Walking the dog and braving the paps: the art of the doorstep photo, from Keane to Mandelson
For a man at the centre of a storm that has rocked the political establishment, Peter Mandelson has spent the week looking remarkably relaxed.Day after day, as MPs have grilled civil servants over who knew what when about the former US ambassador’s security vetting, and police continue to investigate serious allegations over his own conduct, Mandelson has stepped out of his Regent’s Park mansion and pottered across the road to take his dog for a walk.Smart-casually dressed in jeans and a jumper and holding in front of him a plastic ball-thrower, he has set off for the park like a weekending solicitor on his way to an egg and spoon race.There have been occasional small smiles for the photographers at his gate, but no comment.The message appears to be: I am insouciant, normal.
Not in prison,Dogs need to be walked, and Jock, Mandelson’s 10-year-old brown and white border collie, is no exception,But the former ambassador could easily have chosen to stay with a friend, or hopped in his car to walk the dog in a different park, or done a Fergie and gone to ground entirely,But “Mandelson’s past record is not to hide away after big setbacks,” says his biographer, Donald Macintyre,“I think his temperament is, ‘I’m bloody well gonna go out there and show them I’m still alive.
’ And so here he is, at his highly conspicuous central London pile, in easy reach of every photo agency in the capital.”As the man often described as a master of political spin knows well, while you may have nothing to say on the record, the post-disgrace doorstep photo says plenty all by itself.Should you find yourself with a scrum of photographers at your door, you can slump down in your seat in the hope they can’t see you, like Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor; engage your wife in an overenthusiastic snog to attest to the health of your marriage, like Dominic West; or walk off with a paper bag over your head, like Shia LaBeouf.But whatever you do – even hiding inside with the curtains drawn – will be judged.“The doorstep photo has become a strange modern ritual when someone’s life is falling apart,” says Lauren Beeching, a PR adviser who specialises in crisis management.
“It becomes a test and the public is marking it, whether they realise it or not.Walk too fast, you look guilty; walk too slowly, you look arrogant; smile, you don’t care; don’t smile, you’re broken.There’s almost no version of leaving your own front door that the public won’t read something into.”Walking your dog, in this context, can be a tight-lipped skulk behind dark glasses, as when the sacked Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills was recently spotted “looking downcast” with his husband and cavapoo.Or, it can illustrate your defiant nonchalance, as Roy Keane seemed eager to convey with his daily walks with his labrador Triggs after being sent home from the World Cup in 2002.
Emerging in your running gear, similarly, can be viewed less as a burst of activity and more an attempt to run away from accountability, as David Cameron and Matt Hancock have discovered.For a rash of Tory politicians caught with their pants down in the 90s, a doorstep press scrum often meant a posed photograph alongside their grimly smiling wife and children – the heritage secretary David Mellor even persuaded his inlaws to join in after his relationship with Antonia de Sancha was exposed in 1992.His marriage ended shortly afterwards.More recently, the actor Dominic West, after being photographed kissing a co-star, posed for doorstep photos kissing his wife, Catherine, before (unconventionally) handing out a note reading: “Our marriage is strong and we are very much still together”.If you say so.
Some observers were focused on the balled-up tissue in her right hand while her left, with ring finger, stayed firmly in her pocket.Doorstep appearances may be used as attempts to charm and disarm – like Boris Johnson offering cups of tea to reporters more interested in asking him questions.Or they can convey contempt – Vogue suggested that Dominic Cummings’s fashion choices when facing paparazzi outside his home created the impression “he’d been doing acid with shepherds”, describing them as “a masterclass in eff-off dressing”.In Mandelson’s case, the thinking behind his appearances may be very strategic, argues Andrew Chadwick, a professor of political communication at Loughborough University.“The first thing that came to mind for me was, ‘flood the channel’,” he says, meaning provide lots of new, sunny action shots and squeeze out less flattering recent photos.
