Prime Minister Pitches to 'Crockery-Throwers'---(Blair manipulation)

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

(Sound familiar???)


1//The Independent, UK 14 February 2005

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=610882



PRIME MINISTER PITCHES TO THE ‘CROCKERY-THROWERS’

By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent



Humble yet supremely self-confident, contrite yet unapologetic, forward not backward, there was a new kind of Tony Blair on show yesterday. The tone and delivery of the Prime Minister's speech was in marked contrast with his previous conference presentations, delivering a tone of self-deprecation, admitting many people really do not like him.


(snip)


Instead we were treated to a classically smooth ­ some might say manipulative ­ Tony Blair performance, this time using anecdotes and personal self-analysis to make his pitch, using the politics of the personal to try to reconnect with the public, his public.



Mr Blair referred to how the mood of the country changed after the heady days that followed Labour's 1997 election victory: "So after the euphoria came the steady hard slog of decision-making and delivery and the events that tested me. And the media mood turning and friends sometimes being lost as the big decisions mounted and the thousand little things that irritate and grate.



"And then all of a sudden there you are, the British people, thinking: you're not listening and I think; you're not hearing me. And before you know it you raise your voice. I raise mine. Some of you throw a bit of crockery."



Mr Blair used the device of his personal experiences talking to ordinary voters to illustrate the party's six staccato, verb-free, pledge soundbites, widely criticised on Friday.



(SNIP)