Elementos de la política de Consejos Escolares

The Blair/Murdoch agreement has been covered exhaustively in academic biographies of Blair (Rentoul, 2003; Seldon, 2004, 2007), but is downplayed in the mainstream media. As the agreement has been downplayed, we analyse not the performance itself but the effects of it upon Blair’s image e.g. the significance of positive media endorsement i.e. Blair’s nickname by the media as ‘Bambi’, his appointment of a press secretary, and the positive media endorsements in the run-up to the 1997 General Election.

Within two months of Blair becoming party leader, on 13 September 1994, a meeting was held between Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch. Reports have stated that Blair managed to charm the media tycoon so that the major selling newspapers in Britain owned by the Murdoch Press (The Sun, News of the World and The Times) would support the Labour party and positively endorse Blair leading up to the 1997 General Election (see Campbell and Stott, 2008, p. 13,14) . In return for positive media endorsement, the Labour party (once in office) would overlook the power and influence of Murdoch’s empire (see Rentoul, 2003, p. 313, 338).

Blair’s political actions and relationship with the highly influential Murdoch press, though arguably underhand in a negative way, did not have negative effects upon his image; the opposite is true; through devious political actions Blair secured positive media endorsements at a time in which the mediation of politics and leaders within the Westminster context became increasingly personalised (see chapter 5). From 1994 onwards, three significant effects in terms of Blair’s image emerged from the agreement.

First, as a consequence of positive media endorsement, Blair’s political nickname as the Walt Disney cartoon character, a young, soft and endearing deer ‘Bambi’ was revised. The traits associated with ‘Bambi’ i.e. not forceful, commanding or domineering became much less associated with Blair’s persona as was hitherto the case. Such an image of the leader of the opposition would have proved highly damaging if it had stuck as it would have implied that Blair was unable to command authority and lead the party, unable to take strategic decisions, and was a push-over.

Blair negotiated and revised this image of himself as ‘Bambi’, for example, in his dispatch box political exchanges with John Major in 1995, Blair was quoted “I lead my party. He follows his” (Blair, 1995). Thereafter, Blair undertook bold constitutional party reform, and the image of a soft and endearing figure was shed (although the image of ‘niceness’ remained). Through 1994 and 1995, however, the Bambi image screened out any reference to Blair as the leader of a party that harboured Leftist socialists, the demonised trade unions, or the ‘wreckers’ of less than ten years earlier. Blair’s ‘Bambi’ nickname offered him opportunities rather than constraints, his perceived image was that of a young politician who was not scheming and interested in Machiavellian power struggles. The character traits that his nickname projected upon the audience were: honest, soft, endearing, gentle; his image was therefore that of a trustworthy person – a contrast to the politicians characterised by sleaze allegations in John Major’s administration, as well in to his own party’s past. Blair’s positive image as an honest, young, potential prime minister was enhanced by his family-guy image, him as a loving father and husband. Blair’s revision of his image as Bambi towards the 1997 election meant that he lost the nametag but did not lose the associated character traits or positive image that this fictional character represented.

Our second point on the significance of the Murdoch agreement is that in the same month in which substantial media support was secured, Blair created the role of a press secretary which illustrated the importance that he attributed to the media and

party communications. The appointment of Alastair Campbell in September 1994 was politically significant for Blair. The role did not exist in previous Labour administrations. Campbell’s trajectory as a former journalist and experience of the media industry was formative to the mediation of Blair’s political leadership image thenceforth. Campbell’s centrality to the Labour party and proximity to Blair highlighted the significance of the media for political outcomes, to iterate Campbell’s centrality to Blair, New Labour and at a general level, political modernisation, Blair stated “together we could change the face of British politics for a generation, and change the world while we’re at it” (Blair, 1994a cited in Campbell, 2010, p. 51).

During the three years in which Labour was the opposition party, Campbell, along with Peter Mandelson, managed the party’s media communications in a holistic fashion. They promoted the New Labour brand and adhered to the ‘Millbank model’

of command and control (see Kuhn, 2007, p. 124). Following the success of Campbell and Mandelson in promoting the Labour party and its leader to the electorate and to the media, the 1997 election victory saw Campbell’s promotion as Blair’s chief press secretary and official spokesman. The appointment of Alastair Campbell and the positive media endorsements secured from Rupert Murdoch were also contexts to Blair’s leadership performance post-1997. The emphasis upon the media created the conditions upon which government business was centralised and emphasis placed upon political leadership. We come back to this point in our analysis of the Blair premiership.

The third impact of the Murdoch press upon the Labour party was that in the “1997 election 6/10 national dailies supported Labour compared with 3/11 in 1992 and 5/9 national Sunday titles provided their support as against a mere three in 1992” (Kuhn, 2007, p. 131). (Appendix B pictures the front page of Britain’s biggest selling tabloid newspaper, The Sun and its public endorsement of Blair ahead of the 1997 election).

qualitative political effects. The 1997 victory for Labour was helped by an uncritical media. Blair’s political actions and association with the controversial figure, Rupert Murdoch did illustrate negative character traits e.g. Blair as ready to morally compromise the Left’s principles. Crucially, however, the Blair/Murdoch agreement highlighted Blair’s recognition that the media (and its expansion at this time) can affect political leadership performance, not only by mediating his image, but also by screening out alternative narratives (see also chapter 5 which references the qualitative and quantitative media shift and effect upon political leadership performance).

As opposition leader from 1994-1997, Blair had radically changed the historical constitution of the party, and the appearance and identity of the party in the public realm from Labour to New Labour. The reorganisation of the political party coupled with uncritical and sympathetic media coverage meant that Blair was able to mediate political discourse towards the middle classes and appeal directly to them on issues such as Education and the Economy. Blair’s performance as opposition leader was formative of the emergence of his positive political persona as a pragmatist and moderniser. As opposition leader, Blair used the self to channel change and therefore was the symbolic catalyst of political change.

We now analyse the performance of Blair as Prime Minister.