How not to make an argument

I doubt we were the only PR people that watched askance as Katie Hopkins, already of dubious public image, crucified her reputation live on This Morning last week.

Hopkins, who first achieved notoriety in 2007 after appearing in BBC reality TV series, The Apprentice, was on This Morning’s sofa to discuss children’s’ names. What with the royal baby fast approaching, this is a hot topic and one that Katie has some outrageous and unfounded opinions on.

Over the duration of the segment, Katie denounced a number of children’s names. She said they were implicit of the parents’ lower socio-economic status (and therefore poor attitude to education and discipline) and that she would try and keep her children away from any child bearing them.

The appalling ignorance of Katie’s ramblings and the numerous counter-points to them, have by now been well documented in the media. What I found equally shocking about her appearance was the lack of preparation in her argument and her method of conduction, which riled the audience and This Morning’s usually unflappable presenters.

From the interview’s outset, Katie adopts a mode of speech that assumes everyone else in the discussion is of the same opinion as her. Her lack of preparation is then made laughably apparent when it becomes clear that this is not the case. She has no discernable evidence for her assertions- any statistics identifying a correlation between names and criminality etc. and in consequence is left just sharing opinions that are easily bulldozed.

She shortens Holly Willoughby’s name to ‘Hols’ – a gesture at best over-familiar, at worst patronising and goes on, much to Phillip Schofield’s dismay, to attribute her own opinions to the presenter through the baffling over-use of ‘we’ and ‘our’.

Now I’m prepared to admit that Katie has made a living out of being controversial. Perhaps she feels she does not need to prepare an argument, that it is suffienent to turn up, make assertions in an abrasive manner and watch the media storm unfurl. Even so, I cannot see this as a long-term career strategy. Any flash-in-the pan celebrity can be hired to say something, far fewer to say something intelligent.

My advice to Katie would be… If you want a career in social commentary, found your case on fact not opinion, respond to counter-arguments with more than just reassertions and respect the intelligence of your opponents. 

By Polly Robinson