Election Unspun: How to Win Power

[Music] Winona Ryder and an oscar-winning performance by Angelina Jolie in Girl Interrupted over on film for now in an hour here on Channel four the silk route through the Gobi Desert first a short season of programmes on what the politicians don't want us to know elections unspun [Music] [Music] [Music] Tony Blair was swept to power eight years ago using the slickest and most sophisticated political marketing strategy Britain had ever seen they reached its peak in a cinematic party election broadcast painstaking market research guided every shot cut and word to try and win over the floating voter number 26 isn't it Becky over the past 25 years the way elections of fought and won has been revolutionized would evolve then John I meant to but we've been in casualty all evening of course worth all political parties now use sophisticated marketing methods to go after the small proportion of voters who really matter they'll get better jah-el serve Islam the floating voter is that elusive person who may change his or her mind for how he or she will vote who also lives in a marginal constituency and by the time you've counted noses there's only maybe 800,000 to a million people in this country who determine who wins but just as the political parties have mastered the art of selling themselves to the magic million who decide elections so cynicism and disengagement has grown among everyone else this film reveals how the increased use of marketing has changed Britain's political parties and the policies on which they fight elections you get very cynical when you do have a markets here all the time running the country they've taken up to a different level now the whole media thing I mean they don't have the Julie that in the sixties and seventies a bit knowit's the hall like media Lord sure and the way that the yourself almost produced if you like packaged introduced blame Tony Blair he's just responding to what he thinks people wants and that's slightly the problem with this focus group politics and dad's politics and hairdo politics and deep sincerity politics it doesn't if I can strain the civil here doesn't wash politicians and the whole political system are growing further and further and further away from the electorate if you go out there and talk to people there's a sense of disillusion with the system as a whole that I don't remember in the past and that is very dangerous the relationship between politicians and the electorate used to be more straightforward mr. Churchill seemed to take one party ladies and gentlemen permit me please to claim your attention for a moment scene six take one at a moment we are the chosen fuel I can't remember the best memory we are the chosen few if we are to be independent in foreign i wasn't that better thirty years following the Second World War life and politics operated much more along class lines labor represented the workers the Conservatives represented the bosses the Liberals were somewhere in between there were clear black and white philosophical differences between the Labor Party and conservative party the Labour Party believed in the redistribution of wealth the Conservative Party believed in the creation of wealth fundamental differences the Labour Party believed in in state-dependency the Conservative Party believed in in people being independent of the state the Labour Party believed in collective responsibility the courser divided believed in individual responsibilities our bark and white differences they are either end of a spectrum of choice I think old-style election campaigns were really about the major political parties trying to get their supporters to the vote they were pretty confident who their supporters were people would vote on class lines and out of party loyalty lines and in a sense the election was decided by which party was more successful at mobilizing its natural vote until 25 years ago political marketing is far less sophisticated [Music] evening this is our television operations room throughout the campaign the leaders of the Labour Party will be speaking directly from here [Music] by this time tomorrow week the pills will have just closed and you will have cast your vote on the fate of Britain for up to the next five years the arrival of a woman as Conservative leader was to have a seismic impact on Britain despite appearances Margaret Thatcher had a radical vision and an iron will but there was one obstacle on the road to power people didn't like her Margaret had some elements of her character image whatever you want to call it that were not popular one was her voice which and people found rather schoolmarm ish and rather hectoring in the turn she was regarded as silly she was regarded as shrill she was regarded as ignorant someone who knew little about the world right come in we called her hilda other names too of course a tiller the hen went down quite well the the immaculate Margaret there were there were all sorts of names all of them mocking she called in Tim Bell the flamboyant managing director of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi he was to transform the way British leaders communicate with the electorate by devising the first modern political marketing strategy in a series of carefully choreographed photo opportunities he gave her a new image sense of height collar the aim was to make a look like Abel incredible a woman who could run the country and they made sure the