YOUR TURN TO DO THE BUSINESS
David Hill, ex-Labour spin doctor, on _ how he would advise William
Hague — one year on
THE STARK truth is that, one year after being elected Tory leader, William Hague is not at the races. And there is no obvious sign of imminent improvement.
Much of this is explained by the compe- tition. The Prime Minister is everywhere and still breaking all opinion poll records. Yet the Premier never sits back. He 'con- stantly repeats the 'no complacency' mantra, and woe betide those who let their guard slip. But we all do. I recall, some months before the general election, being asked exactly what my job entailed. My flippant reply was that I provided the water for Tony Blair to walk on. Some people smiled, but no one failed to get the point. What is extraordinary is that it is possible successfully to crack that same joke 13 months into the new government.
In the face of all this it is tempting to advise Mr Hague to shut up shop, wait for mistakes and rely on unforeseen events to come to his rescue. After all, his efforts at gaining a positive personal profile have singularly failed. Ageing boy wonder with monotonous voice and baseball cap is a tag he could do without. Few people know much about him and even fewer care.
Nonetheless, inertia is not the answer. Neither is constant but unfocused activity. It is a long haul. This means having patience, picking issues as they arise and exploiting them relentlessly in pursuit of causing permanent damage. A scatter-gun approach is useless. Tony Blair is so popu- lar that most things harmlessly bounce off him. Bide your time. Go for it only when a flank is genuinely exposed, yet remember not to behave in a way that can be depict- ed as extreme.
One of Mr Blair's great strengths is that almost no one, no matter 'how they voted in May 1997, believes he is extreme. Occu- pying the centre ground is critical to New Labour's success. If Mr Hague takes up positions which put him on the periphery he might as well pack up now. So he must have the courage to take on his party where necessary. He has begun to do this on party reform and gained grudging acceptance. Europe is another matter.
Europe remains the litmus test. Not sur- prisingly, there are two schools of opinion on how Mr Hague should address it. If he believes what he said in his Fontainebleau speech, he should tell every one of his leading party figures that they have to toe the Eurosceptic line or they are out. Blood will be spilt, but clarity and tough leader- ship matter. He may feel that the division is so great that he can only stay in the cir- cus by riding both horses. The rank and file may be so anti-Europe that he can do nothing else. Yet with the average age of his party members now well over 60, Mr Hague may feel that he has to look to the future.
As things stand, the right communica- tions advice is for him to go for the tough leader approach. If he is convinced that the 'no ERM for ten years' position is right he should take it. It provides a clear stance and a distinctly different policy from his opponent. And, given the volatili- ty of public opinion on the issue, it passes the extremism test. That is where he is try- ing to position himself at the moment. What holds him back is the sense that he must not impose his will on those who dis- agree with him. Unless he creates the belief that this is what he is doing and his will must prevail, the perception of weak- ness continues. In this respect the defec- tion of Peter Temple-Morris, while embarrassing, may help. Mr Hague can say that this is the price he is prepared to pay for standing firm on Europe.
He must also begin creating an aura of gravitas around himself. Judo bouts with Sebastian Coe sound ridiculous, while his declared affinity with Meat Loaf, recognis- able as it may be to ageing rockers like myself, has no discernible political benefit. Likewise, he really should get rid of Alan Duncan. Putting him on the front bench is a mistake primarily because Mr Duncan is universally viewed, by press and political opponents alike, as little more than a joke.
The re-publication of his neo-liberal tract this autumn will embarrass both Mr Hague and Ann Widdecombe. No one will be fooled by the omission of passages devoted to the liberalisation of drugs indeed they will be reproduced ad nause- am in the press simply because they have been omitted. If Mr Hague had dispensed with Mr Duncan, it would have been judged as a highly symbolic step on the road to gravitas. I am afraid that the Duncan episode has wider ramifications. The apparent lack of ruthlessness extends to the whole episode of his shadow Cabinet reshuffle. Here was the chance for Mr Hague to surround him- self with people who do not remind us of the Major government and Tory failure. SO his 'emergency' reshuffle should have spelt goodbye to Michael Howard and Norman Fowler. Instead they are still with us as a stark reminder of the grim memories that the Hague leadership was meant to elimi- nate — an opportunity thrown away. You only have to see the rejuvenation of Ann Widdecombe since her attack on Mr Howard to grasp just how universally unpopular he is with the press.
