The Governance Partnership

Online, content is king (and queen)

Liam Dempsey — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:03:45 GMT

A programme in BBC Radio 4’s Iconoclasts series, ‘The internet is killing our culture’ allowed web entrepreneur Andrew Keen and a panel of leading internet professionals to debate Keen’s proposition that Web 2.0 is anarchic and destroying culture of real value.

No Way to Treat a Lady

Liam Dempsey — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:56:35 GMT

Kevin Spacey didn’t star in the 1968 thriller No Way to Treat a Lady; the late Rod Steiger did (with Lee Remick and George Segal). Such is the passion for remakes, however, that we may yet see Mr Spacey in the Steiger part.

Holed beneath the Hull?

Liam Dempsey — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:26:28 GMT

I retain a deep affection for the fair city of Kingston upon Hull. My career began on the city’s evening newspaper, the Hull Daily Mail; I played rugby for Hull & East Riding RUFC; a teenage memory of watching an Everly Brothers gig at Hull is still fresh.

From buzzword to fuzzword

Liam Dempsey — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:47:40 GMT

‘There would have been a time for such a word’, quoth Macbeth.

The ‘word’ Macbeth thought untimely was ‘dead’, which was what Lady Macbeth had just become. Evil old bat that she was, her husband loved her and wished she ‘should have died hereafter’.

UnCivil, UnEnforced, UnOfficered

Ross Davies — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:41:21 GMT

In August in this space I cautioned local-authority chief executives against making themselves look ridiculous by allowing their PR teams ‘to get stuck in a perpetual fog of excitement, routinely hyping U-turns and nebulous aspirations’. Leave the spin to Westminster, I suggested, as we at The Governance Partnership always do. …

Obesity at the Town Hall

Peter Hill — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:05:00 GMT

It was a comment by a pal of newspaper days that prompted me to take a closer look at the letter the local authority had just sent me. …

In George's Hands?

Ross Davies — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT

It’s time to talk to George, we cautioned chief executives and their senior colleagues in this space at the beginning of July. …

Don’t boast yourself into toast

Liam Dempsey — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:47:39 GMT

If you are a local authority chief executive, now is a good time to take stock of your council’s publicity effort, in particular to establish whether in their enthusiasm to hymn the council’s praises an over-excitable PR team risks making trouble for you. …

Blogosphere rules OK?

Liam Dempsey — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:51:33 GMT

Full marks to John Prescott for grasping the power of the blog and using Labourhome.org to attack Ministers and MPs plotting the removal of the Prime Minister. The former Deputy Prime Minister’s gesture of support certainly attracted widespread media coverage. …

Norm and the Nanny State

Liam Dempsey — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:30:35 GMT

Yet again, there is a call for taxpayers – you, your neighbour and the rest of us – to bail out a victim of the financial services industry. …