papers wrote about it I remember a famous spread where she was defrosting the fridge cooking breakfast going shopping I mean the early days of Tony on the couch but they were rather more original in those days than they were the first time people had done it and it made great copy for the newspapers but this was about much more than image at the end of the 70s an upheaval took place there was to transform British politics and society [Applause] [Music] the winter of discontent when the country ground to a halt is the climax to ten years of industrial area in the winter of discontent it seemed to have boiled over and you may remember those terrible pictures that were taking you were too young but they were taken off your unburied people who are unburied dead people kept in refrigerators because the local government workers wouldn't dig graves you got people in the NHS waiting for days on end for some attention it was pretty grim I myself [Music] I think it stinks like all the other dance strikes in this country run by the filthy socialist communist Union this is the level of unhappiness with the unions and labor government was so great that Margaret Thatcher and her team decided to try something that had never been done before to win over traditional labor voters we targeted particularly wives of trade union members because they were all fed up with their husbands being at home not working we targeted women generally because we had a woman leader the first time in Britain there'd be a woman running a political party and we focused on what we called C 2 s which is assess your economic grouping which really means skilled and semi-skilled workers who were traditionally not conservative voters but supports the Labour Party advertising was devised with the help of a revolutionary innovation focus groups or panels are floating voters the devastating labor isn't working campaign was aimed at the c2 voters they wanted to win over 50 page stalls no mate this is a key unemployed well 79 is a breakthrough in terms of negative election campaigning while the Conservatives introduced with Saatchi and Saatchi and Tim Bell was negative advertising on a grand scale is mr. Cubitt of 50-piece stores no this is too cute for buying your own councillor it hardly moved in the last four years nowadays the country seems to be standing still waiting for jobs operations homes everything is this a qubit of 50p stores inflation tell you I don't want to see what labour in power again the Marx Brothers nah another bunch of comedians coming shortly the Conservatives a great program for all the family during the campaign Margaret Thatcher followed her marketing people's advice her radical visions are changed Britain was not spelt out instead she was sold as the cost-conscious housewife what was on mrs. Thatcher's mind was the ordinary business of food for the family what if you found people wanting to talk to you about always talk to you about prices often about text and they usually say something like it she talked a lot about cleaning things she talked a lot about keeping things in order she talked a lot about the housekeeping she talked about how a woman knows how to make ends meet grocer's daughter and longer customer she was entirely at home with the shopkeepers but she kept a political eye on their prices the Labour Party could see what the Tories were doing and refused to do the same but I tell you this I don't intend to end this campaign packaged like cornflakes I've got to be myself and we're going to win this election on the basis that we are all people who have our own approach our own philosophy and we're going to move together in that work and there's a sort of ripple of approval and applause from the cabinet table because we didn't believe in that sort of thing I don't think it'll be a part leader of any sort now including the very small minority parties we don't accept that they have to be packaged in some sort of way the Conservatives use of marketing techniques was vindicated Margaret Thatcher was swept to power by targeting traditional labour voters she had shattered the political consensus and move the ground on which elections are won to the right a question for labor how to respond parties that love elections are always in terrible internal trouble and very vocal people people will get you have charisma and a great deal pull we on the party or offering the theory that we lost because we weren't sufficiently left-wing so we have the great crisis and four years of crisis in which the lemon party vendor list ceased to be the Labour Party conference has voted itself into a constitutional limbo which it could inhabit for years for finally you get ludicrous policy decisions like we're gonna get out of NATO we're gonna get out of Europe we're going to abolish the House of Lords we're going to abolish everything we're going to have nationalize all the major companies labor split senior moderates left to set up the SDP why they knew that the voters who decide elections had moved to the right and weren't coming back Michael foot led those left into the 1983 general election his policies were higher taxes tighter controls on business and unilateral nuclear disarmament right over the parties presentation was shambolic [Music] British people can give the lead the lead foreign people to the people of Europe to the people of the world so I say to you be a good cheer one of the members of the campaign strategy committee I