-class voters, who then boosted Prescott's reputation, and any potential lasting damage died out.

 

Kelly Conway, Donald Trump's campaign manager during the 2016 presidential elections, was a unique spin doctor. I'm not sure how well this would have worked in British politics, but her silver tongue often took outrageous claims which didn't seem strictly correct and put them on a pedestal for the media, which ultimately led Trump to win the election. She had a range of tactics that worked each and every-time. Take Trump's tax return, for example, a massive debate in America during election time. Here she used a technique called 'Concept Scrabble' where you take the principal words from a question and recombine them to frame what you want to say to give the impression of it being straightforward and easy to understand. The question read, "How will Trump respond to the petition signed by 200,000 American's demanding he releases his tax returns". Her response (shown below) refutes the principle and takes Trump out of the equation. 

 

"Most Americans are very focused on what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office, not what his look like."

 

Spin doctors don't always get it right, though. Or maybe they just aren't good enough. Either way, it comes at a high cost to all involved and leaves many people wondering why they would even attempt to paint the picture they do. This way the case for Jeremy Corbyn when he fell silent during the national anthem at the Battle of Britain memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral, his first ceremonial event since being elected Labour leader in 2015. His choice not to sing during the ceremony was met with a massive backlash from all sides. As we have seen throughout, now would be a good time for the spin doctors within Corbyn's party to come out and redefine what happened for the media. This, however, was not the case. The party's statement gave the impression that Corbyn stood in 'respectful silence', which without the need for a sweepstake is the exact reason why many people were feeling upset over the disrespect caused by this. There was no indication as to why Corbyn didn't sing, and the image painted by this event was left to run wild in the media. This inflicted lasting damage onto the party and may have contributed to the future demise of Corbyn.

 

Any good magician has one last card up their sleeve; in political terms, that card is a spin doctor, and the sleeve is their public relations team. It's a fair few to say politicians get away with virtually anything though this reign of power is being pulled short by the astronomical power social media has. Gone are the days where Prescott could rely on the image created by his spin doctor to save him. Corbyn felt this same backlash too. So, whether or not you're a spin doctor, member of the public or politician, it might be time to put just one more card up your sleeve.