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45 thoughts on “Coaching, PR and Public Discourse

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  • mary

    The Conservative MP Philip Davies the racist mentionef above is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel
    .
    Overseas visits
    26-31 May 2007, to Israel, hosted by Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI). CFI contributed to the cost of flights, accommodation and some meals. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Official Guests Department) contributed to the costs of travel inside Israel, some accommodation and three meals. (Registered 7 June 2007)
    .
    and in June last year declared this ‘donation’????
    Name of donor: Grand Central Railway Company Ltd

    Address of donor: 21 Foyle Street, Sunderland, SR1 1LE.

    Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £4,000-£5,000 per year.

    Date of receipt of donation: 24 May 2010

    Date of acceptance of donation: 1 June 2010

    Donor status: company, registration number 03979826

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Has this video not been doctored? His lips and words seem not be in synch. Is it a joke video? I mean I agree with all the comments wrt PR/the hollowness of politicians, etc. I’m not an engineer, but I think the sound in this clip has been spliced to form a repetitive loop. It’s hilarious, either way, but I think it’s a piece of political satire, no? Please tell me it’s not real.
    .

    I also think we ought to take a leaf of the Paris Peace Talks (vis a vis Vietnam) and begin to have a discussion about the shape of the negotiating table.

  • John Goss

    Definitely doctored, Suhayl. If you look at some of the other videos, like Thatcher’s ‘song-and-dance’ routine on the next up videos, it give it all away. Otherwise you’d be forgiven for believing it was just another politician with ‘as I’ve said before’ mentality.

  • mary

    ‘How many of the political and media chorus now calling for Murdoch’s head remained silent over the years as his papers repeatedly attacked the most vulnerable in society? Impoverished single mothers have been a favourite target of tax-avoiding News International. Who in the so-called media village demanded the sacking of Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie following his attacks on the dead and dying of the Hillsborough football stadium tragedy? This was an episode as debased as the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone, yet MacKenzie has been frequently feted on the BBC and in the liberal press as the “witty” tabloid genius who “understands the ordinary punter”. Such vicarious middle-class flirtation with Wapping-life is matched by admiration for the successful Murdoch “marketing model”.’
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    http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/amid-the-murdoch-scandal-there-is-the-acrid-smell-of-business-as-usual

  • Voila

    I am not English. To learn new words I repeat them several times. So, this clip has helped to learn following new words: careles and provocative.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    ‘Careless and provocative’? I say it’s ‘Provocative and careless’. One has to crack the correct end of the egg, you know. On the correctly-shaped negotiating table.

  • Jon

    John Goss, sad to say I think this one is genuine. Craig posted it quite late, as I think it is a week or two old already – and it has been much talked about elsewhere. I think it demonstrates how coaching from PR peeps can really damage political discourse. The reporter was quite angry, and if I were him, I’d be bloody furious. What a sheer waste of time!

  • Suhayl Saadi

    But Jon, why are his mouth movements often completely out-of-synch with the audio? Or is that just my machine? If indeed it is genuine as displayed on the clip, then it’s a shocking indictment.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    However, I see now that on the ‘original’ you tube video (as opposed to the link from here), there is no lack of synch, etc.; it may be genuine and unedited after all. What it illustrates, then, is the dominance of managerialism, the deployment of assertiveness ‘broken record’ technique and hollow corporate-speak in Britain’s political discourse: ‘Language as Librium’.

  • Jaded.

    I was thinking whether he was actualy taking the piss in some fashion? Scary if he wasn’t!

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Or perhaps he has some form of organic brain damage, resulting in a sort of complex, echolalic process.
    .

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echolalia
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    Too much ouzo can do this…
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    Alternatively, Millie may be a ‘Manchurian Candidate’.
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    ” I think that they should get back round the negotiating table, blah, blah, blah…” may be cypher for “My name is Edward Milliband. I, too, am a slave of the City and Wall Street. A long time ago, I sold my soul for a Campbell’s soup-tin.”

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