British traditions in decline include a sense of the ridiculous as a weapon of state, jingoism and understatement. The last of these was always a brilliant British con: you only have to look at the gothic majesty of the palace of Westminster (Parliament) to realise we have never really done understatement. ‘A sense of the ridiculous’ is a different issue. When Britain and the Commonwealth were truly at war sixty years ago and apparently likely to lose, it was a morale boosting part of our arsenal: e.g. the ditty ‘Hitler has only got one ball. The other is in the Albert Hall.’ This is one reason why, as others have pointed out, government and/or media-inspired ‘Fear PR’ in more recent years has been suspect.(1)Fear is a weapon that is employed against an enemy.(2) When it is used against its own side it is possible to argue that something else may be going on.
British Army
As for jingoism, the offensive glee with which the horrific death of thousands of Iraqi soldiers was described as a ‘turkey shoot’ during Gulf War 1, cannot be revisited in GW2 now we have the tragedy of British soldiers coming home in body bags. One resulting change is a current British army recruitment advert for medics to serve in Afghanistan where the sole action portrayed is care of an enemy combatant. (3) In PR terms we have gone from dehumanising to looking after him. The advert is of particular interest because no mention is made of serving the nation. One of former Prime Minister Blair’s legacies is that, post-Iraq, an appeal to patriotism is thought to be a no-go area in parts of public service. The Army – the broken knitting needle of an illegal government policy in Iraq – in desperate need of recruits for the Afghan campaign, is stripped of its core entreaty. The irony is that while it is running adverts depicting care of the enemy, the inadequate treatment of British wounded falls under the spotlight.
American and British Middle East spin
The Army is employing a human resources tactic that seeks to match the values of those it hopes to recruit with its pitch, the type chosen known by marketing specialists as ‘authenticity’. The latter movement is so dominant it has even seen off the think-positive spin of some political language. For example, with reference to the catastrophe of Iraq, Brits are no longer exhorted to ‘move on’ – a loaded PR command/threat. Instead, government acknowledges the ‘lessons learned’. You cannot get more ‘authentic’ than hubris. (4)
Still in its infancy, is the emerging spin of US/UK failed diplomacy in the area, the latter running parallel to aggressive American and Russian confrontation c/o Iran and Kurdistan. See how the phrase ‘acknowledgement of grievances’ rises to the top of otherwise pacific language. It is an indication of overdue pragmatic acceptance of reality – addressing ‘minds’ (acknowledgement of grievance) rather than ‘hearts’ which have long gone. As a result, the construction of ‘hearts and minds’ spin becomes less significant; hitherto, it has accurately reflected every floundering policy lurch as it unravelled from the macho (‘winning’), to ‘changing’, and finally, in desperation, to ‘reaching’ them.
The authenticity juggernaut is causing huge problems in the most unlikely places, including British spooks. Reasons include: dilution of the espionage profile – even the McLaren Formula One team appear to be at it;(5) believing media-friendly populism to be the same as authenticity; and losing control of the populism so it is mistaken for it, including in some testosterone-driven security studies courses in universities. The overriding blockage, however, is that ‘authenticity’ is driven by niche appeal, whose success depends first on its brand reputation, and second on the ability to differentiate it from others.
