Dead Cat Strategy

Yesterday, Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, was interviewed. She was justifying the sacking of Henry Staunton, the chairman of the Post Office, discussing the difficulties the Post Office is having.

One of the sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted in the Horizon scandal was asked if it would make any difference. She said that the government were employing a ‘Dead Cat Strategy’.

Boris Johnson is credited with referring to ‘Dead Cat Strategy’ when he was Mayor of London – claiming that its origin is Australian.

The notion is that, when there’s an important issue to be discussed someone comes in and throws a dead cat on the dining room table. Everyone then talks about the dead cat, and not the issue that ought to be talked about.

Dead Cat Strategy is about causing a deliberate distraction.

When I was a teacher, collecting in homework, there were children who were skilled in telling stories about cute but destructive pets, younger sisters experimenting with scissors, exciting unavoidable birthday parties, unpredictable unfavourable weather conditions…

I experienced excellent creative inventiveness – but all was ‘Dead Cat Strategy’.

In recent years I’ve got to know friends who are dependent on alcohol. We talk about the problem: how to develop better habits, make better choices, keep the resolution that has been made and broken so many times.

Often the real problem is the broken relationship, memories of a past trauma, long-standing family or financial crises, personal fears, insecurities or failures. The alcohol is the distraction, the ‘Dead Cat’.

In church yesterday Lou was talking about Jonah and the big fish. It’s easy to get caught up in discussions about prevailing weather conditions, maritime adventures, survival skills, fish species, diet, anatomy and digestive juices, truth and fable… ‘Dead Cats’…

It’s about a man relating to his God… hearing, avoiding, deliberately doing the opposite, getting into difficulties, discovering how to pray, being given a second chance, living with disappointment…

…not missing the point because of the homework excuses, alcohol distractions, living fish or dead cats.