SO it seems that David Cameron’s awareness of the value of PR shines through again. Comparing the country to a failing company of which he must lead the turnaround conjures mental images of him as as the saviour, ingraining himself forever into the nation’s psyche as a hero should he succeed.
It’s a strong metaphor and one that resonates given the severity of the recession and number of major companies we’ve seen struggle due to poor fiscal control.

More tellingly though today he has also moved to avoid a potential PR nightmare, by avoiding aligning himself with cutting free milk for under 5’s. The ‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher was perhaps the most divisive PM of the last hundred years and whatever your views on her, there’s next to no chance you won’t have heard mention of her as ‘Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher’. She announced cutting free milk for over 7’s nearly 40 years ago in 1971 and still that taunt haunts her.
The current PM has not got it all right however, twice in one day he gaffed at a PM Direct event in Hove. Firstly he had to apologise to the group after stating that ‘Iran has got a nuclear weapon’, which was perhaps a Freudian slip or maybe his intelligence service has actually located some WMD… He followed that up by stating that the UK was the ‘junior partner’ to the US in the fight against the Nazis in WW2. Maybe the Tories are taking the Special Relationship to a new level with a rewrite of history – after all history is written by the victors!
Added to the PM’s other recent foreign policy blunders such as stating that ‘Pakistan exports terrorism’ and telling Israel that Gaza is like a ‘prison camp’, it’s easy to see why Labour’s former Europe Minister, Chris Byrant, has labeled him a ‘foreign policy klutz’ who has his feet ‘planted firmly in his mouth’.
With his PR background, Cameron should be well versed in the art of crisis management to protect his reputation and his standing in the polls. If not it may be time for a refresher course….you know where we are if you need to talk David!