as I recall it was John silk'n said Michael will you shut up about unilateral disarmament every time you talk about it you got go down two points in Bob's polls and he was hurt I think and said this is the best pulpit I will ever have to propound what I believe very deeply about and I'm not going to give up the opportunity to speak to the British public to try and convince them of what I know is right Michael foot strategy presented an open goal to the Tories who promptly put the ball in the back of the net the Labour manifesto was an absolute sort of liability and it was exploited by the Tories not only by buying up manifestos and distributing as their own supporters but also by one of the best ads of that period it played to people's prejudices really really well you know the idea that we don't want these mad lefties and again God knows what they'll do to the country Labour's repost a lecture on economic theory the moment you bring labour back will start an emergency program of investment in Britain's investment starved industry transport housing new technology here's just one example of how it works invest money in sorely needed new homes and brickworks air money and all the other construction industries they all need to take on new workers the workers stopped getting door money and start buying clothes for the children again the Labour Party never used marketing men never used advertising never used communication techniques because he thought these were the tools are the evil capitalists who were going around the place persuading the innocent public to buy products that didn't want take out bank accounts they didn't need and generally deprived them their wealth so the money could be poured into the pockets of the owners and family owners and chairman of all the different retail business ISM and business houses Sound City doesn't invent roads exactly what they thought at the time so they didn't use modern marketing techniques they thought it would contaminate their philosophy in their purity Margaret Thatcher's victory in the Falklands sealed Labour's fate it allowed her marketing team to present her as a great war leader it was easy to make people forget the faltering economy and remember the freedom she'd given to 500,000 council house occupants who'd bought their own homes we the British people are proud of what has been done proud of these heroic pages in our Island story proud to be here today to salute the task horse proud to be British there was a candidate for president in the United States in the 19th century who said I'd rather be right than president and he may have been right but he certainly wasn't president I think that 1983 will show that Michael foot was the last prime ministerial candidate who will say I'd rather be right than Prime Minister labour fell to its lowest share of the vote since World War two no British party leader would again reject political marketing and you must understand that and you mustn't continue to ask for instance yes some of the vive answers to other people he's not prepared for the other Germans to do it I said that I'm not giving one the lessons of the 1983 defeat would be forever engraved on the Labour Party's soul what do you get when a financial firm with 66,000 people in 50 countries takes the time to understand your needs like it's just the two of you could it be the most powerful two-person financial firm in the world you and us UBS honest Butler does come [Music] you may know Chikara roughly translated the power of dreams you see in Japanese you don't say have a dream you say see a dream because what's the point in having dreams if you're not going to make some happen I just grab your phone as well on your house case thank you thank you you're fired thank you the brand new series of Darren brown trick of the mind Friday at 9:30 on for labor chose a new leader to fight the 1987 election unlike his mentor Neil Kinnock was focused on achieving power but first he had to work out how to win back the magic million voters who decide elections [Applause] he might still have been singing Italian revolutionary songs in public but he had a secret plan Neil Kinnock rang me and he laid out in an hour and a half's telephone conversation that he was going to immediately reorganize his office and get people in there who were a much more efficient better organized office as leader he was going to establish a campaign strategy committee now not just six months before an election and one of the things he did was to bring in Peter Mandelson very hardworking very shrewd very disciplined person the former television producer and Neil Kinnock agreed on some basic changes we did simple things like typing speeches I'd hardly ever spoken from a script in my life but what we knew is that we had to do that because any any casual or spontaneous remark that could be used by the press to inflict damage on me or on the Labor Party would be used for the media the story was still Labor's hard left image in order to deal with this Peter Mandelson a copy the Tories and called in the professionals his shadow communications agency set about creating Labor's first ever PR strategy at the time so at the time when I first became involved with lei party the conventional wisdom was that labor was so anti business that that it was impossible for it actually to hire an advertising agency a sort of decent agency would be reluctant to work with labor because they would be concerned about