Sloganeering?

So now deciding how to vote all becomes a lot clearer. By unveiling their official campaign slogan today the Liberal Democrats have completed the set - and the choice is (between the three parties at least)….

Conservative – 2010: a year of change

Labour – A future fair for all

Liberal Democrat – Change that works for you, building a fairer Britain

You can see a pattern here. Change and Fairness – with the Lib Dems claiming, in typical third party fashion, some might say, that they can deliver both.

Change was always going to be an obvious word for the Conservatives after 13 years of Labour in power – but their change message lacks much in the way of sunny optimism. Obama coupled his ‘Change we can believe in’ with the up-beat 'Yes we can'. Some of the more modernising strategists close to Cameron, in particular Steve Hilton, would probably like more positivity, but other voices – which seem to be prevailing at present – think that lacks credibility given the economic crisis.

The other problem with espousing change is that sooner or later people ask for some detail on the changes you have in mind. The Obama slogan cleverly suggested that his change had inbuilt credibility. But a demanding British electorate seem to want more policy detail.

With hard times ahead, the Tories might also have thought along Lib Dem lines of coupling change with a fairness message. Some sense that we are all in this together might help to reassure a nervous electorate, who seem to have become more concerned in recent weeks about the impact – and fairness – of the Conservatives’ approach to tackling the deficit. Instead their other slogan – things can’t go on like this – is more of a negative one (and slightly despairing?)
Not that going negative is necessarily bad tactics, of course. It was not any great new vision that underpinned Mrs Thatcher’s victory in 1979 it was the resonant: ‘Labour isn’t working.’

2010 feels more like 1979 than 1997, with the economy in such poor shape, so there’s no talk now of New this and that or things only getting better. We wish! But it is interesting that over the last few months change suddenly seems less appealing – while fairness in difficult times has more traction. Something for Tory strategists to ponder, perhaps?

Tim Finch, Director of Strategic Communications, ippr