Budget spin and the art of expectation management

Figures from both Coalition parties have called for Budget 2015 to give back something to the people, then the big guns blasted those hopes. But it’s all just spin, writes Michael Clifford.

A GREAT political feat perfected in this country over the last decade or so is to have your governmental cake and eat it — just like the opposition.

Bertie Ahern was good at this kind of thing, often throwing his hands up in the air when his government took an unpopular decision. He would frequently reference “they” as if he was helpless to stop one of his ministers initiating a measure that elicited public opposition. Another tactic was to send backbench TDs out to the plinth in Leinster House to express opposition to something the government was doing. Where once this might have attracted disciplinary sanction from HQ, under Ahern it was regarded as good politics.