Don't Blame Mercury

The polls have been telling us for some time that the Labour Party is in some trouble, and is clearly on the back-foot. The recent Annual Conference has done little to address the party's overall image. But you know that any governing party realises that it is in trouble communciation wise, when it starts to blame the messenger. Using Twitter, Ben Bradshaw has complained that Radio 4s treatment of Conservative spokesperson was not robust enough. There is of course some irony in the fact that I found this story courtesy of the BBC.

The BBC is a major political football, but I suspect most viewers/listeners trust its covergae, by and large, to be impartial and journalists to ask appropriate questions.

I don't necessarily subscribe to the view that all the Conservative have to do is turn up and they will win the next election, rather I feel all is to play for. Certainly, the result of the Republic of Ireland's referendum on the Lisbon treaty has clearly put the Conservative Party on the back foot.

I suspect that the oncoming election campaign (which has in reality already started) will be quite negative in relative terms. But I am not convinced that this will be succesful. Perhaps senior Labour ministers should focus on their jobs of promoting policies, ideas and a vision, and let the journalists get on with theirs.