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Use media to engage voters - PM I wish I had kept a diary - Blair
(about 6 hours later)
Politicians need to use different media to engage voters on issues, Prime Minister Tony Blair has said in a podcast recorded at Downing Street. Tony Blair has said he regrets not keeping a diary, in a podcast interview with actor Stephen Fry.
He said the role of 24-hour news channels had put "an enormous stress and strain on the way that the public debate politically happens". Mr Blair is likely to be offered millions for his memoirs when he leaves Downing Street later this year.
Mr Blair said young people needed to be engaged by issues they were interested in, such as technology careers. But publishers will not be able to draw on a detailed record of his private thoughts during his 10 years in power, the prime minister has revealed.
He described a "kind of fragmentation" prompting a change in politics. The diary kept by his ex media chief Alastair Campbell has long been the subject of speculation at Westminster.
'Competitive media' Extracts were read out during 2004's Hutton Inquiry, but the ex-spin doctor has said he will not publish it until Mr Blair leaves Downing Street.
Interviewed by actor Stephen Fry, the prime minister said: "The most difficult thing in fact...is that there is this interaction between politics and the media today that is very difficult because the media is highly, highly competitive." Mr Campbell insisted it was not intended for publication, despite claims it would command a hefty advance from publishers.
Asked whether he wrote a diary, Mr Blair responded: "No, I don't."
Mr Fry pointed out that Mr Blair at least has a record of his working life in his official diary to help him when writing his memoirs, and he replied: "I know, but I often wish I had the discipline to keep one."
Computers
Mr Blair said he had not given much thought to what he would do when he leaves office. "The trouble is, when you are doing the job you are so much in it ... you don't have time really to think ahead," he said. "But as the time approaches I will have to, so I will," he said in the podcast on the Downing Street website.
He also revealed he did not carry a laptop computer in his ministerial red box, unlike his Cabinet colleagues.
Mr Blair said he expected to "devote a lot of time" learning about computers when he leaves Number Ten.
But despite his self-confessed technophobia, he urged politicians to use new media to reach out more to voters.
He also spoke of the difficulty of conducting "meaningful policy debate" in a highly-competitive media market place.
'Impact'
"The most difficult thing in fact...is that there is this interaction between politics and the media today that is very difficult because the media is highly, highly competitive," said Mr Blair.
While he said he was not criticising the media, he said it "works by impact ... and the biggest impact will come from scandal or controversy or pictures that make a visible impact."While he said he was not criticising the media, he said it "works by impact ... and the biggest impact will come from scandal or controversy or pictures that make a visible impact."
He said it was difficult to have a "reasoned policy debate" unless it was communicated in "sufficiently newsworthy terms" for press and television.He said it was difficult to have a "reasoned policy debate" unless it was communicated in "sufficiently newsworthy terms" for press and television.
He said politicians needed to accept that not every person was interested in the same subjects - "therefore you have got to tailor the manner of your debate".He said politicians needed to accept that not every person was interested in the same subjects - "therefore you have got to tailor the manner of your debate".
'Fragmentation''Fragmentation'
"If you take a young person and their political interest today, there is no point, in my view, in the Labour Party or the Conservative Party, any political party, engaging those young people at the level of thinking that they are as interested, for example, in National Health Service reform, which people tend to get to somewhat late in life.""If you take a young person and their political interest today, there is no point, in my view, in the Labour Party or the Conservative Party, any political party, engaging those young people at the level of thinking that they are as interested, for example, in National Health Service reform, which people tend to get to somewhat late in life."
He said young people would more likely be interested in the environment or Africa, "or, you know, career opportunities in new technology industries which is something that they will have a particular fascination for.He said young people would more likely be interested in the environment or Africa, "or, you know, career opportunities in new technology industries which is something that they will have a particular fascination for.
"And therefore this fragmentation is meaning that the world of politics has to operate with different mediums and different points in time.""And therefore this fragmentation is meaning that the world of politics has to operate with different mediums and different points in time."
During the interview, he also said he did not keep a diary, and his red box does not contain a laptop - unlike his Cabinet colleagues' boxes.
Mr Blair said he expected to "devote a lot of time" learning about computers when he leaves Number Ten.