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| Prime Minister Liz Truss & Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng Courtesy of The Guardian © Copyright Leon Neil Getty Images and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence |
- background
- what to remember when absorbing the news
- what's behind the current apocalyptic anti-Tory pile-on?
- a few unsolicited suggestions for Liz Truss
1. Background
The Blogger of 67goingon50 (ex news journalist with financial experience) is often asked to write about how to make sense of the news, especially when 2 prominent views directly oppose each other.
But it's not something that can be achieved in one post.
How, after all, can one advise the poor voter/householder trying to keep body and soul together, without a sound working knowledge of politics and finance, how to judge a government's policy? The answer is: with great difficulty.
Most people don't have the background to sort out what, on balance, is good and bad about government decisions. Who has the time and energy to find the right person - probably after a few failed attempts - who is not trying to indoctrinate you into party ideology but is working from a neutral position?
And ordinary voters don't have, or aren't usually given, context. (Context is the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.) Withe time & space constraints, some facts are inevitably not covered in reporting by journalists of varying stripes.
And frankly, that's what many political parties and politicians count on.
Like it or not, most people's source of information is media headlines. If they are willing to explore more, they will actually read or listen to the story behind the headline. News freaks (guilty, me!) will read/watch/listen to the same story from several different viewpoints.
And I will venture to suggest....most of the media since the mini-budget have descended into a hysterical mass of anti-Tory 'let's terrify-the-voter' rhetoric.
Be clear: journalists are steeped in their fields so you don't have to be. They provide an essential service in educating and informing the public.
But recent press coverage has been, in 67's view, appalling.
The Blogger of 67goingon50 has a right-of-centre bias but spent years as a paid-up member of the Labour Party.
2. What to remember when absorbing the news:
- Liz Truss has been Prime Minister four weeks. FOUR WEEKS!
- Words like 'could' 'might' 'likely will' in the media does not mean 'WILL'
- No censorship needed but there is a line between objective reporting and fear-mongering. In my view, phrases like 'the budget will affect Britain's financial stability' or 'interest rates could go as high as 10%' or 'mortgage payments could go up £500 a year' directly contributed to the turmoil in prices of gilts (government bonds linked to pensions) and the need for Bank of England to intervene. (At the beginning of the crisis, at least one well-known economics editor looked uncomfortable taking the apocalyptic line.)
- More and more, it seems, news seems to concentrate more on speculation and not facts
- Last week, much of the media behaved as if we were already in financial Armageddon after one mini-budget
- One poll (another snapshot in time) indicated 54% of the electorate 'intends to' vote Labour at the next election. Really? Just asking.
- Yup, it's not looking good for the Conservatives. But the first weeks of the new government included an extended period of mourning for the Queen. When normal journalism resumed, reporters/commentators went a bit mad.
3. Why has there been such an almighty pile-on? Some guesses (but there will be those who disagree):
- Liz Truss is female, won the race against early odds to become prime minister, and lots of politicos/financial advisors don't like it. They may be sulking but more likely are enjoying the government's discomfort and/or possibly even helping to create it.
- Liz Truss is not Boris Johnson
- Liz Truss has embarked on a bold strategy which may or may not work but the Labour Party has seized on it and the mountain of media criticism as the key to reviving its prospects and its ongoing class war. And they are not above distortions and misinformation to gain momentum.
- Liz Truss is right of centre
- Left-wing thinking has dominated UK politics and many International Institutions for some years. Everything is being thrown at the current government to try to stop Liz implementing her right-of-centre vision. (Example: the International Monetary Fund, in an unprecedented intervention, openly criticised UK economic decisions, and former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney also stuck his [uninvited] oar in).
- Social media has amplified perfectly legitimate criticism of the mini-budget into an avalanche of reports lacking in context (eg a record number of mortgage products, 1,000, were indeed withdrawn but that still left 11,000 - not exactly a disaster. Wanna bet that withdrawn products were linked to artificially low interest rates which would be discontinued anyway as interest rates had to rise?)
- Liz Truss stuck to her guns (though some changes may be in the air) and for her pains was seen as a 'stubborn' woman. Now (4 Oct) after the u-turn, the credibility of her and her government is being questioned. And there is already serious speculation as to how long she will last.
- 'Doom sells papers & puts bums in front of tv's. The News makes the news and becomes self-fulfilling prophetic!' tweet from Sharron Davis, MBE
- 'Headlines tend to stick in the mind at the ballot-box,' John Curtice, elections guru/analyst
- knock heads together in the communications department, fast
- double down on her personal media training
- make new, happier headlines and make sure they're communicated where it counts
- apply damage control; it doesn't have to mean rolling back on policies
- find an older, more experienced male advisor (sorry but a little more balance at the top might be helpful!) with a mindset she trusts
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