Extra-Parliamentary Rhetorical Leadership: From Gladstone to Blair

Abstract

Prime Ministers never seem to stop talking. From the floor of the parliament to the factory floor; from seven-second grabs on the television news to the challenges of talk-back radio — the modern prime ministership is an institution built on communication. As discussed in the opening chapter, the content of prime ministerial communication is what gives the political world meaning. Our understanding of national affairs, public policy decisions and grand visions for the future is gained through the written and spoken word. Media releases, text messages, Tweets, opinion pieces, blogs, television grabs and media conferences — these are the events that frame popular understanding of the political world. The success of a prime minister in communicating is absolutely central to modern governance because an inability to communicate successfully can quickly equate to an inability to govern effectively.

I cannot think that the solution of a most perplexing international problem, on the right solution of which such important English interests are depending, will be promoted by Mr Gladstone’s attempt to refer it to uninstructed popular passion.

Lord Lytton to Queen Victoria, 4 October 1876