A memo to Andy Coulson

The Conservative Party’s new Head of Communications, Andy Coulson, formally begins work today but he arrives prepared.  He has been seen lunching with and gathering intelligence from people who will be crucial to Project Cameron’s success – Nick Robinson – and others who have occupied similar positions in recent years.

He may face an immediate firestorm associated with Iain Duncan Smith’s social justice report – its recommendations on higher beer prices and support for marriage - although veteran media firefighter, Nick Wood, is in day-to-day charge of the former Tory leader’s report.

Anyhow to add to the mountain of advice already given, here’s ConservativeHome’s memo to the new Tory communications guru:

Define your relationship with Steve Hilton. This should be your number one priority. Your £270,000 salary is a mark of your seniority. But you need your advice taken. David Cameron is incredibly reliant on Hilton. Nothing much has moved in the last eighteen months without Steve giving it the nod.  Everyone defers to him.  Steve is creatively brilliant.  He knows a lot about marketing but has a fraction of your experience of both media and directing messages at the C2s.

'Let Bartlet Be Bartlet'.  We wrote about this last week.  David Cameron always appears reasonable and moderate - which is usually good - but can we see some more passion from him?  More authenticity?  Otherwise everything can look a bit calculated.  Portraying him as the family man and loving father that he is will be a really important task for you.

Be blunt. You were famous around the News of the World for your blunt editorial meetings and terrifying ability to sense when someone was putting forward a story that wasn’t thought through. You’ll hear plenty of such stuff at CCHQ. Two of the big and related problems within CCHQ are that (1) the creative ideas aren’t thought through and (2) the delivery machine doesn’t match/ can’t keep up with the creativity.  There’s simply not enough implementation capacity. You need to be asking the tough questions.

Be the early warning system. It was your old newspaper which coined the phrase “hug-a-hoodie”.  Some say the phrase came from your pen first - in exasperation after reading the speech. The Cameroons seem regularly amazed at the reception their policies get in the media. You can look at a policy, and tell instinctively how it will play. Be the regular source of uncomfortable truths.  Tell them to ditch the social responsibility phrase.  It’s got no traction.

Get TV support. You know the media well enough to appreciate that a newspaper man can’t wave a magic wand at the television. Someone needs to stop Cameron being photographed beside gesticulating kids or hoodie-wearing Labour activists. Hire someone.  Richard Chalk would be ideal if he’s available again.

Sort out the lobby. We hear your job is to talk to commentators. The real problem is basic communication with the press gallery. As you know, day-to-day political coverage will be decided by the political reporters, so make sure they’re well served and give David Cameron playing cards with all their faces on and personal profiles.  He doesn't know enough of them properly.

Ration your calls to editors. Every editor will take a call from you but not if you are on the phone every day.  Convince Murdoch that Cameron is better than Brown.  More small government.  More Eurosceptic.  And resistant to further BBC empire-building.  Murdoch’s people don’t think much of the Tory leader.  Can you begin to sort that?

Champion the “strivers”. The Tories stand for people who want to do better for themselves – the folk who once supported Thatcher and switched to Blair. Yet CCHQ has very few strivers – former XR3i drivers like you.  Too many of the CCHQers are careerists that could really be in any of the main parties. Their message is excruciatingly metropolitan and goes over the heads of C1s and C2s who decide British elections (and buy your old newspaper). You know what the strivers want: You were one yourself.

Know Brown, and his tactics. Brown’s team is small. Study Brown... how he works... and learn to outsmart him.

Use patriotism. Brown’s draping himself in the robes of Britannia. These are our Tory clothes as we suspect you know. Get the flag back!  Alongside David Cameron's green we'd like a bit more red, white and blue.

In closing: we’re glad you got this far. There’s been plenty in the last six weeks that would make a guy of your calibre rethink his decision to join the Tories. Your joining was a real sign that Cameron is being taken seriously. This, in itself, helps our party.

And a final thought for you: There’s a reason centre-right parties are sweeping to power across Europe. The days of big government are over.  This really is the Conservative century. You joined the right half of the political spectrum.  the centre right is now solving the social challenges that defeated the left. You may even be the difference between victory and defeat.  And most of all: Good luck!

Comments

[Peter Hatchet]

Good advice.

But will he read it?

[Umbrella man]

The final paragraph is particularly good.

[tiles]

This is good stuff.

My only addition would be don't be afraid to follow your instincts and ignore those claiming "things can't be done" or "we've tried that before" or "I've been around the lobby and they are saying ...".

