The Tories have released a local election broadcast, to be shown on the TV tonight. Unlike previous ones, it doesn’t have any awkward confusion between debt and deficit, preferring instead to focus on people looking a bit confused as they try to remember what the government has or hasn’t done on council tax, income tax and the cost of living, accompanied by some cheesy guitar music.
It’s actually quite a snappy piece of work as it sells the party’s key achievements at a national level to voters in a rather understated way, partly by admitting that not all of them have noticed what’s going on, then driving home the key messages in capital letters across the screen. It also features David Cameron at the start and finish, underlining how important he is to the Tory brand.
The big focus at the moment is selling achievements that have already happened, rather than trying to spew out a bunch of new policies. This is sensible: some of the ‘calming’ announcements recently have given the contrary impression of panic.
Don’t forget that a good showing in the local elections is one of the ‘key tests’ set for David Cameron by some of his more recalcitrant backbenchers. This is a tall order, given the party is defending seats won in 2009 when Gordon Brown was in power. It will be interesting to see whether the successful Budget and a run of weeks where the party believes it has gained the upper hand over Labour on welfare will do anything to reduce some of the animosity that had been building up in the party following the Eastleigh by-election.
Comments