While the appointment of David Willetts seems shrewd — despite his having to leave the front bench not long ago because he fell foul of Commons rules — why the fudge over Peter Lilley? To demote some- one to deputy leader is pretty preposterous. It certainly didn't work with Geoffrey Howe. As for John Redwood, he continues to be out of control as the joke persists that he has still failed to abandon planet log and settle permanently on planet Earth' While he remains the journalists will go 00 crying, 'Watch your back, William!' something they won't say when talking about the hapless Stephen Dorrell. Unless the Tory Party is seen to become a different animal, it will remain, unelectable. Apart from the occasional well-targeted attack, all television appear- ances, articles and planted stories should be devoted to one central theme. The task is to show that they are no longer the part' so spectacularly kicked out in 1997. New. Tories' will not work, as the plagiarism ls too vulgar, but the message must constantly be moulded to give that impression. Many of the rank and file will not like it. Tough. Do they want to win an election in the next millennium or don't they? Does William Hague have the cojones to take hi party party on? After all, it was widely predicted that Tony Blair could not deliver a change, in Clause Four. Determination, force 01 character and leadership proved the doubters wrong. Now it's Hague's turn. He will be attacked for simply copying Blair, but in this crucial area he has no choice. If he cannot do the business his prospects are truly grim. All that will be left to do is to sit back and hope that events do the job for Ilia He might be tempted to hope that Tory ratings are boosted simply by Ken Living- stone becoming mayor of London and using the post to engage in constant con- flict with the Prime Minister. But if that is his only long-term bet, don't count on it!
The author was Labour's chief media spokesperson from 1991 to mid-May of this year. Sonata in D Major for two pianos, a relax- ation tape and silence — and tested the subjects' spatial reasoning after each tape. In the short term, certainly, listening to Mozart raised IQ scores by an average of nine Points above the other two tapes. There has also been a call in the House of Lords for mind sports to achieve parity with physical sports in the United Kingdom school curriculum. In a debate on 20 May this year, Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, who, like many of us, loathed football, rugby and PE at school, said, 'Given that the UK Children's Chess Championship attracts 35,000 children from over 1,000 schools, will the government consider building on those successes by treating chess and other mind sports as valid alter- natives to traditional physical sports?' And now there is a chance to take up serious mind sports for yourself, at little personal risk, and win a medal for it. It def- initely won't involve undignified loping around London's back streets in your underwear, as the marathon does. The Mind Sports Olympiad, now in its second Year, features 40 different thinking sports from one-day chess to the IQ, creativity and speed-reading world championships. The first year, 1997, offered £100,000 of prize money and attracted numerous grandmasters and world champions from around the world in the various disciplines. But the beauty of it is, it's open to all. There are no barriers of nationality, sex or Physical ability and no qualifying hurdles to Jump, as it were. I leave the last word to the evolutionary forces of Darwinian natural selection. Pro- fessor John Townshend, of Syracuse Uni- versity, has just completed an extensive anthropological study, proving that the female of the species is far more attracted to intelligent, successful males than to the overtly good-looking ones. A good-looking barman, Chris Johnson, is quoted in the Sunday Times as saying, 'I can't believe women will go for a fat, balding City boy over a good-looking barman.' But if Profes- sor Townshend is right, precisely 92 per cent of women will do just that!
The author is a chess grandmaster and one of the organisers of the Mind Sports Olympiad. The Second Mind Sports .Y7nPiad runs from 24 to 30 August at Lon- don's Royal Festival Hall. For details, access the Mind Sports Olympiad website www.mindsports.co.uk or ring 0171 485 9146 for an entry form. You can call Mensa, the high IQ society, on 01902 772771 to calcu- late your IQ.
You have tennis neck.'
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