Borkowski Media Trends: King Charles Portrait Protest & Sunak's Mistakes

This week features Mark's thoughts on Sunak's blunders first featured in The Telegraph

Wallace take the crown

A spate of art-related protests have made headlines in recent years, perhaps most notably in two separate Just Stop Oil incidents at the National Gallery, which were later echoed on the continent when soup was thrown at the Mona Lisa. It was inevitable then that the same fate would befall the official portrait of King Charles, unveiled to much fanfare, if middling reviews, earlier this year.

This latest action, by comparison relatively mild and tongue-in-cheek, saw protesters from the group Animal Rising paste a picture of Wallace from Wallace & Gromit over the King's head, accompanied by a message drawing attention to the welfare standards on RSPCA farms. The painting, protected by glass, was unharmed and, unlike the incidents at the National Gallery, no arrests were made.

Invariably, these acts serve to rile up the internet and turn the Twitter commentariat against the cause they seek to promote. This is particularly true of Just Stop Oil, whose tactics are met with repeated and arguably warranted backlash. Their message is also now largely familiar to the general public, and the shock of their actions has perhaps worn off. But for groups like Animal Rising, who exist without the constant attention afforded to JSO, this can only be marked down as a success – they might not have made any converts but, frankly, no one was thinking about RSPCA welfare standards before this week. 

And given Charles' own well-documented support for often obscure environmental and agricultural causes, who is to say he wouldn't have approved?

Sky no limit for Sunak’s gaffs

We're almost halfway through this election cycle, and Sunak and Starmer are showing just how hard it is for two unnatural communicators to be at the centre of the public's attention. Starmer is undeniably no stranger to gaffs, and one of his more amusing ones came during a Beth Rigby live interview. During the audience question segment, a member of the public called him a 'robot', and he visibly appeared to malfunction, failing to answer the question before the audience burst out in laughter. But fortunately for Starmer, it's our current PM who is stealing the limelight.

When asked about his relatability, Rishi was quizzed on his childhood sacrifices - relevant to a cost of living crisis that's underpinned his time in office. Scrambling to summon an answer, he revealed going without Sky was his major sacrifice.

Rishi has made a trend of failing to connect with his audience. The public is broadly sympathetic to a leader's occasional mistake, assuming it's been managed correctly. People will cut politicians slack or, more accurately, forget the odd error. But Sunak has made these mistakes a habit, and the symbolism has made it hard to ignore. Whether it's drenched outside No.10 when he announced the election or angering veterans at the D-Day memorial, he's a man who can't seem to get things right. Sunak needs more sound advice and probably needs to switch up his advisors.

Sunak's privelege should be something his comms team has prepared him for, but this recent attempt to evoke empathy has merely highlighted a disconnect from the struggles of ordinary people. And of course, it is dynamite for social media, mocking his response and his lack of authenticity.

It is a masterclass in how not to conduct comms, and it is truly a missed opportunity for the Tory party to spotlight Starmer's mistakes. Fortunately for the soon-to-be leader, when your opposition is so desperately out of touch, it takes off all the pressure. It becomes an exercise of minimising blunders or committing one less than the other guy.