Political PR blunders

Tony Blair may be smarting from his disastrous speech to the WI conference, but politics wouldn't be politics without a PR blunder.

The catcalls have subsided and soon the delegates will be journeying back to Middle England, but for Tony Blair the trauma of his Women's Institute speech lingers like an unshakeable hangover.

Others simply do not want to forget. The spectacle of a strident politician being shamed in front of the masses is manna from Heaven for Fleet Street headline writers.

"Handbagged" shouted the Mirror from its front page; "Blair reduced to jelly" chortled the Daily Express.

But at least Mr Blair can find solace in the fact he is not the first politician, and by no means will he be the last, to find himself at the centre of such a serious PR gaffe.

John Prescott was ridiculed for driving 300 yards at last year's Labour conference

It took a few years for William Hague's biggest embarrassment to really hit home. When, in 1977, a cherubic-looking 16-year-old Hague took to the stage of the Tory party conference, he was warmly received.

But when, almost two decades later, he entered government he was dogged with the image of young fogey, out of touch with the real world.

Efforts to tackle that perception went down almost as badly. Soon after taking the job of Conservative leader in 1997, Mr Hague went all-out for youth appeal, donning a baseball cap with his name embroidered on the front, and then visiting the Notting Hill Carnival with fiancée Ffion. The public was not convinced by this supposed turn around.

Crisis? What crisis?

James Callaghan, as misquoted by The Sun

At least Mr Hague learned the words to the Welsh national anthem when he took the job of secretary of state for Wales - something his forerunner, John Redwood, neglected to do. Television cameras caught Mr Redwood awkwardly pretending to mouth the words in front of a Welsh audience.

Could it be a Welsh curse? Former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock often let his "boyo" enthusiasm get the better of him.

Taking a dip

During one seasonal seaside stroll for the cameras, the "prime minister in waiting" tripped and fell into the water. He had to be hauled up by wife Glenys.

Quizzed: Mrs Thatcher was riled when asked about the Belgrano

More disastrous though was his jubilant fist waving at Labour's 1992 election rally in Sheffield. Only days away from a general election, Mr Kinnock believed he had it in the bag.

As music blared and balloons rained, he leapt onto the stage, punched his fist in the air, and started shouting "Well alright, well alright ..." The public didn't think so.

His political rival Norman Lamont should have learned then that hubris does not win votes. Later the same year, Mr Lamont presided over Britain's embarrassing eviction from the European exchange rate mechanism. Did he feel responsible? No, the chancellor said he had been "singing in the bath".

Thatcher grilled

In 1983, Margaret Thatcher's supporters were left wriggling in their seats after the Iron Lady agreed to a live question and answer session with the public on BBC's Nationwide.

For two long minutes, Diana Gould of Cheltenham, grilled her over the sinking of the Argentine warship, the Belgrano, during the Falklands War.

Crisis talks: Jim Callahgan found his words twisted

Mrs Thatcher refused to be drawn on whether the ship had been sailing away from the action when it was attacked. Ms Gould refused to take no for an answer.

Mrs Thatcher's predecessor at Number 10, James Callaghan, could have done with a New Labour-style spin doctor during the dying days of his late 1970s Labour government.

On his return from a EC summit in sunny Guadeloupe, the prime minister was quizzed on his reaction to the crisis at home, which had resulted in the Winter of Discontent.

"Crisis? What crisis?" was the headline carried by The Sun. In fact, Mr Callaghan had been less off-hand. "I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there was mounting chaos," was what he really said.

But where would newspapers be without a catchy headline?