Book description
With a foreword by Michael Portillo. Deborah Mattinson had a unique
perspective on the New Labour project. As Britain's leading political
pollster, she has been monitoring public opinion since the mid-1980s,
and helped transform Labour into Europe's greatest election-winning
machine of the modern era. Most recently as chief pollster to Gordon
Brown as Prime Minister, she has been on the frontline of electoral
politics, consistently representing the voter's side of the story to
the politicans. Sometimes, she has encountered scepticism - a
belligerent John Smith made an unappreciative witness to one of
Deborah's focus groups - and she has often had to convey unwelcome
results - telling a grumpy Gordon Brown he needed to spruce up his
appearance cannot have been easy. With a stellar cast, including Neil
Kinnock, Peter Mandelson, John Smith, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown,
Talking to A Brick Wall reviews the New Labour years from the voter's
point of view. It tracks the ups and downs of the Blair/Brown era as
seen from beyond Westminster, showing how closely political reputation
correlates with voter connection. It profiles the swing voter, shows
the importance of women's votes, and what gives a politician popular
appeal, and maps the voters' views through the 2010 campaign and its
immediate aftermath, showing how the electorate has been left out of
political decision making and revealing the public's recipe for
rehabilitating the Labour Party and rebuilding trust in democracy. A
champion of democratic renewal through citizen engagement, Deborah
Mattinson believes that we must move to new grown up partnership
politics if democracy is to thrive.
Deborah Mattinson advised Labour through the 1980s and the birth
of New Labour. She then worked closely with Gordon Brown as he
prepared to become PM, and after 'transition'. She has a unique
perspective on the New Labour years through the eyes of the voter. She
began her career in advertising, working at McCann Erickson, then Ayer
Barker. She left to set up Gould Mattinson with Labour strategist,
Philip Gould, in 1985. Deborah co-founded Opinion Leader Research, now
the UK's top research and engagement consultancy, in 1992. She is
currently forming a new company with the aim of bringing the public's
perspective to the debating table, connecting decision makers in
business and government more closely with the national mood.
