Had coffee with a Labour Minister today and a CCHQ insider. Independently both expressed the view that neither Labour or the Conservatives have yet managed to \'frame\' the terms of the campaign for the voters. It is true. We have had lots of slogans and promises and pledges, hustle, bustle and charging about...but nothing yet that is resonating enough with the public to get a sustained conversation going. One of them said (it was two separate coffees) that the public would frame the terms of the debate. It sounded right and was a little prophetic (is it possible to be a little prophetic?) because a few hours later Brown is heckled by a passerby in central London about school places. Caught and reported by Sky News as \'The First Heckle\' http://bit.ly/ckteKt this DID resonate, not just with the press desperate to get the campaign alive but I suspect with the viewers too. Whilst not on a par with Blair\'s confrontation by Sharon Storer about A&E services in 2001 it very easily could have been if GB had stopped to chat it over as Blair did. But this is Day 2, what happens after heckle 3,4,5? For it highlights the extra vulnerability and therefore risk that applies to the incumbent PM and not the aspiring PM during a campaign. Team Brown should be thinking hard tonight about a \'heckler strategy\'. It could yet get this campaign alight.



News RSS
Score Communications