If the conduct of those operating within a niche is at odds with the standards their client – in this case, the British public – sets, and by which the citizen judges its rivals, the reputation collapses.(6)Spook reputation management is of consequence if retention/recruitment of honourable and skilled personnel is an objective.(7) In this SIS appears to have fallen at the first hurdle, committing the niche employer’s cardinal PR error of allowing leadership admission/justification for the latest wrongdoing (torture/rendition), to tarnish the reputation of all, not the few. Wording that could have enabled spinners to project beyond the crimes could have been insertion of phrases such as ‘fierce objections were overruled,’ which would have implied there were objectors – as well as objections – in the first place. (8)
www.improvethenews.com(9)
‘Values’ come aplenty. Some of these may be determined by anxieties about whether or not the state has any allegiance to us, the people, at all. Threatening us most are: corruption – the majority of political bribes paid each year goes to public officials in the developed world, not banana republics, with huge impact on our lives;(10) Chinese and Russian cyberwarfare;(11) and the anticipated acquisition of many British mainland businesses, with potentially catastrophic consequences for countless British citizens and workforces, by Asian, Eastern European or Middle Eastern buyers over the next ten years.(12)
With the exception of cyberwarfare, such dangers do not seem to exercise the state; nor does there appear to be any suggestion it will ‘defend’ us from them. Instead, as in the blurb of a recent SIS recruitment advert, it is busy defending ‘the economic well-being of the UK’ – no doubt Barclays asking the Bank of England for a handout;(13) or watching out for the same old, same old – terrorism, proliferation, trafficking etc. As vital as these are, confining SIS profile to certain types of policing is unlikely to attract the diverse and highly-skilled personnel it requires overall. (14) To put it in old-fashioned terms, SIS may need to conjure a perception of refound elegance, in a guise suited to the modern world. A sense of humour is always useful.(15)
Updating Britannia
Niche state players can sometimes be restored to brand strength if there is evidence of exceptional post-failure leadership or national reputation overall remains strong. Under former Prime Minister Blair, prior to the war, this was certainly the case. Many took pride in Britain’s image – established by SIS as much as any other organisation – as ‘a little country punching above its weight’. This identity, because of Iraq, has been sacrificed and, to date, a new one not found.
At the moment, a key consumer marketing trend is ‘humanising branding’, the creation of a brand-person. This merges celebrity icon with product: e.g. Katie Price/Jordan writing books for teenage girls or Kate Moss selling a fragrance. This is driven by pragmatism as much as anything else: it is cheaper to rehabilitate a person to save a brand, should this be necessary, than rescue or create a brand in the first place, without one. While newish to retail, it is an adaptation of an old ploy, no different to the building of the Christianity-brand around its brand-person’s suffering on the cross, or a national one: e.g. Queen Victoria and the sun never setting on the British empire (‘Britannia’).
Problems can arise if those responsible for the brand fail to factor in a ‘brand successor’ which is essential to the brand’s survival. Christianity avoided this trap by creating eternal PR hooks around birth, marriage and death, as well as the anticipated return of its ‘brand person’, a superb open-ended arrangement. Not having those advantages, former PM Tony Blair chose to update Britain’s brand by hanging on to Britannia while adding the word ‘cool’ and softening its depiction (e.g. cuddly lions). The then prime minister’s reasoning was sound but delivery was flawed. This became academic anyway, when, following the catastrophe of the Iraq war, ‘Britannia’ – cool or otherwise – was replaced by cartoons of our nation as a poodle alongside Old Glory.(16)
Former SIS Chief Dearlove and brand al-Qaida
One way to rescue a brand nationally, regionally and internationally is to minimise possible brand wars. This is what former SIS chief Sir Richard Dearlove failed to do (assuming he has been accurately quoted) when he said ‘al-Qaida has created a very powerful and attractive brand and the West has to make its position as attractive’.(17) By boiling things down to competing brands, Sir Richard ‘bigged-up’ al-Qaida when only a minority buy into it, at a time when the brand image of two players in ‘the West’ – America and Britain – has been shown to be inconsistent. As the late Robin Cook’s former advisor, David Clark, said: ‘Contrary to common myth, al-Qaida thrives not because Muslims hate our values but because we have been seen to be false to them.’
In addition, should al-Qaida’s brand person, Osama Bin Laden die, the brand succession is now secured.
