“Cue derailment” - How Labour's reset strategy and attempts to 'crack on' got off to a fairly bad start

Those interested in recent political events may - may! - recall two Downing Street comms strategies called ‘Operation Red Meat’ and ‘Operation Save Big Dog’ from the time the Conservatives looked like they were beginning to fall apart. 

Basically - 

It was the moment when - after around four solid months of bad political stories [some of them, like events surrounding Partygate, truly horrific], the Conservatives under Boris Johnson decided that enough was enough and the government needed a major Comms reset. 

In the case of ‘Red Meat,’ the whole point was to essentially take a glass half full approach to policy and legislation, and send a smoke signal to the general public that whatever may come, the government was still getting on, it said, with what mattered the most for voters.

The plans outlined a transfer of responsibility for managing illegal Channel crossings to the military, alongside new measures to address the backlog of NHS operations and lift the remaining Covid-19 restrictions. Additionally, the government proposed freezing the BBC licence fee for two years, allocating extra funding for skills and job training to support people on universal credit, and publishing its long-awaited levelling-up white paper.

The government upped its attacks on opposition, too - including Keir Starmer, who Johnson targeted by reflecting on the baseless and widely discredited conspiracy that Starmer played a role in failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, alienating the public further in the process.    

None of it mattered, of course; following ‘Red Meat’ - and the self-defeating attacks - Johnson was gone by the summer. 

So far as public approval was concerned, the shift in the government strategy didn't make a blind bit of difference, and polling for the Conservatives eventually withered to under 20 points. 20 points or less, for those with just a passing interest in politics, is really bad. 

In fact, from around January 2022 Johnson up until the general election in July 2024, the Conservative Party's ratings never truly recovered - it was resolutely ‘really bad’ for over two years. 

Why mention this now? 

Labour has been speaking frequently of ‘legacy’ over the last several months and, ironically, one of the aspects of modern politics they seem to have inherited is similar - although not quite deathly - horrendous poll ratings now that they have entered government.

It comes following a mixed bag of events that have taken place since they were elected back in July - although as I’m always keen to point out, technically, legislatively, not for 100 days.  

The idea is that the government has become so bogged down in distractions and outside events - many of which have been cultivated by the media in the vacuum of summer recess, conference recess, and the absence of policy making and legislation (ie. NOT 100 days of government) - that it must be seen to be ‘getting a grip’ of its Comms strategy. 

How does it intend to be seen doing this? Its own variation of ‘Operation Red Meat’, essentially, by proceeding with its own ‘Change’ agenda, but there are numerous problems that lay ahead.