The dead cat strategy, also known as deadcatting, is the political strategy of deliberately making a shocking announcement to divert media attention away from problems or failures in other areas. [1] [2] The present name for the strategy has been associated with British former prime minister Boris Johnson's political strategist Lynton Crosby.
While he was mayor of London, Boris Johnson wrote a column for the 3 March 2013 edition of The Telegraph in which he described the "dead cat" as a piece of Australian political strategy about what to do in a situation in which the argument is being lost and "the facts are overwhelmingly against you". [3] [4]
There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don't mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout, "Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!" In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief. [1]
Johnson employed the Australian Lynton Crosby as his campaign manager during the 2008 and 2012 London mayoral elections, leading to press speculation that he was the "Australian friend" in the story. [5] [4]
Political lecturer Grant Rodwell describes the strategy as having found "some political traction" during the 2015 United Kingdom general election, the Conservative campaign for which Lynton Crosby led, [6] and in which Johnson successfully stood to return as an MP. At a point when Labour's campaign had been gaining momentum, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon accused Ed Miliband of having "stabbed his own brother in the back to become Labour leader" and saying that this meant he was "willing to stab the United Kingdom in the back to become prime minister" by scrapping Trident. [1] The Guardian described this as a "crude" and "brutal" attack that some commentators thought would backfire, but it successfully moved that day's media focus from Labour's policies to Fallon's statement. [1]
Rodwell notes the term later finding a place in media coverage of the "outrageous pronouncements" made by Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries and his later presidential transition in the United States. [6]
Sir Lynton Keith Crosby is an Australian political strategist who has managed election campaigns for right-of-centre parties in several countries.
In politics, a dog whistle is the use of coded or suggestive language in political messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition. The concept is named after ultrasonic dog whistles, which are audible to dogs but not humans. Dog whistles use language that appears normal to the majority but communicates specific things to intended audiences. They are generally used to convey messages on issues likely to provoke controversy without attracting negative attention.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.
Amber Augusta Rudd is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye, first elected in 2010, representing the Conservative Party, and stood down from parliament in 2019. She identifies herself as a one-nation conservative, and has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies.
Blue Labour is a British campaign group and political faction that seeks to promote blue-collar and culturally conservative values within the British Labour Party – particularly on immigration, crime, and community spirit – while remaining committed to labour rights and left-wing economic policies. It seeks to represent a traditional working-class approach to Labour politics.
Entryism is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand their ideas and program. If the organization being "entered" is hostile to entryism, the entryists may engage in a degree of subterfuge and subversion to hide the fact that they are an organization in their own right.
The C|T Group, also referred to as Crosby Textor, is an Australian lobbying firm, private investigations firm, and political consultancy. The firm provides social research, corporate intelligence corporate strategy and political polling services to its clients.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019, with 47,567,752 registered voters entitled to vote to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party, led by the prime minister Boris Johnson, won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats, a net gain of 48, on 43.6 per cent of the popular vote, the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election, though with a narrower popular vote margin than that achieved by the Labour Party over the Conservatives at the 1997 general election. This was the second national election to be held in 2019 in the United Kingdom, the first being the 2019 European Parliament election.
Old Stock Canadians is a term referring to European Canadians whose families have lived in Canada for multiple generations. It is used by some to refer exclusively to Anglophone Canadians with British settler ancestors, but it usually refers to either Anglophone or Francophone Canadians as parallel old stock groups. Francophone Canadians descended from early French settlers in New France are sometimes referred to as Québécois pure laine, often translated as "dyed in the wool", but with the same connotation as old stock.
Allegations of Islamophobia in the UK Conservative Party have been made, including against senior politicians, such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Zac Goldsmith. Baroness Warsi, former co-chair of the Conservative Party, said in 2018 that anti-Muslim prejudice had "poisoned" the party. Many Muslim party members welcomed Warsi's comments, saying that they felt the issue had been marginalised within the party.
Led By Donkeys is a British political campaign group established in December 2018 as an anti-Brexit group, but which has also criticised other actions of the Conservative government. After the 2024 election of a Labour government, it defined itself as an "accountability project" and stated that the Labour government was also fair game.
Boris Johnson has declared his position on many political issues through his public comments. Johnson's political positions have changed throughout his political career. His policies, views and voting record have been the subject of commentary during Johnson's tenure in various positions, including as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016 and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022.
Caroline Louise Beavan Johnson is an English media consultant and is married to Boris Johnson. She is the daughter of Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent.
Isaac Levido is an Australian political strategist who was the head of the British Conservative Party's campaigns in the 2019 United Kingdom general election and 2024 United Kingdom general election.
Get Brexit Done was a political slogan frequently used by the British Conservative Party and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the run up to the 2019 general election. The slogan reflected the party's pledge to, if re-elected, facilitate the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union by the end of January the following year.
Topham Guerin is an advertising agency company founded in New Zealand in 2016 by Sean Topham and Ben Guerin. The company is headquartered in Auckland and has offices in London and Sydney. It has worked on several high-profile political communications campaigns, including the 2019 Conservative Party election campaign in the UK.
David Bruno John Canzini is a political advisor who worked for the former British prime minister, Liz Truss. He formerly worked in the office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, assisting the Downing Street chief of staff, Steve Barclay, as his deputy.
The public image of Boris Johnson has attracted commentary throughout his political career. As Mayor of London, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and in various ministerial positions, Johnson has been considered a controversial or polarising figure in British politics.
Mark Stephen Fullbrook is a British political strategist and lobbyist who was Downing Street Chief of Staff from September to October 2022.
Reuben Solomon is a political adviser based in the United Kingdom. He was a special adviser to the former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss.
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