{"id":4488,"date":"2024-11-21T22:59:44","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T22:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=4488"},"modified":"2024-12-10T02:36:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T02:36:39","slug":"when-campaigning-goes-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=4488","title":{"rendered":"When Campaigning Goes Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 30 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

What does a bacon sandwich and a slab of stone in a Hastings car park have in common? Both have been parts of major gaffes made during political campaigns in the UK in recent years.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As voters decide on who will represent their interests in government, general election campaigns come under intense scrutiny from both the press and the public.  For this reason, every public interaction, visit, and speech on the campaign trail is meticulously coordinated by staff at campaign headquarters. Press officers and \u2018spin doctors\u2019 work to ensure senior politicians remain on-message and avoid negative publicity. Nevertheless, even the most brilliant campaigns aren\u2019t foolproof and British political history is filled with seemingly cursory moments that have sunk campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most famous campaign blunder is former Labour leader Ed Miliband\u2019s bacon sandwich. During his 2014 local election campaign, Ed Miliband was photographed eating a bacon sandwich by a member of the paparazzi. Despite the protests of his press officers, the photos of Miliband struggling to eat a bacon sandwich would appear widely in the press, with The Sun urging readers not to listen to the Labour leader’s \u201cporkies\u201d with the headline, \u201cSave Our Bacon.\u201d These photos projected an unflattering image of Miliband as error-prone, awkward, and unfit to take the highest office in the United Kingdom.  Miliband\u2019s campaign struggled to recover from these photos, and the public mockery persisted throughout the 2015 General Election.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After<\/a> Miliband\u2019s bacon sandwich incident, David Cameron\u2019s press officers instructed him to eat a hot dog with a knife and fork \u2013 opting to appear \u2018posh\u2019 to avoid a PR disaster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miliband\u2019s campaign faced another major gaffe during the 2015 General Election. The \u2018EdStone\u2019<\/a>, as it would later be known, was an eight-foot-tall slab of limestone engraved with six of Labour\u2019s campaign pledges. While the slab was intended as a grand gesture showing how \u2018set into stone\u2019 the party\u2019s pledges were, the decision to unveil it in a car park in Hastings was met with public ridicule., Miliband\u2019s critics named the publicity stunt the \u201cheaviest suicide note in history,\u201d and compared the slab to a headstone under which Labour\u2019s electoral hopes would be buried.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2024 election campaign, Rishi Sunak visited the shipyard in Northern Ireland where the infamous Titanic was built ahead of an early general election on July 4th. During the visit, a reporter asked the incumbent Prime Minister if he was the \u201ccaptain of a sinking ship,\u201d<\/a> making light of Sunak\u2019s campaign strategy. Sunak\u2019s public image soured further after being photographed under an EXIT<\/strong> sign, foreshadowing his inevitable exit from Downing Street weeks later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Blair administration was notable for enforcing party discipline \u2013 thanks largely to their lead spin doctor Alastair Campbell, who was vital for the successful rebrand of New Labour \u2013 the New Labour governments weren’t immune to failure. During the 2010 General Election, incumbent PM Gordon Brown was asked by lifelong Labour voter, Gillian Duffy, about the number of immigrants entering the country. After responding to the question, Brown \u2013 unaware that a Sky News microphone was still live \u2013 called Duffy a \u201cbigoted woman\u201d<\/a> to his press officers in private. Jon Stewart, a U.S. news commentator, later described this as the moment when Brown\u2019s \u201cpolitical career left his body.\u201d<\/a> Although Brown would return to Duffy later that day to apologise for his actions, she refused to shake his hand and stated she would not be voting for Labour or any other party. At a time when trust in politicians was at an all-time low following the 2009 expenses scandal, Brown\u2019s gaffe further damaged his reputation, contributing to his election loss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When reflecting on an election campaign, a single moment can define the entire race. As social media has grown in use as an information source, brief moments such as those described above have reached more and more voters, amplifying their influence. Nevertheless, these gaffes are important windows into the more authentic side of politicians and are an entertaining part of the drama that makes up British politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image source: Kevin Walsh via Wikimedia<\/a><\/p>\n

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