Under this deliberately playful headline comes news that the Deputy Prime Minister is determined to improve his image with female voters:
… the Deputy Prime Minister is to embark on a campaign to woo female voters – and the Liberal Democrats have hired a new PR guru to help him. … [embarking] on a breakneck tour of town hall Q&As and private meetings with party members … His team stresses that these are “party” events. … In the first sign of the fightback, Mr Clegg will tomorrow use a speech to debunk the suggestion that women are getting a raw deal from the coalition. Critics of the Government’s record have plenty of ammunition, from accelerating the rise in women’s retirement age to match men’s, to cuts in child benefit.
In response, Mr Clegg will highlight the £625m pupil premium, extending free childcare to disadvantaged two-year-olds, and the rise in the income tax threshold to £10,000 – which means most part-time workers will not pay any tax – as policies that address women’s concerns.
Who is the PR guru helping Nick? Collette Dunkley of X&Y Communications:
While party strategists are at pains to insist that they want to appeal to men and women equally, Ms Dunkley has a reputation for adding “particular value to organisations that want to increase their female appeal or market share”.
“Collette could not have arrived soon enough,” a party source said. Her firm, X&Y Communications, has advised companies such as Coutts, More Th>* and Lego, and she launched Chix and Mortar, a series of DIY courses aimed at women, with Big Brother winner Craig Phillips.
Ideas already being floated for the Lib Dems include embracing Twitter, more interviews in glossy magazines, and using the party’s distinctive yellow more prominently, as research suggests it makes adverts more memorable. Ms Dunkley’s imprint will be seen on the party’s conference in Birmingham next month, when “differentiation” will be the (not very catchy) buzzword.
And in a nod to the forthcoming Birmingham party conference, the Indy notes the distinctiveness of the Lib Dem proposals for debate:
… the conference will be used to re-emphasise the Lib Dems’ radical roots. Last week it emerged the party will demand the setting up of an expert panel to consider the decriminalisation of personal drug use. One motion, seen by The IoS, will demand the Government end the ban on gay men giving blood. Under current rules, men who have had sex with men (MSM) are banned from donating blood for life. And women who have sex with people classified as MSM are banned for 12 months. Lifting the ban could allow up to two million more people to become donors. A separate motion will demand tougher action to tackle violence against women. “Bluntly, these are issues which Lib Dems care strongly about and should be shouting from the rooftops,” said one MP.
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10 Comments
Near the end of the article, Jane Bruton, Editor of Grazia, had this to say:
“Be authentic and real, not patronising – and not available to women’s magazines only when there is an election. And women are not going to vote for you just because you watch Downton Abbey. While some of us may love shoes, that doesn’t mean we’re not concerned about the rate of recovery, the eurozone or the appalling lack of social mobility. Nick Clegg really appealed to women in the TV debates because he looked like someone who could say the unsayable and tell the truth, but he has since come across as weak. The time is moving on from funny ties and PR spin – he needs to look like he has gravitas.”
I think that joint responsibility killed Clegg. Once he had to start defending policies he wouldn’t have before the election it’s given him an image of being a Tory apologist.
We need to reach an agreement with the Tories to allow both sides to respectfully disagree with government policy. Just say something like “as a majority we’d have cut X instead of this” giving people a better idea of what each side stand for and where the compromise lies.
It is good to see this happen. Cynics are bound to point out that no women on the Lib Dem side were involved during the Coalition negotiations last year. Of course Nick Clegg was keen that those who were involved were Orange Book Liberals, but that still could have included Sara Teather.
Since then it has been pointed out by Coalition opponents that the reduction of public sector employees has hit women hard and that women have been hardest hit by the fiscal tightening of this government.
I have Google searched Collette Dunkley and although I do not see any sign that she is a Lib Dem she does have a good background. Maybe she could work with Lynne Featherstone and Jo Swinson who are having to fight their corner on women’s rights and make sure that that the party appeal is not just based in spin but on real substance?
“and using the party’s distinctive yellow more prominently, as research suggests it makes adverts more memorable.”
So we’re paying someone a pretty big whack of money to undo what we paid someone else a pretty big whack of money to do.
Hywel – quite so. I wish someone would pay me a lot of money to advise the party that girlies like yellow more than aqua.
“Mr Clegg will tomorrow use a speech to debunk the suggestion that women are getting a raw deal from the coalition.”
As women ARE getting a raw deal, he’s going to look like an idiot. Attempting to debunk truth doesn’t work, usually.
I prefer teal to yellow, (being a girly yunnastan) but what I really like in a political party is principles so that you know what you’re voting for and working for. Tuition fees, not invading oil rich ME states, not reorganising the NHS… stuff like that.
Hear, hear, Jenny – and I’m not even a girly.
I would have thought a couple of non-OB Lib Dems would have been good for the negotiations, and would have gained more full-hearted commitment from the party to the Coalition, and, of course, a much harder economic line.
Will Clegg be able to reach out to all those women whose cost of childcare has increased because of Lib Dem support for cutting the childcare element of Working Tax Credit.
Strange how this issue has failed to register with Lib Dems.
I take it women where immune from the hike in VAT to 20%.
Generally, being cismale is a big plus in the job market and things are still skewed their way. It’s a peculiar idea that (cis)women are getting an unfair deal in this one though.
Consider the job market as a whole, instead of this weird private/public/voluntary divide that pretends there is no connection, no common labour pool, no financial relationship between the sectors. For several years through the recession the private sector got hit first: if the public sector has more female employment pro rata then it follows the private sector dip was more damaging to male employment. The boys got hit, now the wave carries on and hits the girls. As a whole, employment got hit: the timings varied a little and cross over a change of government, but that is all.
@ Tim13: spot on once again.