Taylor Swift isn't the first person you think of when pondering the Labour Party. But during a heated debate about the merits of Swift versus Beyonce this week, the only consensus was Swift is a canny businesswoman.
She is adaptable, moving from country to the mass audience afforded by pop music. She assiduously protects her brand and self-image. She uses her influence carefully so that when Swift speaks, people listen. She stared down criticism that she was a sell-out. And as a result she is wildly popular and loaded to boot.
Every single one of those skills is important for a political party. Labour this week felt the growing pains of trying to make the same shift from niche support base to the wider appeal it will need to get near government. Its timing was spot on. It dropped its real estate figures during the sleepiest time of the political calendar, a recess week.
The Prime Minister was overseas. It is a news dead zone, as evidenced every year by the remarkable discovery winter is cold and sometimes it even snows and people get colds and flu. Until the New Horizons space probe started sending photos from its holiday to Pluto and Iran reached an agreement on nuclear disarmament, Labour's story on property buyers with Chinese-sounding surnames was the only show in town.
Cue cries of racism. Cue return cries from Labour's leader Andrew Little that race should not be such a sacred cow that serious issues are ignored. The peril in Labour's approach is that it is now in the same position as the United States when it swore Iraq was crawling with weapons of mass destruction by way of justifying its decision to attack, despite a lack of compelling evidence.
