A common ploy for companies selling
confectionery, foodstuffs, soap powder and so forth whose brand is looking
tired or whose sales are flagging is to make some minor changes to the product
and then put a big bold sticker saying “New Improved” on the packaging. As Theresa May is finding out, it doesn’t
always work, particularly if “new and improved” means that there is no
discernible change to the product, and especially if it doesn’t do what it says
on the tin. Fortunately for her (?), politicians
aren’t subject to the Trade Descriptions Act.
One thing of which we can be certain is that
‘the deal’ hasn’t changed at all – that would require agreement by the EU27,
and no such agreement has even been sought, let alone received. She claims that she has ‘compromised’ by
extending the temporary customs union until the next General Election. That’s as close to the truth as anything she
says, but insofar as it’s a compromise, it’s being made with reality, not with
her opponents. No-one has ever believed
that negotiations on a future trade arrangement could be completed within the
transition period anyway. And it’s only
a partial compromise even then – no-one seriously believes that they would be
completed by the next General Election either.
A convincing salesperson might just have persuaded people that this
really and truly is a new product, but no company serious about a rebrand would
use someone like the PM to try and sell it.
Another thing that often happens when
companies try the “new improved” approach is that the customers protest and
demand a return to the old recipe.
Still, that’s at least one thing which the PM doesn’t need to worry about.
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1 comment:
A good post.
I think that the red lines she made were lost by the time the ink was dry, as she forgot the basic rule of any negotiation – Control the timing and the agenda.
On your observation on Leader. Manager and Boss, totally agree – been there done that.
She was a classic boss who got people to do things for her by fear and intimidation, which indicates most times I have observed this, as a deep lack of confidence in themselves, hence the reputation she cultivated of “being a bloody difficult woman to deal with”. She had another problem that she was not a “lucky manager” in that she failed to spot, recruit good people around her, as we saw in the 2016 election.
Finally, my valet reports that below stairs in the servant’s hall, she is attracting the “poor mare” sympathy vote, but above stairs I am of the same mind as yourself, she stood for the job and was found out.
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