the impact it would have on on their other clients my impression of it was that he was a sort of firm beating back the sheer awfulness of the Labour Party's image just finding some plausible way of countering a very firmly established image of the Labour Party as being far too left-wing and flaky on all sorts of issues it was a mammoth task neil kinnock threw extremists out of the party and for the first time focus groups were called in to help reshape its image they said that Labour politicians even look to left-wing Peter Mandelson got them to dress like bank managers and brought in the red rose [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the change that took place two-for-one people thought our wait a minute that does represent hopefulness and a land that we've been desperate for in all these years of defeat I mean it didn't articulate it in that form but you could see it among chuck roses from the platform and used it on party publications people immediately identified Neil Kinnock became the first Labour leader to sell a party like a brand every detail will be subject to the marketing advisers careful control in the 7 election focus groups were mainly used to help to refine the message and in particular they were use to understand the image of of the leader but also to pretest advertising and and some of the broadcasts and in particular they were use to help to develop and refine the you know the very famous Hugh Hudson profile of Neil Kinnock which was hugely successful in a thousand generations to be able to get the University where's Clarence the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get the University was it because all our predecessors were thick do they like talents I think a butt may have been allowed themselves to get conned the people who thought this was wonderful were the media the political correspondents the television reviewers they couldn't believe that it was novel because the Labour Party was being so professional but they liked it it was they had no impact on the wider electorate no impact whatever but the professionals wrote it up and I think labour as it were began began to believe their own publicity in 1987 labour may have looked modern but many of its policies were still hardline socialist giving more control to the union's raising tax for the rich regulating the city and unilateral nuclear disarmament I would say the reason that the public didn't buy this in many ways rather professionally rebranded product is the reason why a lot of well marketed things don't sell it's because the thing itself isn't right it isn't actually what people need the packaging of labour was getting better but the message was still very confused and the opposition product the Conservative Party was still strong once again Margaret Thatcher's marketing people made the most of the socialist policies in Labour's manifesto nationalization oblivious to the fact that 99% of British Gas workers took up the offer of shares in the company they work for they will Rina lies British Gas and British Telecom and force more companies into state control defense at a time when Russian nuclear capacity is at its highest ever they will reverse the policy of every Labour government since the war who have supported Britain nuclear defense photo opportunities presented Margaret Thatcher as confident and in control well if we have an election early been gone holiday in August you haven't actually late we won't go at all no holiday I thought we'd go to Cornwall this year again because we loved it she had given the swing voters who carried her to power what they wanted money and property thousands more council houses have been sold on their owners could pay for the stone cladding with profits from shares in newly privatized state industries and union disputes for a distant memory selling the Creator this new prosperous Britain was not difficult four million floating voters in marginal constituencies to decide elections return Margaret Thatcher to Downing Street for the third time Neil Kinnock learned that changing his image was not going to be enough he would have to ditch radical policies teams of market researchers were sent to marginal constituencies to ask people for their opinions about the party they learned some hard truths disorganized labor labor Tory Alliance has politicians I like labor Tory people like me labour Tory the press was invited along so the country would know labour was changing policy by policy the party moved right towards the swing voters who had taken Margaret Thatcher to power so what you get almost year-on-year election defeat after election defeat is Neil being pulled away from the political left abandoning positions on unilateral disarmament withdraw from the European communities not greatly increasing public's money I mean all the left-wing causes Kenny's view was that your policies will be dictated by what Paul said and the whole thing went very soft there and I find it very unsatisfying but that his view was that in order to win you prob have to give up much of what you believed in her she did himself and it didn't work so far Margaret Thatcher's radical ideological policies had made voters better off but hidden in the 1987 manifesto was one that made them poorer the poll tax [Applause] [Music] the public opposition to the poll tax took all of us certainly took the Conservative Party at first by surprised to see people rioting in Trafalgar Square well we