Russia
The inconsistency of the British and American brands is something former KGB officer, now President Putin of Russia, has played for all it is worth.(19) In his bid to remain at the top of Russia’s political machine – but also as an instrument to secure his position as the country’s (oil) brand person regionally and internationally – President Putin served up his naked upper torso to Russia’s electorate in a Putin-the-patriot pitch.(20)Among other things, it was a classic spoiler/rebuff to former President Gorbachev’s participation in luxury goods company Louis Vuitton’s, equally international current advertising campaign.(21)In this, the former president is pictured looking pensive in a taxi beside the Berlin Wall under the angst-ridden strapline: ‘a journey brings us face to face with ourselves’. It could not be more different from President Putin’s seeming ease and rapturous enjoyment of the simple things in life, such as shooting bears. The gap between the two powerful images is as huge as the last century’s choice between the Tsar-as-poster-boy and Lenin. President Putin is asking Russians – as well as other nationals of the former Soviet Union, whether or not they are members of the corrupt European Union – to determine who they are. The polarisation – choose between President Putin or corrupt crony clusters (as if his side is not equally a potential crony cluster of corruption) – is a frightening achievement and, as with all ‘democratic’ polarisation, a con via ballot-box. A con so wicked that citizens of a little town of Beslen will be expected to be grateful for ‘the vote’. Never mind that in 2004, Beslen’s children, parents and teachers paid the price of barbaric, corrupt, ‘democratic’ (!) Russian policies in Chechnya. A con so contemptuous of its navy, whose officers and ratings are similarly expected to feel homage for ‘democratic Russia’, that, in 2000, surviving submariners of the Kursk who could have been rescued by the technology of ‘the West’, were sacrificed on the altar of national pride.
Britain
The ballot-box con is where the Brits are at too: a de facto one system, post-democracy, corrupt, patronage society without even the benefit of competent administration. What happens next will define our identity. Are those in senior public service equal to the task? (22)
Notes
- Fear PR: The International Institute of Strategic Studies says al-Qaida has revived. The New America Foundation declares it has not. See separate articles in The Guardian, 13 September 2007. Lord (Paddy) Ashdown, chair of a new commission on terrorism, suggests its threat ‘has been exaggerated if compared with……’ The Guardian, 19 September 2007. This is not what he was saying at last year’s LibDem conference when he was parroting the then American ‘long war’ script.
- A fine example of endemic state Fear PR at the moment is the castigating of the public for lacking the ‘right’ skills. The state is at fault but the victim is blamed.
- I saw the advert on Channel 4, 29 September 2007.
- The Government denied a discussion on Iraq at party conference. Outraged, the BBC’s Newsnight organised a studio debate. It did not explain that the person supporting the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee was a leading Labour spin-doctor, Matthew Freud, using the pseudonym Oliver Kamm.On a different subject, presenter Jeremy Paxman referred to ‘surviving a sustained barrage of astonishingly threatening lawyers’ letters and ear-bending from one of the country’s most expensive PR firms.’ (The Journalist, November 2007). Declaration of Interests: I am a supporter of the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom which supports the BBC.
- See Independent on Sunday, 16 September 2007
- See admission by former SIS Chief Sir Richard Dearlove of sympathy with what he called ‘initial use’ of rendition and torture, The Guardian, 16 May 2007.
- Given the manner of death in 2003 of one of Britain’s most distinguished government scientists, Dr Kelly, it was perhaps not the best idea for SIS to use the example of getting alongside a foreign scientist in a female recruitment pitch in The Times, 18 July 2007.
- Good spooks have a generally unthreatening personality, and are willing to contradict and challenge judgement with courage and tact. Failure to convey this impression – although it is possible Sir Richard’s speech was more rounded than its reporting – could be because he no longer has a PR advisor.Note: The word ‘officer’ in the private/public sector title ‘public relations officer’ is a historic hangover from the days these were officers in government service. The same applied to industrial relations officers.
- Spook recruitment website advertised in The Times career supplement, 25 October 2007
- The State of the Future survey by the world federation of United Nations Associations said the ‘relentless rise of organised crime has emerged as one of the most potent threats to the planet’s future … along with others such as the scarcity of drinkable water.’ (The Guardian 12 September 2007) In Britain, only one in 20 underworld bosses is at risk of being sent to prison. The Times, 17 February 2007.
- countries are believed to be actively pursuing cyberwarfare. What China describes as ‘informationised armed forces’ is one of the three pillars of its military strategy, setting itself the target of building a cyber army which could win such a war by 2050. There have been Russian and Chinese cyber attacks in several countries and on the UK Foreign Office. The Guardian, 5 September 2007.GCHQ’s drive to recruit video game enthusiasts could be seen in this context. (The Daily Mail, 19 October 2007). The hiring of sci-fi authors by US anti-terror chiefs has been explained as a means to combat al-Qaida. The Sunday Telegraph 10 June 2007.
