Home Secretary discovers how not to use quotable quotes January 22, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Media Focus, PR in the UK , trackbackFear and kebabs on the streets of Peckham, a deprived area of south London, was the message that came out from Jacqui Smith earlier this week – not the best communications from a Home Secretary tasked with sorting out the hoody-hoodlums reaping havoc, and even death, on Britain’s streets.
Jacqui Smith - From Blair’s Babe to Brown’s Trumpet
Being brought up in Stockport I know all about the hoodies. During Christmas, the local Conservative (Liberal Democrats hold Stockport) opposition described the passageway from the train station to the A6 as: “A canyon of despair”, a decent quotable quote for the local papers to feed off – which they did.
The quotable quote - of the self-destructive kind - Jacqui Smith let slip in an interview with Isabel Oakeshott, Deputy Political Editor for the Sunday Times, read: “I won’t walk down a street alone at night”; the headline reading exactly the same as the quote.
But the situation was to worsen for the Home Secretary. Hours after the interview, realising Smith had just loaded a powerful firearm – with NEWS CORP delicately engraved into its sides - office aides initiated a desperate spin operation with claims that her words did not come out as intended. The aide then attempted to rebut Smith’s assertion by claiming that she had recently “bought a kebab in Peckham”; music to a smiling Oakeshott’s ears, she duly included this desperate attempt in her article.
The Jacqui Smith debacle is completed with a week that has begun with some serious negative coverage on the blogs (mine), in the magazines and published in the newspapers. The Spectator says, “Our defeatist Home Secretary”; the Guardian leads how I lead: “Fear and kebabs on the streets of Peckham”.
You do have to wonder why she took this pre-arranged interview in the first place. A quick Google search reveals a website which tracks the stories UK journalists are writing – and it seems Isabel Oakeshott hasn’t written a positive piece for quite some time. If the interview had to go ahead, then her communications aides – who haven’t exactly proved their value throughout this debacle – are also, like Smith, in need of some media training in 2008.
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