could say to ourselves there they're just the usual smelly hairy kind of people who would riot against any conservative policy and then you saw pensioners protesting pensioners not exactly rioting but coming fairly close and and you saw and heard really quite sensible middle-of-the-road people apparently enraged by a policy that we had thought so sensible and unexceptional at the beginning Margaret Thatcher's fatal mistake had been not to run the poll tax past their marketing people the issue of poll tax I don't ever remember it being discussed in the 87 campaign had it been on the agenda it would have been taken off the agenda pretty quickly because it is a fact of life that no political party in the Western world has been elected on a tax raising platform since the Second World War the Conservatives decided that Margaret Thatcher could no longer win elections she was forced to resign [Applause] with evening Downing Street for the last time after eleven and a half wonderful years and we're very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very very much better state than when we came here eleven and a half years ago John Major the new leader of the Conservatives scrapped the poll tax the parties were converging in pursuit of floating voters had mrs. Thatcher avenge whoever would and definitely have won one because he'd have kept both legs well that would have killed her in itself and two because people would have started using the other clays rate time for a change but what again we know from the focus groups from the opinion polls is the arrival of John majorie gave the impression that something new was happening this was a new start mr. Hazeltine was back in the government being all golden and glossy all sorts of new faces were appearing on television we didn't benefit from they it's time for a change syndrome because people almost subconscious they thought they'd been a change as indeed yes since they had a scanner [Music] [Applause] in the run-up to the 1992 election the professionals told labour it needed to look like a government in waiting sensing Labour's slickness might also be its undoing John Major stood marketing theory on its head it got out his soapbox and megaphone and toured the country [Applause] in the next parliament we're going to make progress towards a basic rate of 20 pence for everyone starting with those on the lowest income I felt very comfortable with this direct one-to-one her contact and because I felt politics was drifting too much away from people I wish to do something that was distinctive and the soapbox worked it was much derided by the political sophisticates of the day but the crowds [Music] lots of pictures of John Major be shouted out having eggs thrown at him not going away sticking it out and I think actually that was the the absolutely trump card of that election that suddenly John Major was back in the streets with the people it contrasted most of all with the such a image and inheritance but also contrasted with me particularly opposition leader nice shining red car helicopter rallies everything click click slick slick and the calm trust between the prime minister's relative rawness and my attempts at sophistication may also pursue sway there are few people in a critical areas not not a huge number but you don't need a huge number labour had ditched unpopular policies to try and get elected there was one sacred cow left the labor budget proposals which I am announcing today will promote recovery from recession and reformed the tax and national insurance system in other words John Smith wanted to put up taxes to pay for pensions and Child Benefit just the thing to frighten off floating voters the shadow budget was definitely very unhelpful and you know it gave the conservatives the ammunition that they were looking for to attack Labour's campaign you know the double whammy the tax bombshells very very very effective last week Labour's mr. Smith said that he wanted the biggest increase in taxes on incomes since the war what it did was just to say to people you have this nagging doubt at the back of your mind that this is what Labour are going to do and hey here it is confirmed it's sort of meant there was nowhere to go it was it was extremely unhelpful so labour would push up taxes and prices and there's more according to city forecasts labour would have to push up interest rates by two and a half percent that would add 40 pounds a month to the average mortgage the best political advertising key best political messages of any sort key into a perception that is there amongst the electorate and so there is that instant recognition that they think that as well and with the tax bombshell that was emphatically and practically the case Neil Kinnock had transformed Labour's image and its policies but the party fell to its fourth successive defeat it was going to take revolutionary action to persuade the floating voters who decide elections to desert the Conservatives [Applause] [Music] not call me new Astra sport hatch go drive voltage blended one is utterly a ravenous sausage in Delta it's this season's must-have Molly you don't have to be posh to be privileged all you need is four years no claims on your car insurance then privilege will guarantee to beat your annual quote now give all the Lord our stuff arrest L or gasser blue ten sugars are 12 for cheaper car insurance call privilege or buy at privilege calm everybody tells me [Music] for me don't risk