He who lives by the sword...

You have to feel sorry for those with the thankless task of advising Tony Blair on his exit strategy. Having formulated a grand plan - with a few off the wall ideas to help secure his legacy - only to then have it leaked to the Daily Mirror and held up to almost universal ridicule can't be a lot of fun.

I missed the initial media feeding frenzy yesterday morning as I was in the gym at 6am desperately trying to fight off the effects of middle age. But for the rest of the day the story was everywhere you turned.

The Guardian called me for a comment and, as one of the five 'PR Experts' they spoke to, it's interesting to see how diverse our views are on this PR crisis. Lord Bell and Jack Straw's former special adviser Ed Owen took the same general line as me, i.e. too little, too late. But I can see where PRWeek's Editor Danny Rogers is coming from when he says Blair might just be able to pull it off.

As always, pundits are seldom in total agreement and it will be interesting to see how the PM's PR team manages this one.

Notwithstanding the whole 'spin-doctor' nonsense which New Labour saddled us with, the Blair administration has been a good one for our profession. Like most consultants, I have benefited from the increase in public sector activity and have many friends and colleagues who would be out of a job were it not for the boom in in-house public sector PR vacancies.

More than any other politician I can think of, Tony Blair has used (and arguably misused) PR to bolster his election successes, see off opponents inside and outside the party as well as creating legions of spokespeople who have helped sell Government policies to an electorate suffering from information overload.

I just can't help thinking about the old proverb: He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.

Comments

[David Brain]

It has to be the most interesting game in town until conference at the end of the month when it will surely come to another head. but with resignations now being addded to the mix I think all bets are off on Tony being able to dictate timing now. Iain Dale's
blog is pretty good on the ins and out of this one.