From: The Unit To: GB Subject: Sticking the course

So, pretty good week. Think everyone agrees now with our long-standing advice that you need to stick with a policy and presentational course. In retrospect, the bane of our approach over the past year has been too many relaunches (not relaunches), too many changes of direction (there have been none, obviously) and tone (think this has been notable in its consistency). We need at this point to simply decide on a course and - as we have done up till now - darn well stick to it!

The only addendum to this is that if we pick one policy and presentational approach to stick with (regardless of initial reactions, trusting that the public will give us credit for our steadfastness), it is absolutely vital that we pick the right course. Because if we are going to cleave unswervingly to anything, we need to be sure it's definitely a good thing to cleave to. No one wants to cleave unswervingly to, say, a family saloon heading through a motorway central reservation into oncoming traffic. Or an overloaded bobsleigh hurtling inexplicably into the silo housing a tactical nuclear missile.

Re: this, we wouldn't for a second suggest that accusing the British people of throwing away too much ketchup or advising them to buy smaller tins of beans are necessarily the wrong way to go. Indeed, we think this penny-pinching, parsimonious, carping, reproachful, frankly depressing message may well be necessary. And indeed, your delivering it may give the glimpse of "the real you" that columnists are clamouring for.

However, there's a very real sense here that such pronouncements could cement an image of you as a meddling, fusty, depressive Scottish widow in the public imagination. Think it is imperative we do not make the public feel you are the sort of person who listens to Leonard Cohen and Gregorian chant at very low volume on a wind-up radio, while you count individual lentils into a pot of thin gruel.

So, while we really feel now is the time when we need to mean what we say and say what we mean, etc, think we need to repudiate immediately what we here at the Unit have dubbed the "G8 Tea Bag Reuse Doctrine". The problem with the "Hey, Easy On That Marmite!" approach is that people don't want to hear it. Indeed, polling suggests the "Use Your Finger, Woman, There's Some Left At the Bottom of the Jar" offensive reminds people of wars they've never even experienced.

Not sure who you brainstormed this gambit with, but think that a line needs to be drawn under it. We need to stick to a line that is agreed. But this is the wrong one to stick to. And until we find the right one, we need to be fleet-footed enough to leap among the possible narratives we are cleaving to unflinchingly, until we discover which one is going to work for us.

Let us know your thoughts.

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