The Dilemma at the Tory Conference, as told by Nick Cohen
As if country hasn't suffered enough, we now face a clear and present danger that the first former head of PR for a TV company to become Prime Minister will soon be in Downing Street.
The only thing that can stop him succeeding seems to be the public twigging that the former PR man is a former PR man and not believing a word he says. The former PR man needs to counter the accusation he is all spin and no substance and his smart PR move will be to deny he is nothing more than a former PR man.
His spin doctors - the former PR man now has men to do his PR for him - tell my colleagues that today in Bournemouth he will stress his commitment to developing serious policy ideas.
This sounds a brilliant PR move. The former PR man is going to develop his informal brand by adding serious policies ... classic with a twist, as they say in PR.
Unfortunately, I don't think his marketing men have got their strategy quite right. For a start, delegates will vote on motions using X Factor-style electronic keypads, which I'm not certain will bring the sense of gravitas the former PR man needs.
And although they promised the BBC that the former PR man is committed 'to developing serious policy ideas', the briefers went on to say that he won't actually commit himself to any 'specific policy announcements'.
The PR conundrum is how to give the impression that the former PR man is interested in serious policies when he doesn't have any policies. Perhaps they will arrange for him to be photographed reading the Economist to his children or posing naked, hand on chin like Rodin's Thinker, on a rock on the beach at Bournemouth.
My emboldening. It seems as if the Tory Conference will be full of more froth than most party conferences.
Cory
