15.11.07
By Fiona O’Cleirigh
One of Tony Blair’s former spin doctors tonight reveals how the Labour
government in the UK keeps “erring” ministers “on message”.
Lance Price explains how the Downing Street press office run by Alastair
Campbell, who was Tony Blair’s official spokesman, would make ministers
who publicly expressed doubts about any government policy change their mind
– within minutes.
Price, who between 1998 and 2001 was Camp-bell’s deputy, was
talking on the day of an about-turn made by Admiral Lord West, the security
minister, on the government’s proposals to extend the time limit for
detention of terror suspects without trial.
West, the former first sea lord, had raised doubts about the necessity
of the proposals on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Within an hour, however, after breakfasting with prime minister Gordon Brown,
West appeared to have reconsider-ed, being “quite clear that…
we will need the power to detain certain individuals for more than 28 days.”
Price, who was a BBC political correspondent before becoming a government
spin doctor, says: “In my day, it was Alastair Campbell who would write
out a statement on behalf of some erring minister, in which that minister
clarified his or her position and suddenly was found to be back in line with
government policy by the time Alastair had done his re-drafting.
“It’s never done very gracefully. But it’s simply
not acceptable in Britain, or actually any other country: if you’re
a member of the government, you’re supposed to support government policy.”
West was ridiculed in today’s newspapers over his change of mind.
The Times, for example, headlined: “What shall we do with the
simple sailor?”
Speaking on Press TV’s Between the Headlines newspaper-discussion
programme, Price says that such an undignified spin tactic may be the best
way for Downing Street to deal with a minister who speaks out against government
policy.
There were other options, he says, such as giving the minister more
time to change his mind. “The trouble with that strategy would have
been that instead of these rather embarrassing headlines that we’re
talking about this evening, there would have been a constant barrage of stuff
going on for several days, you know, ‘A split in the government’,
‘Is your party in tatters?’”
“And we’re discussing that embarrassment, rather than longer
term damage to the actual policy itself.”
Nicholas Jones, Price’s fellow guest on the programme and himself
a former BBC political correspondent, has long argued
that the Labour government favours “spin” over genuine openness,
and disputes the principle behind the strategy. “It’s effective,
yes, in the sense that you’ve neutralised the story, but what we’ve
heard is Lance’s description of what goes on behind the scenes.”
“I think what people don’t perhaps understand is the degree
to which Lance, Alastair Campbell… are trying to exploit the media,
manage the media all the time. And what we have to ask is: is this the right
behaviour for a government – a democratic government – to be so
obsessed with trying to manage the media?”
However, Price sees media obsession with any signs of a split as driving
“spin”. Whereas in France, he says, ministerial differences of
opinion are tolerated as a form of public debate, the British media treats
any disagreement as a sign of weakness.
“And, actually, if the media were more relaxed about ministers
expressing a different opinion and didn’t turn it into a huge embarrassment
for the prime minister, then perhaps the prime minister and people like me
who worked for him would be more relaxed about the way in which we respond
to this.”
According to Price, West was initially oblivious to the storm that
he had triggered by the opinions he had expressed. After hearing the 8.30am
news bulletin reporting on his concerns after his interview, he asked his
press advisor: “Why are they saying this about me?”
“Because that’s what you said, minister,” came the
reply.
Price said that West had been naive. “When you’re a politician,
you’re supposed to have your thoughts in your mind before you go on
the air.”
Fiona O’Cleirigh is associate producer on Between the Headlines.
Comment on this article
Why British government prefers
‘spin’ to FOIA
Headlines
Link
The edition of Between the Headlines, on which Lance Price and Nicholas
Jones appear, can be viewed online: part
1; part 2; part
3.
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