What's the story, Gordon?

By Hugh Levinson
Editor, BBC Radio 4's Analysis

Mr Brown wants to tell a story, but are people ready to listen?

I hope you're sitting comfortably. Because it's time for a story.

Once upon a time, a little-known politician called Bill Clinton realised he had an obstacle to overcome. He had to convince a sceptical electorate that they should trust him so much that they would vote to make him president of the USA.

"I was born in a little town called, Hope, Arkansas, three months after my father died," he said at the start of a campaign video that became a classic.

It told the tale of a poor boy from a small town who managed to meet President John F Kennedy.

"And I remember just thinking what an incredible country this was, that somebody like me, you know had no money or anything, would be given the opportunity to meet the president," the advert continued.

"That's when I decided that I could really do public service, because I cared so much about people."

'Never behind again'

"The Man from Hope is the greatest narrative commercial ever written," says Philip Gould, now Lord Gould, who was a key adviser to the Labour Party.

"That master narrative came out; and after it came out, he was never behind again in the polls and went on to win two presidential elections," adds Drew Westen, a leading analyst of the role of emotions in politics.

For Bill Clinton's admirers, this skill at telling stories was what enabled him to make a deep emotional connection with the electorate.

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were known as masters of narrative

Tony Blair could do it too. But can Gordon Brown?

In interviews for BBC Radio 4's Analysis programme, we've been finding out how story-telling works in politics - and asking whether it can sometimes create problems as well as solve them.

So what makes an effective political narrative?

Richard Maxwell, who advises business leaders on how to understand narratives, identifies five key elements for good stories.

"They have the passion with which you tell them; a hero, which provides a point of view for your listener to make the story their own; a problem the hero is confronting; an antagonist - sometimes that's personified as a villain but it's really just an obstacle; a moment of awareness that allows the hero to overcome that obstacle; and the change that occurs."

Bill Clinton filled the pattern exactly in his "Man from Hope" advert.

if you want to win elections you have to appeal to the human mind and not to the mind of a calculator Drew Westen

He describes confronting the obstacles of poverty and isolation.

He experiences a moment of transformation when meeting JFK and then overcomes his humble origins to run for president himself.

New Labour used similar techniques in creating a master narrative.

Its story was of "a failed Conservative government, a fresh-faced New Labour government, a fresh faced New Labour leader - and it's almost mythical," says Lord Gould.

He argues that even the way Tony Blair dressed conveyed a message about support for British designers, and, by implication, for modernising the country.

But has Gordon Brown mastered this art of story-telling?

Drew Westen says the need is urgent.

"If you're naturally a policy wonk you've got to have someone in your camp who helps you turn things that sound like they're dull and boring into things that are not only emotionally compelling but do have that story structure that make people able to listen and remember what you've said.

"Because if you want to win elections you have to appeal to the human mind and not to the mind of a calculator."

'Never understood'

However, he has serious doubts about the prime minister's ability to do this. He points to Mr Brown's recent use of the American political consultant and speechwriter Bob Shrum as an adviser.

Drew Westen describes Mr Shrum as "a wonderful speech writer except for the fact that he has never understood how narratives work and why you need to use them".

The other problem is that the Conservatives have been studying story-telling techniques.

Daniel Finkelstein, who was an adviser to the former Tory leader William Hague, talks about the huge influence of Story, a classic treatise by the former Hollywood scriptwriter Robert McKee.

"I explained that one of the reasons that the media weren't interested in us is that we were literally boring. We were what would be boring on the screen, we were what would be boring in a book and what would be boring in a newspaper article."

He encouraged Mr Hague to take risks, in order to fulfil a narrative arc.

But he didn't advise going quite as far as another politician with a taste for drama.

In 1958 Francois Mitterrand - who later became French president - claimed to have survived an assassination attempt by diving behind a hedge.

It's been alleged that he actually staged the incident himself.

Now that's what I call a story.

BBC Radio 4's Analysis: Jackanory Politics will be broadcast on Thursday, 21 February 2008 at 2030 GMT. You can listen to the programme after it has been broadcast at Radio 4's listen again page or download the podcast here.