Ertblog

Hold the front page: the media win Prince Harry's war

The British media have won universal praise for maintaining the news blackout over Prince Harry's combat role in Afghanistan. News of Harry's deployment was broken by an American website. As a result, he is being brought back to Britain.

Jon Williams, the BBC's world news editor, explains the background to the news blackout on the BBC Editor's blog. Williams talks about the royal family gave the media to Prince Harry in the run up to his deployment, including filming in Afghanistan during the blackout. The agreement seems to worked well for Harry and the media. As Williams says, the surprise is that the news took 10 weeks to leak.

Having said all that, it's difficult to justify the seven full pages The Times devoted to the story today.

The battle for Micheldever Station eco-town

Battle has been joined in Hampshire over Eagle Star Estates' proposal for a new eco-town at Micheldever Station. (See Observer article.)

This is just the latest chapter in Eagle Star's attempt to create a new town. The insurer unveiled its original proposals for Micheldever Station Market Town in 1990.

At this point I should declare an interest. I was a PR manager for Eagle Star in the 1990s and played my part ten years ago in presenting the case for this new settlement.

Back then, I could see both points of view. I sympathised with local people who were upset about the idea of thousands of homes being built on their country doorstep. But I genuinely felt there was a strong case for building an attractive new community rather than destroying the character of historic towns with endless expansion. That was the message in an Eagle Star advert 16 years ago arguing the case for 'a lovely spot against an ugly rash'.

Yet a new town is a far easier target for protest than ad hoc add-on and fill-in developments. Small wonder that developers are buying Victorian and Edwardian homes across the country and replacing them with expensive new homes.

A quick Google search suggests the protesters against Eagle Star are winning the cyber battle. The Dever Society has an excellent website; bloggers such as Martin Todd have made their views known. Yet Eagle Star's case is invisible online; the only document from the company I could find was this summary on the Department for Transport website. This is no way to win a campaign in 2008. A credible, visible online presence is vital, especially as the influence of social media spreads.

Cardiff's new logo - a progressive image or a bunch of smarties?

The Welsh capital city has a new identity. Cardiff & Co, the organisation responsible for marketing Cardiff, says the new look will sweep away outdated images of daffodils and dragons.

The BBC's online report inevitably unearthed critics who complained the logo looked like a circle of Smarties or an old-style telephone. I sympathise with any organisation that wants to refresh its identity. The storm over the London 2012 logo showed yet again that instant reactions are rarely positive. It's very difficult to satisfy those who want something different and those who dislike anything radical. Yet Cardiff & Co are surely right to seek to refresh the city's image. Back in 1994, Rhodri Morgan - now Wales's first minister - contributed a thoughtful volume in the Gomer's Changing Wales series entitled Cardiff: Half-and-half a Capital. Rhodri complained about the way every new development in the capital was lazily called St David's:

"I have nothing against Welsh patriotism ... or Cardiff's status as a capital city. It's just that I don't think the people in charge of choosing these 'capital of Wales'-type names so repetitively did so out of Welsh patriotism or respect for early British Christianity. They chose St David this and Red Dragon that because it was safe, bland and reassuring and therefore dead right in modern marketing terms."

Rhodri went on to argue Cardiff should make more of its local heroes: Ivor Novello, Shirley Bassey and even pirate Captain Morgan, rather than bland marketing tags.

Over a decade later, a campaign is under way to raise money to commemorate one of these Cardiff characters. My father Bob Skinner is a member of the committee of the charity that is raising money for a statue of Ivor Novello, to be placed outside the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. It will be a fitting memorial to the Welsh composer who was most famous for his haunting First World War song, Keep the home fires burning.

Steam's graveyard - Barry revisited

I wrote in November 2007 about Barry scrapyard , the last most famous graveyard of steam locomotives in Britain, run by Dai Woodham.

I've just discovered a stack of photos of Barry taken in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Here is a selection.

 

PS: Visit the new Ertblog on Wordpress at robskinner.net!

The great Chalfont St Giles parking debate

We live in a lovely village in the Chilterns called Chalfont St Giles. It's a real village, just 25 miles from the centre of London. But the livelihood of the local shops and businesses is under threat. Chiltern District Council - slogan: delivering the best for Chiltern - wants to start charging local people for parking on the street in places like Chalfont St Giles. (See Bucks Examiner newspaper campaign.)

The move strikes me as a blatant attempt to raise money, without any consideration for the needs of the local community. As you can see from the photo, this isn't an urban jungle. The owners of the cars in the photo were picking up their papers from Gordon Patrick's Old Post House newsagent and shop. They were there for three minutes maximum. In an ideal world they'd have walked or cycled down the steep hill to the village. But if they had to pay 50p to park - as I was forced to in nearby Amersham today for 10 minutes - they'd have been tempted to skip the village and get their papers with their shopping in Tesco in Amersham, with its free parking.

Chalfont St Giles is a lively village, with a wonderful Deli, high quality butchers and bakery, picture framers, greengrocers, pet shop, florists and much more. The Crown pub and restaurant was Captain Mainwaring's bank in the film version of Dad's Army. Yet all these businesses will find life harder if the local council - who are supposed to be on our side - gets its way. Chiltern has already pushed up the cost of an hour's parking in Amersham from 30p to 50p in in two years - dramatically above the rate of inflation.

