New British Prime Minister Liz Truss — the choice of 180,000-odd Tory party members — is unlikely to be too different in political tactics from Boris Johnson.
Truss lavished praise on her predecessor in her first speech as PM, saying Johnson was “admired from Kyiv to Carlisle” (likely the first time those cities have ever been linked). She also shares some advisers with him. Mark Fullbrook, who ran Johnson’s 2019 campaign, is advising Truss. Fullbrook is one of the many associates, colleagues and protegés of Lynton Crosby who have helped the Tories to repeated election success over the past decade — and helped the Liberals here in Australia.
Central to that success is a playbook of tried and tested campaign tactics. The main elements of it are:
- Micro-targeted pork-barrelling for marginal seats
- Culture war campaigns
- Coordination with News Corp
- Demonisation of opponents and their policies.
There’s also the famous “dead cat” tactic strongly associated with Johnson — and literally copied by Scott Morrison when he repeated Johnson’s tackling of a child during the 2022 election campaign.
Truss became an enthusiastic culture warrior in her campaign to be prime minister, targeting trans people (including saying trans women weren’t women) and promising to double down on the relocation of asylum seekers to Rwanda. She also channels Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey when she laments that windfarms were “one of the most depressing sights” in the UK.
The right-wing playbook plainly failed in Australia in 2022, although that may be more a result of the sheer toxicity of Morrison than innate failings of the tactics. But the developers of the playbook have been smart students of election losses as well as wins and have constantly worked to refine their tactics after each election, win or lose; in the case of the latter, the task becomes to minimise the party’s time out of office.
The lessons of Australia in 2022 will be examined for application to the UK election in 2024 — assuming Truss will lead the Tories into that campaign, which is not necessarily a given. Johnson may believe he has a second stint as PM ahead of him (after all, Churchill served twice!) and Truss’ defeated opponent Rishi Sunak is more popular with parliamentary colleagues than her.
Truss will also have to get through the new winter of discontent as the UK faces inflation of up to 22%, fuelled by energy price spikes that will see UK households facing energy bill increases of 500% compared with pre-pandemic prices. She has promised an energy relief package within a week of becoming PM, so there’ll be little or no honeymoon if the package fails to convince UK voters.
Labour holds a double-digit lead over the Tories according to most polls and perceptions of Truss are declining the more voters see of her.
But the team backing her knows of a conservative leader from Australia who replaced a PM and defied predictions of defeat to pull off a miracle win — all with the help of its playbook.
The right-wing playbook plainly failed in Australia in 2022, although that may be more a result of the sheer toxicity of Morrison than innate failings of the tactics.
That the right-wing attitudes were not the cause of the LNP defeat 0n 21 May, is a major concern.
I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. Australians don’t like their leaders playing cynical ideological games and weaponising people against each other. It might play well to News Corp readers and Sky News viewers, but it’s a turn off for most Australians who are fair minded and practical.
The Sky After Dark Comedy Show appears to be like some strange US sitcom.
Set in a TV station where the inmates appear to be mendacious, paranoid, scared of the other, black/brown/yellow/aliens of any sort, people who have the temerity to present facts and question them and are all very shouty at such and that even at their own cohort.
The inmates consist of right wing to libertarian current and ex politicians, their enablers, media hacks of no particular worth as well as the odd RWRNJ, the second R being for Religious
Out here in regional Australia Sky has been inflicted on FTA , in a desperate attempt to increase its dismal ratings, so no need to subscribe to the stupidity it pops up while going through to other channels.
in the 2020 POTUS Election all the inmates were rabbiting on about the election was stolen from their Radge Orange Bampot, as the Scots have it.
It was amazing to watch the antediluvians Alan Jones together with Maurice Newman and David Flint also the younger inmates Bolt, Credlin , Dean, Panahi et al, frothing at the mouth in their lunatic presentations about the electoral fraud concerning Trump’s clear loss of both the Electoral College and the popular vote by c. 6 million votes.
The question never asked of them , as far as I can hear/see…if the Democratic Party was exercising such electoral fraud, how come they lost seats in the House of Representatives and at that stage had yet to win a single Senate seat?
Compulsory voting is also very significant in limiting the effectiveness of those tactics in Australia. This is well recognised by various right-wing figures who are keen to put a stop to it.
A point worth emphasising when Nick Minchin & ilk are still around – obsessives never let go.
Truss is going to give the hapless poms a wild ride for a while. Shes even more loopy the Johnson.
Their role was and is to simply gain and maintain power, to then allow grey men and women of corporate think tanks in the background initiate and implement policies that voters probably don’t like, if they were aware.
Truss will be gone before the next election. Think Abbott.
I’d like to wish the people of England all the best and good luck whist she is PM. I wouldn’t want to be poor, using the NHS or any other run down public utility that’s for sure. She’s another Margaret Thatcher who seems to change her opinion and mind on subjects depending on how the wind is blowing.
Did Thatcher often change her opinion and mind on subjects depending on how the wind was blowing? Cannot say I noticed. Truss does, very obviously, sometimes switching her position completely within a day, but that seems to be more a point of difference than similarity.