There’s only one thing slicker than David Cameron

April 30th, 2010
cameron

I feel like everyone has been so all consumed with the elections recently that we’ve completely neglected the rest of the world’s news!

It’s been so easy to get swept up with this year’s general election, we can watch the live debates on our televisions, follow it on Twitter and Facebook and it seems that the constant rolling news has been never-ending, with  ‘bigotgate’ and the out of the blue sensation that is Nick Clegg (he’s the Susan Boyle of British politics but with better coiffed eyebrows) it has been a rollercoaster ride of excitement from start to finish… which makes a change for a British election!

Today, I opened the papers to a very disturbing story which tore me away from the repetition of election stories. An oil spill so large that it’s visible from space is creeping it’s way towards the Gulf of Mexico, a  catastrophic  event that will cost BP millions of dollars and devastate the coastline and wildlife of America.

I first heard about this story as an explosion on an oil rig.. shocking and terrible, but how did BP manage to keep the fact there were three holes in the pipe pumping oil into the ocean quiet?

Governor Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency and asked for federal funds to deploy 6,000 National Guard soldiers to help with the clean-up and although  President Obama has offered the assistance of an array of government agencies, including the military, he has noted that, under federal law, “BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and cleanup operations.”

Obviously this poses questions, amongst others: how will  BP recover their reputation? How will this affect industries and wildlife in America and worldwide? But the thing that I’m most wondering about is: how has this not been front page news from the moment it happened?

The election is obviously big news too but it sometimes feels like in our culture of rolling news it’s just easier to fill the pages and hours with ‘stories’ provided by the PR teams of the three men vying to be prime minister, than to go out and dig for them.

The British press are amongst the best in the world and I can’t help feeling that if they hadn’t all been suffering election fever BP might not have been able to keep this whole disaster quiet for quite so long.

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Leadership Debate or Pub…you choose

April 23rd, 2010
party leaders

I settled down last night with a bowl of popcorn, glass of wine and the twitter search on #leadersdebate to watch the second of the leaders debates on BBC News along with 4.1 million others. Not everyone stuck around from last week though; there were 9.4 million of us watching when ITV aired the first televised debate.

The first debate had me edging closer to the telly, silencing anyone who dared speak and not being able to tear myself away even to eat! This debate however just didn’t seem to have the same impact for me. I’d already experienced the ‘first ever’  aspect of the debates, heard the little jibes and witnessed David Cameron’s impressive use of make-up!

It is clear that the televised debate has struck a chord with the British public and pushed the UK electoral system in a completely new direction, but the drop in viewing figures outlined on today’s media guardian had me questioning the reasons for such a fall in viewers. We all enjoyed the gladiatorial thrashings of each of the candidates in the first round of debates, but couldn’t be bothered to switch from the football for a second round!

A point of interest for me last night however was the disagreement between the parties about the affects of a hung parliament, with Clegg being the only one to calmly point out that, “The world won’t end. We’ll talk to each other to provide the good government, the sound government, that you deserve….You deserve a government where we put your interests first and don’t allow everything, constantly, to be hijacked by political pointscoring.”  Well said Mr Clegg and maybe it wouldn’t actually be such a bad thing to happen.

As far as keeping the attention of the general public goes, maybe it’s true and the modern world really does lead to a decreased attention span.  Maybe the organisers of the debates could take a leaf out of  The X Factor’s book and start with a larger number of candidates, knocking them out week by week, or have a Britains Got Talent style buzzer for when they get boring?

Anyway, everyone knows that the third film in a horror trilogy is the bloodiest and has the most deaths… I’ll have my popcorn at the ready to see if the same applies for the third leaders debate!

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Sun Talk – the voice of the people

April 14th, 2009

As a PR professional, the Sun has always been heralded as the true voice of the people – and next week marks an interesting development as the written word is spoken aloud

From Monday April 20 2009 DJ, Jon Gaunt will fronting a live phone-in radio show called “Sun Talk” on the internet between 10am and 1pm from Monday to Friday.

Topping the bill on day one is David Cameron, who will be joined by a host of famous guests and regular contributions from Sun Columnists who are all keen to get involved.

In a direct quote from the Sun:

“This is the station for YOU where you will not only get expert comment, controversy and loads of laughs but also the chance to interact and have YOUR SAY – and say it how you want. My live show will be on Monday to Friday from 10am and 1pm but will be available to download (ask the kids) 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Sun Talk – the Home of Free Speech – takes the ‘right to reply’ to a new level and offers PROs interested in engaging the hearts and minds of their public a new way to reach them.

We’ll be tuning in – and hope you do too.

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