Filed under: Spin
As a Conservative prospective candidate, readers will have noticed that I’ve not recently mentioned that rather large elephant in room – the fallout over grammar schools.
In light of the upset this issue has caused within the Party, no amount of papering over the headlines can disguise the fact this issue has played out in the media badly. Having been a part of William Hague’s communications team during some of the darkest days for the Party, believe me when I say that I know and appreciate the difference between good media days and bad ones. So I am particularly interested in Graham Brady’s article in today’s News of the World. In the article Graham clearly states his principled support for grammar school’s and he goes on to say: “Last week I was told if I wanted to keep my job I had better shut up about education. But I decided it was more important to tell the truth about something I passionately believe in.”
The last ten years our political processes has been dominated by a culture of aggressive political and media management, which is why I suspect that Graham Brady’s ‘principled‘ stance will be admired by those who have lost faith in politics and politicians. Which brings me onto the wider challenge facing the Conservative Party - it needs to show that it can genuinely move on from the Blairite age of spin. The public are fed up with all the political parties because they fear more of the same, the spin, unrealistic expectations, broken promises and a patronising approach to government – ‘do as I say, not as I do’. I look forward to the Party moving on from the grammar school issue to show that it will offer a more honest, open and engaging approach to the challenges which face our country.
