The Prime Minister has a
talented group of advisers around her, which guarantees her 2018 conference
speech will be superbly crafted. The 2018 conference theme, opportunity, also gives
her a great theme to work with: Allowing her to talk about how her plans are
designed to open doors for people. Tomorrow she will undoubtedly give a very
good speech. However, to make it a speech that stays in the memory she must use
what she says to craft a new narrative for her government: A central theme that
ensures hardworking people understand how government is delivering things that
will benefit us and our families.
She must not treat Brexit as
something separate to her agenda, instead Brexit should become just another
issue that showcases her agenda: An agenda to give people more of a say over
their own lives and deliver the security that comes from having control over
where we are going in the future. Too often politicians treat Brexit as an
obstacle that must be navigated so they can get back to talking about domestic
issues. This is not the optimal approach. One of the great insights of the Leave
campaign during the 2016 EU referendum was the desire of people to ‘take back
control.’ Vote Leave was able to recognise that many voters felt disenfranchised,
felt powerless about their futures and wanted to have more of sense of where
they were going. In the way the Prime Minister talks about Brexit she must tap
into that vein of feeling. Recent research published by Britain Thinks indicates
that ‘swing voters feel they are facing an anxious and uncertain future.’[1]
Because people feel they have no control over where they are going they feel anxiety.
The desire for greater control, which will deliver them greater security for
the future, is the framing narrative the Prime Minister must apply to Brexit
and everything else she does.
She must make the conference
theme come alive for normal people. Conservatives can sometimes forget our cultural
assumptions when we talk politics. When we discuss opportunity, it seems
self-evident that it is a good thing. However, to many people that is not the
case. To many people opportunity is just a word. Indeed, some people may read
it negatively. Some many ask ‘what do I care about the opportunity to do more?
I just want to feel secure with what I have.’ In the way she speaks the Prime
Minister must give the word ‘opportunity’ emotional content, so that it makes
an emotional connection with the electorate. In short, if you are struggling to
get on in life the Prime Minister must explain why opportunity is the answer. She
must help the public see that opportunity is not an abstract good but something
that speaks to the fear for the future pollsters are noting in voters. She must
demonstrate that she wants to give people opportunity so that they can have
more control over their own lives, so that they can have greater security and feel
that they are masters of fate not its victims.
She must contrast her platform
with that of the opposition in a way that helps the electorate understand the
choice ahead. Fundamentally, when it comes to addressing the problems felt by voters,
Labour’s answer is state action. However, the Britain Thinks research
illustrated that moving further to the left is a net -22% negative for Labour
among swing voters.[2]
People understand their children will not be able to afford mortgages if the government
mortgages their children’s futures by spending more, borrowing more and taxing
more. The Prime Minister must make clear why Labour’s promises are not built on
solid foundations but will lead to people having less more in their pockets,
less security about getting by day by day and therefore less of the control
over their lives and their futures.
No comments:
Post a Comment