Unfortunately the team AC is inheriting is not the best. The media operation has declined markedly (and possibly deliberately) in the last couple of years.

As a consequence those claiming seniority are not of sufficient calibre and are in reality promoted beyond their level.

AC needs to keep a calm head and follow his instincts and tell media staffers and Cameron's office media team in particular that "its my way or the highway".

He's seriously good news and I wish him all the best!

[malcolm]

Some good ideas here. The best of all though is 'champion the strivers'.It worked for John Howard it could work here.

[Mandarin Orange]

I'm sure Coulson will be grateful for CH's advice. No doubt he will be getting plenty more over the coming months.

[Tory T]

While much of this is good, no, DC ought not to go down the flag-waving route, it looks fake on Brown and an attempt to defuse the WLQ.

Also, that the message is not "excruciatingly metropolitan" has been borne out by two amazing sets of local election results with victories in the non-traditional territory of the NW and SW.

Let Cameron be Cameron is the best advice of the bunch, but I disagree with the Ed's definition of the same. Our poll ratings soar whenever he's on TV. He's authentic and passionate enough. Your job is to get the man in the news cycle. That's all that's needed.

[Simon Denis]

True, the right is back, but flat comparisons are misleading. Sarkozy may well represent a shift towards common sense in France, but to Britain he is a dangerous Europhil. From our point of view a Gaullist lefty at the Elysee might be more convenient.

You refer to patriotism. It will never work if it is a cheap, plastic patriotism on the American model. European patriotism is more complicated and more dangerous, which is not to say that the left are justified in trying to suppress it entirely. Where the US is a blueprint society into which anyone might be coopted, Europe's nations have arisen through centuries of common experience, which means that mass immigration is a much more problematic experience for them. For our societies to heal, therefore, there must be a sharp reduction in the annual inflow of foreign nationals. All these Brownite exhortations and meaningless municipal rituals are sops, sideshows and red herrings. They distract us from the reality on the ground.

[Editor]

On the EU Sarkozy is dreadful, Simon, but he's such a welcome contrast with Chirac on most things. I personally am very encouraged by the leadership he has shown on Darfur. Maybe something will actually start to happen now after years in which so many lives have been lost.

I'm certainly not suggesting plastic patriotism. I'd begin with a Conservative commitment to ensure that British history is taught poroperly in our schools.

[Schlieffen Plan]

Tiles is bang on the money. The CCHQ media operation has been woeful in recent months.
Until AC's appointment we had a head of media who had never worked in the media (ex-fruit farmer), a head of broadcast who had never worked in broadcast (ex-banker) while only two press office staffers had ever held down full-time occupations as jobbing journalists. The rest, all hard working people, have been drawn from the ranks of graduate PR consultancy schemes, local authority and Brussels press offices.

By contrast no-one in the Labour party press offfice is allowed to brief a journalist unless they have had at least two years front-line media experience in local papers/local radio/rolling news.

It's rather like sending the Girl Guides into battle with the Waffen SS

[Simon Denis]

I quite agree about history in schools, but first we have to restore the schools. Judging by the Civitas report on our politicised curriculum, any attempt to deepen a sense of national identity will founder on the rocks of comprehensive bolshiness. The cat's cradle of interlocking problems left to the country by this Labour government is terrible and daunting. I think that is why so many of us on the right turn on each other in our despair. Just where do we begin?

[David Belchamber]

Three things (i) the public is fed up with political spin; under Blair/Brown, it has become extreme propaganda. We want more openness, (ii) we want to see and hear more from other members of the shadow cabinet, not just DC and (iii) our education policy should heed Sheila Lawlor's comments quoted on p8 of yesterday's Sunday Telegraph.

[Frank]

Coulson has a lot to do.

He should disregard what has gone before. Cameron's press has been poorly handled in terms of event management and press secretary.

He should lay down what he wants and not be afraid to hire and fire.

It will be hard work. The Westminster Lobby does not respect Cameron's press team. So he needs to roll his sleeves up and talk to Political Editors as well as newspaper Editors.

He should aslo beware those with other roles - messaging, focus groups, campaigning - who seek to take over press management. Thats not their job and they don't know what they are talking about.

He has nobody to fear and nobody to listen to. Others don't have the nous or experience he has. So should do it his way.

[Matt Wright]

Generally good advice. First key thing is to sort out how the policy groups are announcing ideas and avoid the few silly ideas that overshadow the many good ones. If we have too many silly ideas, by the time we want to announce the official agreed package, people won't want to listen anymore.

Matt