John Prescott, a case study in straight-talking communications

Tributes have flowed in for John Prescott today, a man who achieved much and was often an unappreciated champion for the impact and power of effective communications. 

Through the Blair era notorious for rehearsed soundbites, spin doctors and rigid control of the 'grid' John Prescott brought a direct approach that talked to people in the "real-world".

During the Blair years Prescott endured repeated jibes about his syntax, some of which today smacks of snobbery, and possibly did at the time. Fast forward and the direct appeal to core voters in language born from their communities, rather than the halls of academic excellence, has become the model for political campaigning. John Prescott was ahead of his time in teaching us to cut to the chase.

As he himself once remarked in the Commons “I may get the grammar wrong, that’s true… but I’d sooner get the perhaps the words wrong than getting my judgement wrong.”’

His direct approach to dealing with activists isn't one that we encourage for clients. After the notorious 'protestor punch' incident he is rumoured to have said to Tony Blair that he was merely following orders 'you told us to connect with the electorate, so I did'.

Articles today have repeated some of his famous grammatical slip-ups but also focused heavily on tributes for his many achievements, including the role he played working to get the Kyoto Climate Agreement across the line and later mediating between leaders at the Copenhagen COP15 summit. 

As we work towards the end of COP29 this week, which looks like it will be far from the success of Kyoto and Copenhagen, it's a fitting reminder that straight-talking, consensus building leadership is still much needed. RIP John Prescott.