What really annoys me is that Chiltern council does nothing to stop illegal parking - on double yellow lines - in St Giles, which makes life really difficult for people leaving the paid-for car park in Blizzards Yard. Instead, they decide to charge everyone, and to put up unsightly parking meter machines on the village green. Time to protest.

Back to the future: Steven Spielberg pulls out of Beijing Olympics

Here we go again. The news that Steven Spielberg has pulled out of the Beijing Olympics reopened the age-old debate about the relationship between sport and politics.

It came as news to me that Spielberg was an artistic adviser for the opening ceremony. (His withdrawal has obviously been a much bigger story than his original involvement.) Spielberg's move is a protest against China's support for Sudan's policy in Darfur, rather than any action by China itself.

It's hardly the first time the Olympics have been overshadowed by politics. The 1936 games were held in Nazi Germany, and were used as a propaganda platform by Hitler. The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. In a classic tit-for-tat, the Soviet Union boycotted the next summer games in Los Angeles. A few years earlier, Argentina hosted and won the football world cup under the eyes of the leaders of the country's infamous military junta, who were responsible for the murders of thousands of citizens.

You don't have to be an apologist for Sudan's brutal actions in Darfur to question Spielberg's boycott. Should he refuse to get involved in the London 2012 games in protest against Britain's involvement in the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan (shades of 1980)? All too often western countries open themselves to accusations of hypocrisy. Let's hope that Speilberg's stance does not lead to calls for a sporting boycott of the games. China will undoubtedly find hosting the games an uncomfortable experience given its reluctance to engage in debate or free speech. But the Beijing Olympics must be a better way of encouraging China to embrace the world than ill-considered boycotts.

Sustrans needs your help

The sustainable transport charity Sustrans celebrated its 30th birthday last year. It has been a great success, creating Britain's National Cycle Network and recently winning £50 million lottery funding for its Connect2 initiative.

Sustrans started life as the Bristol cycle campaign group Cyclebag. Its first success was creating the Bristol to Bath cycle route, which is now used by 6,500 riders every day. This route is under threat as the West of England partnership wants to use it as a rapid bus route. Sustrans supports better public transport but believes this proposal would destroy the green and tranquil nature of the cycle route. Its slogan is "right idea, wrong route". I agree - I wouldn't want a bus tearing past me at 40mph on a cycle route!

You can help Sustrans campaign against this threat by signing its online petition. See Sustrans' news release for more information.

A perfect winter weekend

A perfect winter's weekend. Clear blue skies and glorious sunshine.

Just the weather for a walk on Penarth beach after watching (on television) Wales beat Scotland in the Six Nations rugby. Last weekend's victory against England wasn't a flash in the pan!

Sharia law: Archbishop of Canterbury scores PR own goal

In my speech at Don't Panic's Guide to Crisis Communications last month, I argued that many crises these days are created by organisations' own announcements and initiatives rather than coming out of a clear blue sky.

So it proved for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams yesterday. A speech to lawyers and accompanying BBC interview, in which Williams called for certain aspects of Islamic Sharia to be recognised in the UK, has caused uproar.

I'm not going to rehearse the arguments about Sharia law here. I've long been suspicious of the entanglement of church and state, and frustrated by the fact that the largest country in the UK, England, retains an established, state church - the Church of England.

No, my focus here is how the Archbishop, an intelligent and decent man, failed to anticipate the strong reaction that such comments would attract, especially from the more rabid section of the media. (The BBC suggests he has been shocked and overwhelmed by the hostile reaction. Does he not have PR advisers? If he does, it's hard to believe they failed to warn that this was hugely controversial territory. Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury's website tried to set matters straight by explaining what Williams actually said.

The Guardian's leader on the subject summarises my views perfectly:

"Rowan Williams has a knack for creating problems where none yet exist. Prodding, however thoughtfully, the humming nest of multiculturalism and the law, the archbishop has provoked a predictable media storm that in the short term will only obscure his intention of promoting cultural cohesion - as well as confirming his critics' frustration with his apparent lack of common sense. His arguments, mildly and carefully expressed, will simultaneously stoke tabloid fears and infuriate those who believe that the state should be as far from religion as possible."

That comment also underlines how even archbishops need wise counsel if they are to get their views on major society issues across to fellow citizens, many of whom are agnostics and atheists. Sermons and lectures are not enough.

Police red tape: a cyclist remembers

According to The Guardian's report today, Sir Ronnie Flanagan's report into the future of policing in Britain will include proposals to cut back bureaucracy - notably the piles of paperwork that have to be completed by the police.

Reading the news stories, I remembered an odd experience in Cardiff in 1999. I had cycled to The Hayes from my home in Llandaff, and enjoyed a leisurely Sunday morning browse in Waterstone's. I was cycling past Cardiff Castle on the way home when a police car approached. To my surprise, the PC asked me to stop. What could I have done? "Have you lost your cycle pump, Sir?" enquired the policeman. I was about to say no when I noticed the pump was missing. It emerged that the police had spotted on CCTV some youths grabbing my pump. What a triumph for the police, I thought.

But before I could make my way home with my pump, I had to spend half an hour answering questions about the incident. I couldn't help thinking that it was no wonder the police struggle to keep our streets safe when recording such a trivial (but heart-warming) incident kept a police officer busy for half an hour.