I don’t understand why they make their messaging so complicated.
We are on the side of working people. We will always do everything in our power to make your life as successful as possible.
If you have retired or are unable to work, we will look after you.
If you are sick, we will care for you.
Then fulfil that promise.
The end.
The complicated way they go about saying it, only confuses people and blurs the distinction between Labour and the cult.
It is because the people in charge of the party now are absolutely terrible at the sort of politics which delivers long term success or improvement, but who think they are great at political advertising. That sort are of course in charge of all major parties, and infest most of the political press too.
They really, genuinely think that simple messaging of the kind you describe - never mind actually delivering on what they promise - is foolish. Doing that fixes opinions (of the public), creates a record of what they said and creates something that a politician can be measured against (invariably negatively because the likes of them never achieve what they promise because they are incapable of delivering it).
One of the most genuine reactions they had against Corbyn was precisely because he was someone who did that - as (I think) Stephen Bush said, Corbyn's mind was like a filing cabinet; ask him a question on the Kurds, on CND or on football and he'd give the same answer to whoever he happened to be speaking to (or whenever he was asked it). They think you can't "sell" a politician like that as people will either like it or hate it.
What is better, according to them, is to establish an undefined thing - "Brexit" for example - and then advertise it as being something "good" or "bad", but never something that was so defined that the definition could be checked against. It does work, sadly, in the short term but as with advertising itself these things only last in the medium or long term if people actually like them and choose to keep consuming it.
This is one reason why I think Sunak running the country relatively competently is the biggest threat to Labour, and conversely why Sunak running the country competently is a big political threat to Sunak himself - it is an absolute anathema to our political class. People (in politics and without) might even question why we have these people in positions of power over us.
www.theguardian.com
