Tuesday 4 December 2007

Breaking the Alastair Campbell rule

Alastair Campbell used to say that if you allowed a bad news story to dominate the headlines for more than four days, you were in trouble. Labour are certainly in trouble with the 'dodgy donations' scandal. Every time they try and get on top of the story, a new revelation emerges, this time about Peter Hain and the deputy leadership contest.

Wendy Alexander, Labour's leader in Scotland, is under heavy pressure to resign. She is a loyal Brownite and if she went the position of the hapless Harriet Harman might then be in question which would be even more damaging to the Government.

Gordon Brown has talked of looking at the whole system of funding. Ultimately, this could mean 'state' funding of political parties which means taxpayer funding. Parties have made themselves so unappealing to the average citizen that memberships have plummeted. Nevertheless, the structuring of choice they provide is essential to a modern democracy.

1 comment:

skipper said...

And did not Campbell say that, if, after 14 days, no new developments had come up, a negative story was effectively dead? I think Ingham reckoned it was 9 days but maybe things have changed since his day.