You’d imagine that the first rule of a Strategic Communications Unit would be to not talk about the Strategic Communications Unit.
However, the body responsible for making our government look as good as possible has spent its whole life under intense scrutiny since it was founded by Leo Varadkar after he became Taoiseach in 2017. Today, the Dáil voted 85-49 to disband the SCU — but Varadkar has made it clear that he doesn’t plan to be bound by the Dáil’s decision.
Which might be just as well.
In a political climate where many are worried that their private data is being used against them, and that our values and wills are being manipulated by high-tech éminences grises, it is somewhat comforting to know that our own government is trundling along with a Strategic Communications Unit that puts the SCU in “SCUppering our own plans.”
Let’s look at the many great successes of the Strategic Communications Unit, shall we?
Well, on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, as the Irish rugby team geared up to smack England in their own backyard to claim a Grand Slam in the Six Nations, the Taoiseach wished our boys luck using an Ivory Coast flag emoji — the kind of thing you might expect from an 18-year-old pop star who just got told 20 minutes ago that she’d be playing in the Aviva later tonight.
There’s been a phenomenal response to our #ThisIsIreland video. More than 3.2million views so far. #HappyStPatricksDay ☘️ to everyone around the world and #COYBIG in #Twickenham !! 🏈🇨🇮 #IREvENG https://t.co/XOshGP9cRE
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 17, 2018
Some have speculated that they’re the ones behind Leo’s brief “funny sock” phase — something lifted directly from the playbook of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has shown a whole lot more commitment to the gambit, let’s be honest.
He doesn’t tweet that often, but he routinely tags the wrong people in his tweets — including Oh My God What A Complete Aisling co-author Emer McLysaght, and Fine Gael TD Noel Rock.
Congratulations @Noel Rock. Conference birthday boy 🎂
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) November 11, 2017
Whoops, wrong Emer, that should have been @EmerTheScreamer
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) February 26, 2018
There was that abominably thin pancake on Pancake Tuesday. I mean COME ON. Five million on a Strategic Communications Unit and you can’t spare a few bob on somebody to make you a proper pancake? Taoiseach, Taoiseach, Taoiseach, what are we going to do with you?
Pancakes on sale in the Dail canteen today pic.twitter.com/cq5LAekn0C
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 4, 2014
And the piece de resistance has, of course, been the €1.5 million “advertorial” blunder, where it came to light that the government had used vast sums of taxpayer money to pay for positive spin on the Ireland 2040 plan in several major media outlets.
And let’s not mince words here — “advertorial” is nothing more than misnomer. A portmanteau of the words advertisement and editorial, there can be no truly independent editorial element to an advertisement that has been paid for by the government with €1.5 million of the public’s money. It’s nothing more than an ad in the shape of an article. The companies responsible were paid to forfeit editorial control in order to make our government look good. And worst of all, it completely backfired, meaning every penny of the public’s millions was spent on so much of tomorrow’s fish and chip paper.
This week, Varadkar sought to defend the SCU in the Dáil after his political opponents called for the unit to be scrapped. In his defence, he claimed that the SCU actually has no input into his own social media activity.
Whether that’s true or not, one would wonder what kind of multi-million euro communications unit (let alone a strategic one) would sit idly by as the Taoiseach continues to, and I’ll try not to put this too harshly, make some very basic mistakes on social media.
In the Dáil, Varadkar characterised his approach towards communicating with the public as “More personal, more present and more modern” — it begs the question of what world is Leo living in? Varadkar’s social media accounts have all the swagger of an aunty who spends her time online sharing Minion memes and missing persons alerts for people who were found two weeks ago.
Fumbling around with emojis and posting videos on Twitter doesn’t make you “modern” any more than finding yourself somehow trapped beneath a bicycle makes you Bradley Wiggins.
On that note, the SCU also clearly has no input into the online activity of any ministers — such as Minister for Sport Shane Ross, who last week mistook Irish rugby star Rob Kearney as his brother Dave Kearney when sharing a picture of himself standing right next to Rob Kearney.
Even today, Minister Ross accepted that he has sent some “pretty irresponsible” tweets in his time — specifically referring to his tweet about the awarding of a major grant to South Dublin private school Wesley College in order to resurface the school’s hockey pitch.
Between the whistleblower affair which saw Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald resign (and also forced an apology from Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan), John Halligan’s plans to mediate in North Korea, and repeated online mishaps of Shane Ross and Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach’s cabinet is good for more gaffs than your mate whose parents are never home.
Varadkar has lambasted criticisms of the SCU as “innuendo” and “conspiracy theories.” Honestly, he wishes. These guys could only aspire to those kind of deep state shenanigans in their wildest West Wing dreams. I mean, their first mistake was announcing to the entire world that they were setting up a propaganda unit. I’m no expert, but it seems to me that if your stated goal is to make something look better than its own bare facts can, then the way you present information from that point onwards is going to be deservedly questioned at every turn, and your results will be tainted by the lingering question over whether the government’s achievements are spin or substance.
1/2 While packing for US trip, I got thinking about all the talk about spin v substance. So here’s what Govt & I did this week:
(1) Committed extra funds for Storm Emma road repairs after agencies helped get country back working
(2) Legislation for Repeal of 8th now in Dail— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 10, 2018
2/2 (3) Dail approval to ratify UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities
(4) High level talks with Pres. Tusk, PM Bettel, Cssr Oettinger & OECD
(5) Technological Universities Act finally passed
(6) Opened Policy Debate on internet safetyJust sayin’
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 10, 2018
That very battle was one that the Taoiseach himself tried to tackle (on Twitter, no less) in a rather grumpy tweet that came after the Ireland 2040 “advertorials” had been exposed.
But the passive aggressiveness behind Leo’s “spin vs substance” snipe is nothing short of befuddling seeing as he’s the one who, you know, ESTABLISHED the spin unit in the first place. You can make your government about substance or about spin, but if you choose spin and it backfires don’t be surprised if your sudden appeals to substance start to ring hollow.
Leo capped it off with a kicky “Just sayin’.” Kind of a “nuff said” mic-drop moment aimed at the haters. But again… if he really feels like that list is sufficient, then what is the purpose of a department whose main task is to do things like pay supposedly independent newspapers to provide favourable coverage in the first place?
If you’re the one who sets up a Smoke and Mirrors Unit, it’s nobody’s fault but your own if the public squint a bit harder than usual to make sure everything is as you say it is — especially in this era of fake news, shameless political lies and rampant disinformation campaigns.
Today, the Dáil has done its utmost to rid us of the SCU — but it’s almost certainly a case of the Strategic Communications Unit is dead, long live the Strategic Communications Unit. And in a world full of tricksters, maybe it’s for the best that our government tells us to our face that they’re trying to trick us… and that they’re really bad at it anyway.
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