getting stuck with the wrong partner with thousands of cars locally every week it couldn't be easier to find your perfect partner in auto trader labora to mix up changes for loads remember this baby that I'm carrying there might not be ours our baby has been born to a white family where do we get our Quebec starring the oscar-nominated Sophie Okonedo and Leslie Sharpe born with two mothers Thursday at 9:00 on floor by 1992 labour was getting used to post-election hangovers four times in a row dad failed to win over the swing voters in marginal constituencies who decide general elections the pain only got worse when it discovered how despite all its efforts it had failed to change its image we asked people to describe this person that was the Labour Party and they described you know a middle-aged man in a cloth cap against a sort of old-fashioned industrial background you know chimneys stacks with smoke billowing out you know with a pint in his hand and it was just quite extraordinary how little the party had moved on I therefore declare the election of a public school boy barrister has leader was to transform its fortunes Tony Blair had a clear vision of what labour needed to do to get elected there was just this real sense of force and single mindedness there was a determination to move at last to the center ground and be a mainstream party there was always wings to the party there were always different groups and Tony said no if you want to get elected this is what you're going to do but while Tony Blair was looking forward much of his party was looking back with nostalgia to the time when politics were defined by class and ideology Clause 4 of Labour's Constitution still stated that the workers should own the means of production it would have to go it was symbolic and so knocking it down was it importantly symbolic but secondly in the knocking of it down there was always going to be a fight there was going to be an element of the Labour Party that would put up a huge fight against the removal of Clause 4 and so Tony Blair was going to get what he wanted a public fight in which he appeared to be brave in which he appeared to be doing something important and which he finally won in their changes Tony Blair and his inner circle of advisers regarded every step of the way by focus groups they told them there was an even bigger problem Labour's image as the party of tax and spend had stuck for many years labour had this great millstone around its neck as the party of economic incompetence and and struggling to overcome that was a mountain to climb it was a problem that made labour unelectable so Tony Blair promised not to raise income tax the Tories were sensing trouble the Labour Party is opposed to go round believing in nationalization redistribution of wealth state dependency and the growth of the public sector and raising taxes that's what they're supposed to do all of a sudden this Labour Party under Blair said he wasn't going to do that labour decided to fight the 1997 election as new labor but focus groups said they still weren't sure they could trust the party the strategists answer was a first in political marketing to underwrite Tony Blair's promises with a written guarantee tonight I'm giving you just five examples of the pledges we will make pointers to the type of change we want I would also like to give you one of these cards it spells out these early pledges that we're making tonight what happened was that I think in focus groups leading up to the development of the pledge card it was decided that certain aspects of Labour's policy offer were the most appealing to those key floating voters and those were the aspects that were featured on the pledge cards never before had market research being used to shape policy before selling it to the electorate the sales pitch wasn't always perfect those five pledges are crucial those five bridges are essential you can see a car find them Tony is it on there no a founders of by Liberal Democrat leaders like Shirley Williams refused to use focus groups what's more they wanted to put up taxes to pay for better services it's not so much focus groups it's the fact that politicians slavishly follow focus groups so when focus groups in their kind of slightly mushy way end up with some broad conclusion it now becomes the case that very powerfully the argument is made that politicians need to follow those consensuses I mean I don't know who wrote the Gettysburg Address was it a primitive American focus group when Churchill said never in the field of human conflict to so much be known by so many to so few was that drafted by somebody else now I mean I think the corruption of politics by presenting it in terms of technique and technology and focus and polls is one of the reasons why people feel no one's interested in us they don't want to know what we think they've got their own way of marketing their wretched product and expecting we as innocent consumers will buy it but the labor strategy was working despite using the tactics that had served him five years earlier John Major was struggling to make his attacks at home I can remember in 97 hours of discussion and debate with the great intellectuals of the Conservative Party and the advisers trying to decide what should we say we knew we shouldn't say they're dressing up in our clothes why because it made them less frightening because we don't believe we're frightening secondly we knew that we shouldn't