Speaking Out by Ed Balls

Author:Ed Balls
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2016-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

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Image

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Image matters in politics – but is there any other profession where it can be so distorting?

ONE OF THE best-liked MPs in the Labour Party is Alan Johnson. Having worked his way up from a very deprived background to postman to trade union leader to a successful Cabinet minister, he was a viable candidate to stand against Gordon for the Labour leadership in 2007. When he decided to stand for deputy instead, it was both a relief for Gordon as well as a potential opportunity to have such a popular figure as his number two.

But Spencer Livermore, Gordon’s pollster, conducted some focus groups and the results that came back were astonishing. He showed people footage of Alan speaking, and what they said was: ‘I don’t like his shiny suit’; ‘He talks like some cockney wide boy’; ‘He looks like a used-car salesman’. They didn’t care what he was saying, they weren’t even interested in listening, and they certainly didn’t want to know about his ‘backstory’. They had built an immediate impression of him just based on what he was wearing and the sound of his voice.

Alan went on to be a respected Home Secretary before writing acclaimed memoirs which have won him both great accolades and widespread public affection. Along the way, he’s also stopped wearing those shiny suits.

Which all just illustrates the absurdity of modern politics. A politician who lacks experience, wisdom and vision can win the public’s admiration and attention just because they appear to mean what they say, and come across as genuine. Conversely, a politician can have all those things and be successful at their job but still be dismissed by a section of the population simply because of how they look or talk.

Is there any other profession in the world where image matters so much and can be so distorting?

The truth is it is really hard to alter people’s first impressions of you. For me, my public image starts with my name. By some considerable distance, the biggest issue that people would raise when asked about me in focus groups was the fact that I am called ‘Balls’. With the name I have, they wondered whether I could really be taken seriously.

One Labour Party conference, I had agreed to answer readers’ questions in the Monday morning’s Independent newspaper. The questions were always a mixture of serious, quirky and funny, and you needed your answers to match. The final question was: ‘How do you cope in politics with the surname Balls?’ My reply was: ‘If you think it’s been bad for me, think what it’s been like for my sister, Ophelia.’

That day I was having lunch with a group of journalists in the conference hotel, and as we sat down, the then editor of the Independent came over and said to me: ‘Very good Q&A today, but did your parents really call your sister Ophelia?’ I laughed and explained it was a joke. But I sensed surprise in his eyes. Perhaps he thought it odd for me to have a sense of humour about it.

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