Archive for December, 2008

Apologies in advance for the shameless job ad dressed up as a blog pitch…it is naughty but needs must

Anyway, after some fabulous new client wins in the corporate and technology division, we are looking for a couple of lovely new people to come and join us in 2009.  The roles currently open are for:

– an associate director (part time / contractor / permanent)

–a senior account executive

If you have a good business head on your shoulders, are full of ideas, love pitching/presenting/networking/writing and have a contact book that is straining at the seams, you could be just the kind of person we are looking for.

You’ll need a passion for technology, an outstanding manner when dealing with clients and the media and love to immerse yourself in a hot bubbly bath of digital aceness every day….

Does this sound like you? Get in touch…..

On my way to work today I passed a café advertising ‘spegeti bolagniz’ as the special of the day.  I knew what they meant and I’m sure it would have tasted fine, but it made me wonder, does correct spelling really matter?  In this age of text speak, which is more important?  Getting it right or getting your message across? 

I sit firmly in the get it right camp and I believe that poor spelling makes a message less credible.  It seems that Simon Heffer is a man after my own heart and long may he wax lyrical. 

If a writer hasn’t gone to the trouble of spell checking, how can I be sure that the rest of the piece is accurate?  What sort of message should I take from a document riddled with spelling errors?  Job applications are a case in point.  If you can’t even spell correctly in your own CV, what chance have you got when you’re writing on behalf of our clients?  We are in the communications industry and need to get it right.  Please don’t tell me, as more than one unfortunate candidate has, that you have always wanted to work in ‘pubic’ relations.  As for the bright thing who assured me that he was ‘fully computer illiterate’, no chance.

Sadly it seems that everyone is getting in on the act, from local councils to EBay sellers and as for the misuse of apostrophes, let’s not go there!

We have the Queen’s Speech today marking the State Opening of Parliament in which the Queen will outline the Government’s legislative programme for the coming year.

So, what can we expect?

This year, the speech is more about what is not in it rather than what is.

Traditionally, Governments push through contentious legislation in the early years of a Parliament and reserve a light and popular programme for the year(s) running into the General Election.

Some controversial legislation has been dropped from the Speech and some elements of the media have concentrated more on these measures than those that will be included.

We are assisted in our guesswork by the pre-legislative statement made by the Government earlier this year and by the extraordinary “pre”-Budget statement last week which was a Budget in all but name.

We can assume that the economic rescue and mitigation packages announced in the pre-Budget statement will be reserved for the Budget itself (some of these measures have already been passed by secondary orders) so it is unlikely that we will see a comprehensive economic measure being announced today.

Banking regulation however, is being rushed through to stop banks calling in loans or changing conditions without proper notice. The Government will confirm that the banks’ voluntary code is being made compulsory. Perhaps legislation is a better way to introduce this than simply raising it at the shareholders’ meeting.

The centrepiece will certainly be the Welfare Reform Bill which will require the unemployed to undergo skills assessments and incapacity benefit claimants to be medically assessed…but these are not particularly new measures.

What will make this Bill stand out are the controversial provisions to force benefit claimants to undergo lie detector tests, to force single parents into work and possibly cut welfare benefit of those refusing job offers, all of which will set the Government on a collision course with the Unions and libertarian groups.

Also included will be the Crime Bill designed to stop happy hour (or excessive drinking anyway) and bring changes to the prostitution laws to criminalise the purchaser of sexual favours rather than the supplier.

There will be a Health Bill to introduce the long-awaited NHS Constitution and to promote public health initiatives.

Along with an Equality Bill to introduce more stringent anti-discriminatory legislation and the Citizenship Bill to require immigrants to learn English, these will be the main measures announced today.

Among the Bills being dropped is the Data Communications Bill which would have recorded the details of everyone’s emails, mobile phone calls and text messages. There will be a consultation instead.

The Bill of Rights, which would include further reform of the House of Lords, The Coroners’ Bill which provided for inquests to be held in private (without juries) where intercept evidence as used have also been dropped.

All of this though may be overshadowed by any demonstration by the Conservatives following the arrest of Damien Green.

We shall have to wait and see.

Although most commentators still plump for 2010, we shall have to wait and see if this is the precursor to a 2009 General Election.

The Evening Standard has a long-standing reputation for being conservative (with a big and small c) so it should not come as a surprise that it has published an article denouncing Twitter.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a micro-blogging service, similar in some ways to Facebook in that it lets you see the status of your followers (friends, colleagues, acquaintances, associates, etc). It is strangely addictive, hugely useful (I got my current job via Twitter) and I have made a whole host of new friends using it.

A number of journalists from the Financial Times, The Guardian and the BBC already use it, so I was initially delighted to see a piece on it in The Evening Standard today, which I presumed would be extolling the virtues of Twitter. How wrong I was.

The journalist didn’t like Twitter - fair enough, perhaps its not for everyone - but wrote such a curmudgeonly piece he came across as both the worst kind of luddite AND a right old misery-guts. He undermined any legitimate points he may have had by making errors in his copy that a few minutes researching (maybe even using the new-fangled interweb thingy) would have picked up. Twitter allows you 140 characters to make your update, NOT 160 for example.

Twitter users are passionate about it and for many it has become an essential part of work and play. I would expect a pretty frenzied response from the Twitterati to this although at the time of writing the article has just two comments on it. I’m guessing it will be through the roof by the time I get in tomorrow.

FAIL!