Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-22
- RT @ben_oloughlin: new working paper on Strategic Narratives, download here: http://t.co/fFBKy04Y #publicdiplomacy Comments very welcome! #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-08
- Saw brilliant Hamlet at the Young Vic last night. Michael Sheen amply proved once again why he is the best British actor in his generation. #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-08
- Saw brilliant Hamlet at the Young Vic last night. Michael Sheen amply proved once again why he is the best British actor in his generation. #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-25
- A short review article in Parliamentary Affairs by me just published: http://t.co/T60xwU7A #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-18
- RT @ben_oloughlin: Wanting to read about #mediatization and #cricket @NickAnstead and I have what you need. Just published:… #
- New paper published, co-authored with @Ben_OLoughlin. 'Twenty20 as Media Event' in Sport in Society (14/10) http://t.co/bkpdU3jA #
- New paper published, co-authored with @Ben_Loughlin. 'Twenty20 as Media Event' in Sport in Society (14/10) http://t.co/bkpdU3jA. #
- The data in this article is astonishing, especially for the past 10 yrs. I wonder what prompts the shift? http://t.co/G6Fg9Fsq #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-04
- Rainbow over hammersmith. http://t.co/4G3Sy0MK #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-04
- Rainbow over hammersmith. http://t.co/4G3Sy0MK #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-11-27
- #lsemc404 For those of you at the Castell's lecture, he is certainly in the internet optimist camp! #
- These guys are my heros. What an abstract! http://t.co/D4k4rHYq #
- #mc425ano What happens when data collected in isolation (i.e. tweets) is overlaid with other datasets? What challenges does this pose? #
- RT @goodwinmj: At #Barcelona workshop with reps from across EU. Lots of talk about how isolated UK is becoming #ukpolitics #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-11-20
- UK politicians and the press: who's scarred of the big bad wolf? #lsemc404 http://t.co/Dl9VZXjv #
- Very sensible comments from @timmontgomerie: when will the UK learn to grow up about the anglo-German relationship? http://t.co/7rQIFnXl in reply to TimMontgomerie #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-11-20
- UK politicians and the press: who's scarred of the big bad wolf? #lsemc404 http://t.co/Dl9VZXjv #
- Very sensible comments from @timmontgomerie: when will the UK learn to grow up about the anglo-German relationship? http://t.co/7rQIFnXl in reply to TimMontgomerie #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-30
- Wondered if I'd find anyone pompous & ridiculous enough to disagree with proposed monarchy changes… yes, yes I can http://t.co/MYrcuoci #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-23
- RT @liammurphy32: The former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) has called for an investigation into the 'incompetent' media… #
- #lsemc404 Media frenzy? http://t.co/4ejko5fF #
- #lsemc404 Week 3 lecture slides on political marketing now up for download. See you at 11! #
- RT @lsepoliticsblog: Most read guest post last week: Martin Hall on the numbered days of academic publishers http://t.co/m0xeZUKA #
- RT @charliebeckett: Delighted to announce that Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, will talk at Polis/LSE on Nov 1st… #
- #lsemc404 The Mediatization article I promised to share last week – http://t.co/CmsDJRdq #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-23
- RT @liammurphy32: The former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) has called for an investigation into the 'incompetent' media… #
- #lsemc404 Media frenzy? http://t.co/4ejko5fF #
- #lsemc404 Week 3 lecture slides on political marketing now up for download. See you at 11! #
- RT @lsepoliticsblog: Most read guest post last week: Martin Hall on the numbered days of academic publishers http://t.co/m0xeZUKA #
- RT @charliebeckett: Delighted to announce that Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, will talk at Polis/LSE on Nov 1st… #
- #lsemc404 The Mediatization article I promised to share last week – http://t.co/CmsDJRdq #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-16
- Happy birthday Ampelmännchen! http://t.co/NK5qJ5dI & more here: http://t.co/9ebcOwXZ #
- #lsemc404 Lecture slides for week 2 now on Moodle. See you in a 11! #
- During my lecture today, I will refer to this report: http://t.co/UVMit8zU #lsemc404 #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-16
- Happy birthday Ampelmännchen! http://t.co/NK5qJ5dI & more here: http://t.co/9ebcOwXZ #
- #lsemc404 Lecture slides for week 2 now on Moodle. See you in a 11! #
- During my lecture today, I will refer to this report: http://t.co/UVMit8zU #lsemc404 #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-09
- The horse race metaphor bought to life #lsemc404 Slate Magazine http://ow.ly/6P9zm #
- Interesting example of the kind of problems pol comm can create #lsemc404 The Guardian http://ow.ly/6P8Uo #
- First lecture of the year for #lsemc404 #
- Dear all, looking forward to start of #lsemc404 tomorrow. Do please use the twitter hashtag to share anything you think would be of… #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-09
- The horse race metaphor bought to life #lsemc404 Slate Magazine http://ow.ly/6P9zm #
- Interesting example of the kind of problems pol comm can create #lsemc404 The Guardian http://ow.ly/6P8Uo #
- First lecture of the year for #lsemc404 #
- Dear all, looking forward to start of #lsemc404 tomorrow. Do please use the twitter hashtag to share anything you think would be of… #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-02
- Sad to hear about death of David Croft http://ow.ly/6G7Sf . One of the best jokes in UK sitcom history http://ow.ly/6G7V7 #
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The rhetoric of tough talk
Originally published on the LSE Politics and Policy blog.
