Fuelling The Crisis?

A World War Two poster issued by the Information Ministry around the time of the Blitz is now re-doing the rounds on t-shirts, coffee mugs and even duvet covers. It reads very simply: ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Some things never go out of fashion. Compare that with the conflicting messaging coming out of the UK Government last week on possible petrol shortages even before a strike had been called.

The tanker driver issue has been bubbling on for over a year, so following classic crisis theory, Ministers should have known and been prepared. It's called 'horizon scanning'; an early warning system of problems ahead. There should also have been a unified management plan with agreed communication objectives, delivery system and of course, key messages.

What did we get? Crisis theorists talk of "prudent over-reaction", in layman's terms, act now to mitigate problems later. But as alway it is how you tell 'em. Prudency turned into panic buying, queues at the pumps, rationing and fuel up 10p a litre as forecourts had to buy more expensive fuel on the wholesale market and pay additional costs for extra deliveries. All just before the school holidays.

Was it really a key message to suggest filling up and maybe add a jerrycan or two (anyway, is that legal under HSE regs)? Then there was confusion over who was doing the key messaging as responsibility was split between the Cabinet Office, Department for Transport, and Department for Energy. Hardly a unified management plan and it is now clear there were fundamental inter-departmental disagreements on how the crisis should be managed. Belatedly, the PM has taken control.

Two years ago, Jonathan Powell, the chief of staff to the former Prime Minister Tony Blair, published a a book entitled The New Machiavelli, and it's worth looking at what he wrote about the fuel crisis of 2000. "The part of a Prime Minister's contract with the voters on which the electorate really expect them to deliver is crisis management. If they fail in that they lose support very quickly indeed."

All sorts of conspiracy theories have emerged during the last week: possbily that the crisis was fuelled to draw attention away from the cash for No. 10 dinners story; or even to stop opposition to VAT on takeaway pasties. What is evident is that Downing Street could do with some lessons in crisis PR (such as offered by LINK at the new management training facility in Central London).
LINK Associates International offers the privacy to practice crisis management and crisis communications in two purpose built multi-room management training facilities: Ivory House, London, and   Trent House, Derby.