Tom’s campaign blog #6: NOISE.

You know that feeling when you suddenly realise that the kitchen extractor fan has been left on since you finished cooking and then you turn it off and suddenly the atmosphere seems incredibly calm and soothing and down-right wonderful and even though you hadn’t actively ‘noticed’ that noise was there while the fan was on its new-found absence makes you feel like a twenty-tonne weight has been lifted off your shoulders? It’s nice isn’t it?

Anyway, as a man who likes a convoluted analogy, that’s my metaphor for using local media to help win a campaign. I’ll explain…

Last month, we launched an action asking our army of campaigners to write to their local and regional papers raising awareness of autism and the Push for Action campaign, using Susan Boyle’s recent announcement that she has Asperger syndrome as a handy news hook. Hundreds of you acted (thank you!), and as a result we’re now seeing hundreds of your letters in the papers, with more being spotted every day.

Each letter on its own is valuable. Maybe a few thousand people will see it, and a few hundred will read it properly. Some of those people are even likely to be local councillors, service directors or MPs. (We know from research that most MPs always read the letters pages of their local papers.)

But the action’s main effect, much like the extractor fan in my clunky and poorly-judged nimble and near-perfect analogy of four paragraphs ago, is to create that constant background ‘noise’ about autism and about the campaign. People might not even consciously know that its there, but trust us: it will be having the desired effect.

Back in 2011, we were campaigning hard against some of the proposed changes to Disability Living Allowance and launched a similar press action which also got excellent pick-up. A few days later, out of the blue, I got a phone call from a press officer at the Department of Work and Pensions. “We’ve been picking up a lot of local press on the issue of autism and DLA reform”, he explained. “Would you mind coming in to the office to talk to us about your concerns?” The ‘drip, drip’ of coverage we’d generated through these simple letters-to-editors, even though it was just in local papers with often tiny circulations, had reached the heart of Government on a crucial policy area.

When stories about autism are popping up everywhere, appearing in the papers, websites and Twitter feeds it creates the sense that the issue is current, urgent and relevant. And that makes it that much easier for campaigners like us to get the traction we’re after, be that in Whitehall or town halls. Members of the public are more likely to be supportive, MPs are more likely help out, and the Government is more likely to listen.

So, please keep sending those letters. You can be the extractor fan to the Department of Health's kitchen. Or something.

Tom Madders,
Head of Campaigns