Recent crises such as the riots in England and the military campaign in Libya have led to an upswing in ‘tough talking’ by politicians. Nick Anstead explores how this style of rhetoric really operates and the agendas that often lie behind.
Politicians love to appear tough. Sometimes, this means saying things that we don’t want to hear, dealing in hard truths. Or so they claim at least.
There have been two prominent examples of such rhetoric in recent weeks. In the UK, Labour leader Ed Miliband was booed (although perhaps not as much as the media would have us believe) at the TUC conference. What bought about this reaction? This passage from Miliband’s speech drew particular ire:
I fully understand why millions of decent public sector workers feel angry. But while negotiations were going on, I do believe it was a mistake for strikes to happen. I continue to believe that. But what we need now is meaningful negotiation to prevent further confrontation over the autumn.
In trade union baiting of this kind, Miliband was following a well-trodden path. Tony Blair never seemed more comfortable than when lecturing the Labour Party, his brothers and sisters in the international social democratic family, or the union movement on the need to modernize or die.
Compare this with the second example of a tough talking politician. As noted in Slate Rick Perry clearly likes to shoot from the hip. In the Republican Presidential nomination debate in Tampa, Florida, when quizzed on some of his more acerbic comments, he replied:
There may be someone who is an established Republican who circulates in the cocktail circuit that would find some of my rhetoric to be inflammatory or what have you, but I’m really talking to the American citizen out there… I think American citizens are just tired of this political correctness and politicians who are tiptoeing around important issues. They want a decisive leader.
Both politicians claim to be straight talking, delivering unpalatable truths. Yet there is a world of difference in the political strategies they are pursuing. Miliband seems to be deliberately provoking his (actual) audience, in order to disseminate a message to the wider public – alienating his party base to reach out to floating voters. In contrast, Perry’s version of the truth seems to be pandering to rather than challenging the ideologues in his party.
There is an obvious explanation for this difference, of course. Perry is now competing in a party-based primary election. He has to win that vote in order to go before the national electorate, so it is hardly surprising his definition of truth telling is inline with party doctrine. Miliband has essentially gone beyond that stage, winning the Labour leadership in September 2010. Now he needs to talk to a national electorate.
But maybe there is also a more interesting story here, and other patterns could emerge with a bigger sample of tough talking politicians. It would be interesting, for example, to note whether left-wing politicians are more prone to attacking their own parties than those on the right (maybe because of some internalised version of Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment)? If this were the case, it would not be very surprising.
The past thirty years have seen neo-liberal ideologies created on the centre-right becoming political orthodoxy across much of the western world. Parties of the left have thus found it far more necessary to overtly reject their historic ideologies, which seemed the antithesis of the so-called centre ground. It is possible that this pattern, if it existed, represents a reversal of previous patterns of “truth telling” in the 50s, 60s and 70s, when collectivist ideologies were more dominant, and it would have been politicians on the right who were required to attack their political positions.
But one thing is certain – beware of politicians claiming to tell hard truths. They almost certainly have an agenda.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-09-25
- A blog entry on LSE Politics & Policy by @ben_oloughlin and I on our recent ECPR paper, The Emergence of Semantic Polling http://ow.ly/6ynoa in reply to Ben_OLoughlin #
- RT @chrishanretty: Please recommend/rt this request http://t.co/6U6VEEJV… @alanjrenwick @cath_haddon @ea_robinson… #
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