- The Evening Standard, 31 July 2007. The best the British workforce can hope for is a rise in employment standards in other parts of the world. This could be massaged by ‘ideas’ such as increasing demand for social justice, including women’s rights. I can think of no other reason why otherwise macho Western elites appear to be placing women’s rights higher up the international agenda.Note: Globalisation is an excuse for those who ought to be corporate British patriots to get away with licensed treason. The British Airports Authority (BAA) was an identity. It should not have been sold to Spaniards who have no national interest in promoting London’s Heathrow as a gateway to Britain.
- See Private Eye 27 September 2007.
- It is possible the intelligence reform highlighted by Nick Clegg MP has been stood down. He was quoted in The Times 11 September 2007 with a plan ‘which would mean a combined anti-terrorism intelligence force, answerable to the Home Secretary, freeing SIS to continue with its core functions, answerable to the Foreign Secretary’. This would avoid a ‘wholesale take-over of MI6 priorities by MI5-led anti-terrorism operations,’ which, he said, many intelligence operatives fear.Note: In the ‘old’ days spook lobbying and territorial warfare were invisible. Given other associations including cash-for-peerages, if the spooks do not back off politicians they could inadvertently leave the public with the impression its democracy is in the hands of spooks, spinners and spivs.
- Where SIS has done well is in its present drive to boost numbers of women officers ‘who will absolutely not be used as a honey-trap’, Daily Mail, 14 May 2007. SIS does not ‘do’ political correctness. It is recruiting women because their skills are operationally necessary.
- The point about the Britannia logo is that it straddled continents. The same could not be said for the much loved British bulldog: those who deem dogs to be unclean consider a country using one as an emblem inferior. Arab cartoonists depicting the UK as America’s poodle were making a double hit.
- See Sir Richard Dearlove speech, Lloyd’s of London, as quoted in The Guardian, 16 May 2007. Sir Richard’s audience of ‘insurers, business leaders and underwriters’, unlike, say, members of the Law Society, were unlikely to be challenging. See also article about former chief executive of Lloyds of London, Peter Middleton and Sir Richard, The Mail on Sunday, 21 September 2003.Another gem from Sir Richard, I assume without irony, was: ‘If you wish to recruit from within the opposing forces, you need a clear moral position……’
- The Guardian, 15 August 2007.
- See President Putin speech: ‘The United States has overstepped its borders in all spheres, economic, political and humanitarian and has imposed itself on other states….The number of people who died did not get less but increased. We see no kind of restraint…’ The Guardian, 19 September 2007. See also President Putin’s put-down of President Sarkozy of France, The Times, 11 October 2007.Meantime, the slanging-match with the Brits continues with Russia’s intelligence chief, Nikolai Patrushev, telling a Moscow newspaper: ‘Since the time of Elizabeth 1, British secret services have worked according to the principle of the “end justifies the means”. Money, bribery blackmail – these are their recruitment methods.’ As quoted in The Times, 11 October 2007.
- The long years of house-arrest and sacrifice of the elected leader of Myanmar (Burma), Aung San Suu Kyi, is a graceful Asian version of the same type of pitch, which is why Myanmar’s military dictatorship has always offered Aung San the option of exile. Myanmar note: the British government has been inconsistent. See The Observer, 30 September 2007, re: Lloyd’s of London coming ‘under severe criticism for its role in the insurance of infrastructure vital to the economic well-being of Burma’s repressive military dictatorship.’ Note: those interested in Myanmar and spooks could refer to the obituary of Lord Jenkins of Putney, formerly Hugh Jenkins MP, in The Guardian, 28 January 2004.
- See full page Louis Vuitton adverts in Newsweek, 10 September 2007.
- In an interview, Sir David Manning, outgoing ambassador in Washington and former PM Blair’s chief foreign and security policy adviser, 2001- 2003, said: ‘…..I suppose at the end of my time, I’m allowed to think outside the box’. This is what he should have been doing during his career, not when retiring from it. The Times, 14 September 2007