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David Thorp on the election debates

May 2010

 

David Thorp is director of research and professional development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing. This is his personal view: 

 

Whatever one thinks of the Liberal Democrats’ policies, the surge in voter support for Nick Clegg is a powerful victory for democracy. Two-horse races lead to black-and-white, either/or politics: if you’re not with us, you’re against us. This does not offer the electorate genuine choice, and is one of the reasons for voter disengagement.

 

Any marketer knows that to persuade customers to choose you rather than someone else, you need to offer something your rivals don’t. By giving the Lib Dems an equal billing the television debates have shown that people can respond in unexpected ways if they are given a better range of options, rather than their choices being pre-selected for them.

 

Many people thought with good reason that the BBC potentially made a mistake when they offered the BNP a place on Question Time. Yet when the programme was shown, the result was that the audience was enabled to make its mind up intelligently; and the results were not favourable to the BNP. The Liberal Democrats have been able, thanks to the calm, collected and reasoned abilities of their leader, to achieve the opposite effect.

 

Giving a platform in this way is a good thing to do; it shakes up politicians and snaps them out of their comfort zones. The effect particularly on the Conservatives has been striking; the ‘Vote for Change’ slogan now seems naïve, with voters recognising that the change doesn’t have to come only in blue.

 

The debate has shown that the electorate are not necessarily tribal sheep who will only vote for what they usually vote for. Given the opportunity, they will engage. None of the excitement this week means that people will not necessarily revert to Plan A when they are faced with putting the X in the box on 6 May. However, if the Liberal Democrats can maintain the momentum, we could be in for the most exciting election in modern times.