It has really been a good news, bad news, what was he
thinking news day for Prime Minister David Cameron.
While his stance on maintaining the ban on prisoners being
allowed to vote will have gained a certain mixed reception it must be his
jumping the gun on hinting that there may be an improvement in the gross
domestic product which will be his moment of the day to try and escape from.
The seemingly innocuous statement that there may be “good
news” ahead could potentially lead the PM into very bad news situation. It is a
testament to the need for carefully coordinated communications when dealing
with politicians, and the press. Many people would not think of the phrase as an
explosive revelation breaching regulations on the release of sensitive
information.
At the end of the day, however many people will be wondering
whether or not the slip means anything other than that the Office of National
Statistics, which is due to release the actual figures tomorrow (Thursday 25th
October 2012), will kick up a fuss over losing its thunder. In and of itself it
may mean very little, taken in a wider context though it becomes a serious
matter. The markets rise and fall on the slightest whiff of information, rumour
and suggestion can have as much of an impact on the price of stocks and bonds
as cold hard facts, something which the ONS is keen to maintain its control
over.
What it also demonstrates is that once again politicians, no
matter how senior, do not appear able to maintain a confidence on something
which has national importance. It would not be seen as incontrovertible that Mr
Cameron made the ‘slip’ as a means by which to get ahead of the ONS releasing
the figures to the press and thereby ensure that his government, which up until
now has been taking something of a battering on the economy, could bask in a
bit of the glory before it was eclipsed by everything else.
Instead what he has successfully done, however, is removed
any good news from what could have been an incredibly positive story and turned
it into another government fiasco article.
There is always the chance that Mr Cameron’s ”good news” has
nothing to do with the soon to be released figures. If having received the
figures at 9:30am and being one of the few politicians allowed to see them he
did mean something else though then he must surely be accused once again of
mistiming his comments. What appears to be the core to this case is that either
the Prime Minister knowingly let slip confidential information regarding the
financial markets, albeit in an oblique way, or he made an ill timed and
misjudged comment about an unrelated matter which will surely demonstrate that
he is unable to think about the bigger picture of what impact his statements
may have. Either way it does not bode well for the Prime Minister’s communications
ability for the future.
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