“He knows that journalists need images, and he knows how to convey that sense of defiance, freedom, ‘there’s nothing going on here’,”
‘It’s iconic worldwide – it’s special to skateboard there’: the South Bank skatepark turns 50
The undercroft at London’s Southbank Centre has been a haven for skateboarders since the 1970s. Now a new exhibition is celebrating its contribution to culture – and communityShane O’Brien first skated at London’s Southbank Centre in the summer of 1975, at the age of 10. But before he could call himself a “Southbanker”, a regular of the famous spot, he had to face a certain ritual. In 1983 he was launched into the Thames by senior skaters and could finally consider himself one of the crew. Now in his 60s, O’Brien calls the South Bank his second home
Seth Meyers on Kash Patel: ‘He has resting “run for your lives” face’
Late-night hosts dug into the allegations of FBI director Kash Patel’s excessive drinking, Donald Trump’s Iran war struggles and some questionable math by RFK Jr.On Wednesday evening, Seth Meyers relished more details from a shocking Atlantic report from this weekend detailing alleged excessive drinking and erratic behavior by the FBI director, Kash Patel. According to more than two dozen current and former FBI officials, Patel was known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication, and many people expected him to be fired for his unreachability and impulsivity.“Generally speaking, you don’t want to hear that the country’s top law enforcement official is known for having freak-outs, you know?” the Late Night host said. “When you’re the head of the FBI, you’re supposed to be calm and level-headed
Post your questions for Melanie C
Some former girl- and boyband stars spend a lifetime trying to escape the image that made them famous. Not Melanie C. Since the Spice Girls debuted 30 years ago this summer (What’s that sound? Oh, it’s just the unadulterated violence of mortality) she has never shied away from her past as Sporty Spice. Her ninth album, Sweat, leans firmly into it. Led by its gauntlet-throwing title track, these are work-bitch bangers for the gym, the dancefloor – inspired by her pre-Spice raving youth – and quite possibly the bedroom, sung by a triathlon fiend who forged a reputation as a world-renowned DJ
Make universal access to culture a priority | Letters
A V&A everywhere. It’s not such a silly idea (Editorial, 17 April). Labour’s postwar conviction that good things should be available for everyone led to the founding not only of the Arts Council but also the NHS. Universal basic healthcare: a good idea, right? What about universal basic culture?I can see a new era of cities thriving with agency to imagine and create the conditions in which more inclusive, diverse, devolved, responsive and self-driving culture emerges – regardless of income. The UK can be a global creative powerhouse
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s Iran negotiations: ‘His word is as good as the gold commode he sits on’
Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s indefinite extension of the Iran ceasefire as his cabinet fumbles negotiations over the unpopular war.“The White House is not a fun place to be right now,” said Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday evening. “The strait of Hormuz is like a Toys ‘R’ Us - nobody has any idea if it’s still open or not.”A Trump-imposed ceasefire between the US and Iran was scheduled to end on Wednesday night, and on Monday, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would extend it. “He said if a deal wasn’t reached, Iran was going to be bombed like Kash Patel at the Poodle Room in Vegas,” Kimmel quipped, referring to a bombshell report from the Atlantic on the FBI director’s alleged excessive drinking and unexplained absences
Vanessa’s a pillar of the hiking community | Brief letters
Your report (Campaigners seek listed status for historic trig points that mapped Britain, 16 April) didn’t mention the Vanessa trig point – Vanessa being a corruption of the Venesta company, which made cardboard tubes into which the concrete for the pillars was poured. These were designed for less accessible places, mostly in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I was never less than half exhausted when I met one.Margaret SquiresSt Andrews, FifeThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
US justice department drops criminal investigation against Jerome Powell
UK eases airline penalties as jet fuel shortages threaten flights
TikTok and Visa launch debit card to speed payouts to UK creators
Officials hugely underestimated impact of AI datacentres on UK carbon emissions
Surrey v Essex, Kent v Worcestershire, and more: county cricket, day two – live
NBA’s Rwanda ties face scrutiny after sanctions-linked BAL withdrawal