say he didn't mean it though we were quite tempted with that asar cheese finally proposed using an old trick that had served the Conservative Party so well in previous elections a hard-hitting negative advert that presented Tony Blair as Faust being guided by the devil you can say anything what do you mean so you won't put up taxes but I will so what just say it go on it's easy I know I'd have to put up taxes just say it say it aye aye I won't put up taxes now saying like you mean it I won't no I vow I promise I pledge chanted gone I pledge not to raise income tax rates for the five years of the next Labour government but John Major knew the negative attacks of the delivered victory in previous elections now rang hollow he blocked it well I thought it depicted a degree of dishonesty and a degree of utter lack of conviction in the opposition party of that I thought may be there but it hasn't yet been proven and I think when it's proven that's the time may-maybe Faust should have been shown after some years after 1997 but not at the time the policies that frighten off floating voters had finally been removed Tony Blair was now able to court them with carefully crafted party election broadcasts like this one starring Pete Postlethwaite after 18 years and 4 election defeats labour finally turned the tables on the Tories I mean you've got to be honest with people all that noses about sex who the jury think they're kidding there's BAC on heating now although they said they'd never do it they give with one hand and take with the other there's 22 new taxes 22 but listen me going on that sound like a flippin to actually drive the people for a broadcasts was trying to be reassuring and say that you didn't have to vote a toy in the last election it was now a new Labor Party so it was safe to vote Labour again the rain stopped and it was also trying to say something really optimistic doesn't have to be this way though does it yeah I mean the future could be so much brighter things can be better that's why you have to bow it's too late hey don't worry about that have this one on me the wings on Pete Postlethwaite the driver was a sign that you know it may have been slightly cheesy but it was a sign that things were going to be uplifting and positive if you did it there was some sort of light at the end of this torii tunnel tony blair's marketing campaign carried him to a landslide victory the turnout was lower than at any time since the Second World War [Applause] we repeated the feat four years later and once again the number of people voting fell will be out every day in every part of Britain talking to the British people this time around more people than ever are saying they're not going to vote if you look at for instance what happened in 2001 where in number a number of safe labor seats lost a massive amount to turnout 20 percent or more in some seats I think that was a sign of core labor vote feeling somewhat neglected because Labor's message was targeting floating voters middle England in marginal seats and not them because things didn't turn out as differently as we expected you know the Labour government has comes of middle-ground Tory government and you know that we saw in the past I think people are less likely or excited about voting I think it nowadays it's a lot to do with brand and imagine just to be the world's gone know it is and how people portray themselves and I think it's it's almost like sitting on the fence so they can grab waters from every sector and the old probably do that I think you should tell more of the market you men in the focus groups ditches go and jump in a lake the political system is going to hell in a handcart if it goes down that route the public will just have no truck with it in a few years and that could be immensely damaging we need politics to get back to some of the central verities that have always been there of course your new use modern techniques but keep them in their place don't let them take over the system itself more and more people are rejecting the mainstream parties and resorting to other means of political expression the public doesn't feel it can get at its political leaders so what it does is to get at as it were an issue and try to write the greatest possible impact for that issue but it usually means they do it as we're bypassing the leaders and there are leaders moaning that there's no real contact and the public's out of touch and so I think we have an awful lot to answer for all the music but does it bollocks not compare [Applause] [Music] No [Music] we'll fight and die for great principles and until the parties have great principles people in general young people in particular won't feel any obligation to go out on polling day if it's raining what we want it more ideological politics that's necessary democracy and it's necessary for good government [Music] [Music] [Music] for all the latest news statistics and analysis in the lead up to the 2005 UK general election log on to channel 4 comm slash election X tonight an unforgiving terrain in winter Nick Middleton's going to extremes in the silk route through the Gobi Desert [Music]

Channel: David Boothroyd

Views: 26,956

Keywords: John Altman, Bob Worcester, John Major, Tim Bell, Dennis Kavanagh, Matthew Parris, Shirley Williams, Roy Hattersley, Neil Kinnock, Barry Delaney, Deborah Mattinson, Tony Benn, Peter Hyman

Id: JGYj5c97aiU

Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 24 2019