Mark Pack

A story, a story, my kingdom for a story

By | Wed 14th March 2012 - 3:50 pm

Neil Stockley has often, and rightly, written about the power of stories in conveying a political message. A dry recital of bullet points and decimal points may make for a good conference motion or a useful background briefing document. What it does not make for is a message that will move and convince people. It needs a story to bring it to life.

Last week I heard Norman Lamb talking to Twickenham and Richmond Liberal Democrats, at a fundraiser for Munira Wilson’s GLA campaign. His speech neatly illustrated the point. As he was getting into the flow, he veered perilously close to a Gordon Brown style recitation of statistics and dry facts.

But his comments then really came to life when he started talking about people and their own stories. The Pupil Premium stopped being a collection of expenditure numbers and became a story about a headteacher in his constituency, what that head was doing in their school and how the children were benefitting.

Lists have their place, especially when presented well (the thinking behind my infographic) but stories have the real power.

* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.

Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in Op-eds.
Advert

2 Comments

  • Tim Leunig 14th Mar '12 - 7:54pm

    Nick Clegg said the same at the CentreForum party in Gateshead, and in the conference Q&A.

  • Richard Dean 14th Mar '12 - 11:32pm

    You have a kingdom? Oh my! Is this not the LibDem place?
    What about a parliamentary democracy? No, said the conference delegate, we don’t do that!
    (a joke can sometimes get through too?)
    🙂

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Simon R
    @Peter: Accidents on the railway can be caused either because of failures by the infrastructure (as you say, publicly owned since 2002, or by the trains/train o...
  • David Le Grice
    I wouldn't want to tell trans people how they should feel, but if the government was fighting a crusade to prevent me from being allowed to use the toilet and a...
  • Andy Daer
    It's good to see some support for UK government action, but we have gone past the time when a total ban on arms sales would stop Israel. Only full sanctions wou...
  • John Grout
    This is a good start, but the sooner Ed corrects his statement about the Supreme Court judgement himself, the better. Hopefully he'll take the opportunity to do...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Mark, The rail network was only in private hands for the privatisation of British Rail in 1994 up until 2001. The Hatfield crash, which was blamed squarely...