Another fascinating read about the history of government communication.
Unreadable graphs. Always the best thing to stick in an end-paper.
The book was a big surprise to me, I'm a bit of an enthusiast for the graphic style of wartime posters so it hadn't occured to me that most of them didn't work and the Ministry of Information - for most of the war - didn't really know what they were doing. They mostly felt that all they could do to improve morale was "hope that by some miracle we could win a few battles."
"A government department is an organism, not a machine...If I were called upon to create a Ministry, I should select a man, give him an office and a cheque-book and tell him to hire others as the need for them arose."
The Collecting Division - brilliant name. Sounds a bit Dr Who.
Half of you thinks - for gawd's sake what kind of way is this to prepare people for air-raids? And half of you thinks - Lady Grigg's advice is probably as good as any other.
You see, for example, this poster, was universally panned. And when you think about it, you can see why.
Briefs haven't changed. Too much! It's just a poster.
Nor yet the professionals, no understanding of the people they're talking to.
This was another fascinating theme.
Over time it seemed to become clear to the Ministry that they couldn't brow beat and lecture the population into better morale, what they had to do was tell the truth - as much as possible. And give them something positive to fight for. The problem being that the government hadn't really stated any. Just, you know, beat the germans.
As you can see from below, the Ministry devoted a considerable amount of energy to getting some kind of postitive statement about post-war expectations...
And then, suddenly, Beveridge pops out. Almost accidentally, as a propaganda tactic rather than anything else. Interesting.
And, finally, another episode that sums up the themes. The Ministry clearly suspects that it can only really rely on "the propaganda of events" but is persuaded to run another ponderous, well-intentioned, ill-informed campaign.
It did not go down well. The Mass Observation observers hated it.
