adjective

• (of a politician) stating the official party line.

  ‘Clearly he should have consulted his political adviser and stayed on-message.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Despite their reputation for subversiveness, both Ant and Dec have a tendency to speak in the flavourless on-message soundbites of New Labour politicians.’
  • ‘Thus the CRE chief still thinks that the way to change public attitudes is through official re-education schemes (such as summer citizenship camps for lucky teenagers), and by giving grants to on-message projects.’
  • ‘They not only control who stands for them but when they are here, they have to be totally on-message.’
  • ‘The last thing this country needs is smiling, on-message, mealy-mouthed New Labour vs smiling, on-message, mealy-mouthed New Conservative.’
  • ‘These are visual-bite times when a man's suitability for a job can be measured by the extent of his facial hair, so the hair on your head has got to be on-message, not just hanging about hoping to muddle through somehow.’
  • ‘And on his emergence from Howard University Hospital yesterday, the flamboyant rapper managed to stay staggeringly on-message.’
  • ‘I discuss the possibility of having him liquidated with elements of the intelligence community who are on-message, but we reluctantly agree he would be more trouble dead than alive.’
  • ‘Benn speaks as he thinks and does not worry about being on-message or about the reactions of shadowy press officer figures lurking offstage.’
  • ‘Now that she is a backbencher and no longer has to be on-message, Harman is coming up with radical proposals to help women balance both their working lives and caring responsibilities.’
  • ‘If Howells is serious about being on-message, he'd better leave his nanny-state theories of film-making to those better informed than himself.’
  • ‘He has long been referred to as the ‘PC pc’ on account of his relentless, on-message polyversity-speak.’
  • ‘Your credibility is determined by how much you can push against other people's opinions while still staying on-message enough to be believed.’
  • ‘To be on-message dressing down is the norm while dressing up is for the hopelessly sad who are not relaxed enough to get in sync with New Labour's New Britain.’
  • ‘It is New Labour that has done so much to get members of its organisation on-message and on the same page, and members of the citizenry inside its Big Tent.’
  • ‘Your on-message diarist, on the other hand, has no doubt secured himself a place at the great junket, and should order the new tuxedo now.’
  • ‘But they're very worried about saying something that is not on-message, so they don't say anything.’
  • ‘Who says the Scottish Executive is not on-message for Labour London?’
  • ‘Demonstrators are asked to march alongside Gordon Brown, wearing white, and to stay on-message.’