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ABC Online
Correspondents Report - Sunday, 8 May , 2005
Reporter: Rafael Epstein
HAMISH ROBERTSON: We begin, though, in Britain, where Tony Blair's Labour Government was re-elected last week for an historic third term.
But its significantly reduced majority ? widely anticipated in most of the pre-election polling ? reflected dissatisfaction with Mr Blair's performance, especially over the lead up to the war in Iraq.
The Conservatives, however, didn't do as well as they'd hoped despite a three per cent swing in their favour and an upbeat assessment by their leader, Michael Howard, that they were well on their way to political recovery.
And the Tories' tactic of focussing on a small number of issues such as immigration and the high levels of golden staph infections in hospitals was controversial within the party itself.
Well, the man advising Michael Howard, Lynton Crosby, was also the advisor to John Howard in his election campaigns here in Australia.
Our correspondent in London, Rafael Epstein, has been assessing the effectiveness of that advice, and how it contrasted with Labour's strategy, orchestrated by Alastair Campbell.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Tony Blair has been portrayed as the central feature of the Labour campaign, either as the party's greatest liability because of the liar allegations that could be thrown at him over Iraq, or as the only man able to garner a winning victory.
But with the Conservatives, the British media have taken their attention off the leader, and spent a fair bit of time on Lynton Crosby, the Tory campaign director who's always referred to as the "import" from Australia, the master of the dark arts who helped steer John Howard's successful campaigns in 2001 and last year.
Nick Cohen is an opinion writer with the left of centre Observer newspaper.
NICK COHEN: He came over here, like, you know, one of these economic migrants, slipped into the country and sort of took over the Tory campaign, and there were a lot of Tories with their knives out for him if it fails.
It's a bit like a Brit going to Australia and saying I'm going to get the Labor Party back into power in Australia. The danger is, he doesn't understand the country, he doesn't? he doesn't know what he's doing, he's deluded by what works in Australia will work here and there will be a lot of conservatives in Britain who want to, you know, get the immigration police in and get him to Heathrow and have him deported back to Sydney.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: It's now apparent the Tories did not make the big gains among voters in London, nor among female voters that they needed to win power. Nick Cohen thinks he knows why.
NICK COHEN: There's never been an election like this, there's never been a mainstream party run a campaign like the Tory campaign.
Margaret Thatcher would occasionally say people are worried about immigration and lefties would jump up and down and scream, but they're tiny little things, but this is the main message that the Tories have got and it's just hammered day in and day out and, it does risk, you know, in a multicultural society, it does risk violence, it does risk racism, and it's very dangerous for the Tory Party.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: But political commentator, Nicholas Jones says Crosby is responsible for much of the Conservatives' gains.
NICHOLAS JONES: He understands how you should attack these marginal constituencies, how you should use techniques, you pick on those issues which are very controversial. So they picked on, for example, the Conservatives under Lynton Crosby, issues like immigration.
So Lynton Crosby's success is being able to pick up very quickly what he thinks are the sorts of issues which are going to drive the campaign in the marginal constituencies, and he's done it very well.
And that's what I think has been? has so interested me, is that he's been proving himself to be more than a match for Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, who was brought out of semi-retirement to help Mr Blair. I mean, he's back on the scene.
But no, no, Lynton Crosby is very clever. He has not allowed himself to become the story, to become the focus of attention. I mean, most of the newspapers are struggling to find even a photograph of him. The television channels have hardly got a picture of him. Why? Because he knows he is most powerful behind the scenes pulling the strings.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: For now the Labour Party will try and assess exactly what Tony Blair's reduced majority will mean. What issues will it block him pursuing, how much he can achieve and when he should hand over to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor who's wanted to be a Labour Prime Minister for so long?
One man who used to help Labour in its advertising campaign is advertiser, Ron Legus. He thinks most voters don't really care about those issues, that neither party really managed to inspire voters, and that's the explanation for such a low turnout.
RON LEGUS: I think it was a very dull campaign I'm afraid. And I think that's partly because there's actually not that much air space and difference between the two leading parties.
They're not that different in their fundamental philosophy, whereas in past years, when I've been involved in looking at politics over the years, there've been big, fundamental differences. You know, Thatcher was a reformist, she had a vision and a point of view.
And Blair with new Labour, there was a real difference that they were selling. They had attitude and difference and distinctivity. So the campaigns were strong and compelling.
This time around, there's so little to choose between them that they've had to resort to sort of, really quite minor things. I mean, cleanliness in hospitals, give me a break. You know, it's an issue, but it's not a defining issue and it's not enough to make a campaign over.
So of late they've got a lot more personal, and I don't think the public particularly like that. |
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