Thursday, October 11, 2007

Shadow Cabinet Media Tarts for September

Each month I track the number of media mentions for each member of the Shadow Cabinet through Lexis Nexis with the help of Julian Nicholson. Obviously you cannot judge the performance of someone purely on the number of press mentions they get, but it is an increasingly big part of any politician's job.

* Highest climbers are David Mundell and Michael Gove
* The biggest drops are Eric Pickles and Theresa Villiers

September Media Tarts
1 David Cameron 2527
2 +2 George Osborne 355
3 - William Hague 225
4 -2 David Davis 162
5 +5 Peter Ainsworth 119
6 - Liam Fox 98
7 +5 Caroline Spelman 79
8 +9 Michael Gove 70
9 - Chris Grayling 68
10 -5 Andrew Lansley 57
11 -3 Nick Herbert 49
12 -1 Philip Hammond 47
13 +6 Jeremy Hunt 41
14 -1 Andrew Mitchell 33
15 +10 David Mundell 31
16 -2 Alan Duncan 30
17 +2 Oliver Letwin 29
18 -11 Eric Pickles 28
19 -3 Grant Shapps 19
20 +4 Francis Maude 16
21 - David Willetts 14
22 -8 Theresa Villiers 12
23= -5 Sayeeda Warsi 11
23= +4 Theresa May 11
23= +5 Dame Pauline Neville-Jones 11
26 - Partick McLoughlin 4
27 +1 Lord Strathclyde 3
28 -7 Cheryl Gillan 2
29 -6 Owen Paterson 1
30= - David Lidington 0
30= - Baroness Anelay of St Johns 0
- Sir Menzies Campbell 701
- Nick Clegg 255
- Chris Huhne 201
- Vincent Cable 152

11 comments:

Ted Foan said...

I hate lists. Pointless. Don't add to our sum of knowledge.

Just stop them now and move on.

Hope you had a good bash at your UEA do, Iain. (Don't answer that!)

Anonymous said...

I don't understand Sayeeda Warsi was all over the news but your list says she only got 11 mentions

James Higham said...

Iain, only you can run something like this. Quite amusing here although those garnering top mentions are predictable, really.

Chris Paul said...

Those Lib Dems are getting a lot of mentions aren't they? Compared to Tory big beasts? Depends whether they are saying X must go, Y torched two scientific greenhouses, Z has a personalised number plate and a J is a dead ringer for Uriah Heep.

Anonymous said...

Who really cares about these lists ??
Most of these people have arrived in high salaried jobs by default and not because of their skills...

So it's worthless

Anonymous said...

These figures matter because they demonstrate that some of the shadow cabinet aren't pulling their weight. If tories are to maintain their momentum vis a vis the bottler they need to attack, attack and attack some more; on every front and at every opportunity. Imagining that your job is merely one as policy wonk or civil servant in waiting isn't good enough.

If these people aren't known by the public, at least those who care, then they are actually a liability through reinforcing the perception that tories are remote, uncaring and anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Re Warsi - Are you lexis-nexising all possibilities, ie "Sayeeda Warsi" and "Baroness Warsi";

And poor Owen tends to languish at the bottom of these lists. Ulster may be less newsworthy nowadays, but are you spelling his name correctly? It is Paterson with one T, whereas you list it as Patterson...

Anonymous said...

As a member of the public, I am interested in this list, because there are too many on it that I haven't heard of.Anonymous 9.26 is being a little harsh, as this "call to arms" has only been realistic since the Tory Conference, after a dreadful few weeks in the polls. I look forward to hearing more new policies,more new voices, and hope the attacks are not too vituperative - it's a big turn-off to read and hear some of the insults that people make.

Anonymous said...

Talking of "media tarts" let's not forget self-styled "cheeky chappie" Alan Johnson.

The papers today are full of shocking stories from Kent hospitals about the hundreds of patients who have died from hospital superbugs.

Alan Johnson is the Health Minister isn't he? The papers are blaming government targets for their failure to keep the hospitals clean.

SO WHY HASN'T ALAN JOHNSON BEEN SACKED FOR INCOMPETENCE AND FOR TAKING HIS EYE OFF THE BALL.

Perhaps our friend Alan has been too busy stirring it up against the PM to do his job properly?

Anonymous said...

Iain, I once wrote to Gove asking for a publicity photo (as the ones on Timesonline look silly) and had no reply. He has attracted some very negative comments on this blog and I wonder how much of this is down to image or experience? I've seen him in debate and he was very impressive and looked perfectly fine. How much of politics nowadays do you think is down to image?

I've read that handsome felons get shorter criminal sentences. Do we vote for an image and would politics be better off without visual media coverage?

Anonymous said...

Another week, another pointless and self-defeating slur against David Lidington. So David has had NO media coverage in the past month, has he?

Presumably I imagined this in today's Bucks Herald:


A new initiative to reduce the cost of off-peak public transport passes for eligible Aylesbury residents was officially launched last week.

David Lidington MP launched the new deal last Friday which can offer up to 50 per cent off public transport for bus pass holders.

Aylesbury residents who do not own a motor vehicle and cannot get access to one, will be the eligible group who can receive a Chiltern 'gold' permit, which will allow them to travel on Chiltern Railways and use the bus service, with a 50 per cent discount.