Here for LDV readers’ delectation is Nick Clegg speaking to camera just after launching the Lib Dems’ tax proposals for the next election: tax cuts for millions of people paid for by closing tax loopholes, making polluters pay and introducing a mansion tax on homes worth over £2m.
PS to the Lib Dem video production team person: I don’t mind the slightly shaky camera work or the under-exposed picture – all adds to the authenticity – but can we please work on getting the background right, showing Nick in an ordinary setting with people going about their everyday lives behind him – not the porch of a Georgian house in central London.
4 Comments
Personally, my only beef with these videos is the sound. Mic him up!
This is all very admirable, but if I was a potentially interested voter surfing onto the party website I would not have a clue that this big splash announcement had happened. Latest news is about Afghanistan, Eid, a Cornwall council by-election (congrats to John Oxenham by the way), exit checks and the Iraq inquiry.
The only way to get an inkling of our tax policy is to click “Economy” then “Your money”, where there is a very brief summary of the income tax cut (but not any detail about how it’s funded!). Even the 2-page pdf on that webpage gives no numbers for how the tax cut is paid for. It really doesn’t take much space to give people the numbers.
Such key policies as this deserve more prominence on our website.
And if I was an interested voter surfing on the BBC News site, the whole announcement is headlined:
‘Lib Dem ‘rethink’ on Mansion tax.’
Media strategy? Could do better. The rethink should have been got out of the way a week BEFORE the launch of the main policy announcements.
And, btw, why is the party website now BLUE, of all colours!!!
Ah, better now: one of the latest news items is this video, and there is a link to an excellent and up-to-date briefing with full costings: http://www.libdems.org.uk/siteFiles/resources/PDF/Tax%20Plans%20-%20Briefing%20Document.pdf
Still think the news stories could be given a bit more prominence though.