Alf Cannan's I Have A Dream

[Roger Mexico]

As ever it's worth looking at the actual Written Question from Thomas and its reply:

Whether a review of Government communications is needed; and if so, what the terms of reference would be, and how any review would be procured and undertaken.

(Question W-202401-1123 published on 12 08 2024; Answer published on 28 08 2024.)

The Chief Minister (Mr Cannan): The centralised Government Communication Service was established in 2014 and supports Ministers and Departments on a wide range of public relations, media and communications issues.

Communications activities are also undertaken by people throughout the organisation who are not part of the team based in the Cabinet Office – by communications professionals, senior service leaders and politicians, alongside the everyday interactions of community-facing staff.

In all cases, engagement with the public and stakeholders aims to be clear, concise, accessible and respectful.

We are actively working to improve how the Isle of Man Government engages effectively at all levels of our community. This is seen as a priority area due to the popularity of social media and to enable the Government to address and challenge misinformation and disinformation placed in the public domain.

Advice and guidance to enable continued improvement has been provided since April 2024 to help align the aims and priorities of the administration with the resources available. This process is being supported on a part-time and limited-term basis by a contracted expert who is based on the Island and is in a position to assess objectively the processes currently in place - and how better outcomes might be achieved. A focus is being placed on improving our approach over the next 12 months.

A formal, external review at additional expense is therefore not planned at this time.

Reading between the lines, what Chris Thomas is actually asking is "Rather than going about things the proper way, why have you got a mate[1] in to review things and no doubt give you the answers you want to hear.  Rather than try to find out what people actually want and need from government communications and think could be better.

 

[1]  Probably someone like James Davis.

[Two-lane]

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/government-actively-working-to-improve-communication/

Gov. employs a contractor to tell the gov. how to write press releases.

[Utah 01]

1 hour ago, Roger Mexico said:

The centralised Government Communication Service was established in 2014 and supports Ministers and Departments on a wide range of public relations, media and communications issues

No doubt they've chalked up the Jurby fiasco as one of their crowning glories.

That answer answers nothing; just more complete verbal garbage that says nothing aside from epitomising the vacuous organisation over which Cannan purports to lead. Thomas would have got more sense from that airport cleaner I keep referring to.

[Dirty Buggane]

Then Thomas would of added three thousand words to what he was told and every body would of lost the will to live. The man is a tit

[Omobono]

the wage bill not including pensions in the government communications division must be approaching £ half a million a year , plus all the agencies and PR people they use in London I would guess   the cost would soar  to well over £ 1 million 

all thats required is to stop the propaganda and bullshit machine   and bring about  some honesty  in Government , 

things were much better when they had the weekly press calls and ministers and departments took it in turn to advise  people what they were doing  with various issues being discussed with the local and sometimes UK press , 

if things are not going too well then have the courage to tell us  but stop the endless spin and outright lies  then government  spew out on an almost daily basis

time for a dose of reality  the public are seeing  through  the bullshit  and  waste of public money 

[Fred the shred]

He really cannot read the room can he ?     People are really pissed off about the amount of C.S. and the additional experts that get hired  at the drop of a hat and at great expense  so he hires yet another .    It reminds me of the song Don’t bring in the clowns they are already here.

[Dirty Buggane]

And at a guess first port of call for the expert would of been Linky Dink, the bullshitters paradise. Where just like Manx Forums you can post any crap you like, has anybody checked the claims of some of the people we hire from this site. Do they have a special section for Messiah and miracle workers, we don't seem to get past incompetent con men and snake oil salesmen section.   

[Tinpot]

21 minutes ago, Dirty Buggane said:

And at a guess first port of call for the expert would have been Linky Dink, the bullshitters paradise. Where just like Manx Forums you can post any crap you like, has anybody checked the claims of some of the people we hire from this site. Do they have a special section for Messiah and miracle workers, we don't seem to get past incompetent con men and snake oil salesmen section.   

 I shall now and forever more refer to it as Linky Dink 😂

[Moghrey Mie]

https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/departments/cabinet-office/media-centre/

[Roger Mexico]

On 9/3/2024 at 8:56 AM, Dirty Buggane said:

And at a guess first port of call for the expert would of been Linky Dink, the bullshitters paradise. 

It appears not, the gentleman concerned, "Craig Tregurtha, former group managing editor of the Times and Sunday Times" is so elevated that he appears never to have been on the platform.  He also seems to have so well rewarded by Mr Murdoch that he can retire at 50-ish.  Cannan presumably met him at a golf club or whatever.

In some ways it's a very typical Cannan appointment.  As I've said before, he doesn't have any ideas except "Give money to your mates and hope something will happen".  Presumably he met this guy socially and vaguely thought with his impressive media background he could somehow get the government's 'message' across and therefore we should throw money at him for advice, hoping some of the magic would rub off.

Now even ignoring the fact that this government doesn't really have a 'message' except may "Kick the can a bit further down the road", it's an odd appointment.  Running the business side of a large media company is a very different role from .... well whatever they want him to do here.  No doubt he's a bright guy and can make suggestions as any bright outsider will be able to.  But it's difficult to see what he's for.  The fact that even his own appointment wasn't communicated and had to be discovered by the mixture of a formal MHK question and rumour, suggests if anything things are getting more secretive.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 8/30/2024 at 1:43 AM, Albert Tatlock said:

You can see here I guess. (PDF at bottom of page)

https://islandplan.im/delivery-and-performance/isle-of-man-government-conference-2024/

Govt Conference...Days to go...and they haven't added any new sponsors by the looks?

[The Phantom]

29 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Govt Conference...Days to go...and they haven't added any new sponsors by the looks?

Office World Shredders and Bisto Gravy just announced as headline sponsors. 

 

[Roger Mexico]

Paul Moulton seems to be back from his long silence and has started do new video interviews again.  The most recent ones are with Julie Edge and contain some interesting info about the way he sacked her:

As these round-up interviews tend to be, it's a bit all over the place, but there's some interesting stuff in there on a variety of topics.

[Fred the shred]

Oh god another pity party did Alfy take a leaf out of Howard’s book and bring her flowers 🤮   that didn’t go well Kate got a headline in the local rag out of that and that was all.   

[x-in-man]

Has anyone seen Alf lately?  
He must be fiddling somewhere coz his Rome seems to really burning lately.