Even in an age of modern warfare, BAE never lays down that sword of truth
? As the sellers of arms, warplanes and missiles assemble in east London for their annual jamboree, feted by defence secretary Liam Fox, it is worth remembering that they prize reputation above all things. And this particularly applies to our friends at BAE Systems. It jibbed a bit at having to discuss the Saudi slush fund allegations levelled at it by the Guardian. But ultimately the experience proved cathartic. This we learn from John Neilson, director of communications (international) at BAE Systems, who tells CorpComms magazine his tricks for maintaining a corporate reputation during a crisis. Number seven in his top 10 tips is: Be honest. "Truth fears no questions," says John. "Use honesty, openness and transparency as the cornerstone of your communications." Last week, as BAE mounted a U-turn over how it might pay a fine for concealing payments connected to a marketing adviser linked to the Tanzanian radar deal, one MP accused the company during a committee hearing of trying to turn the punishment into a PR exercise. It originally wanted to dress up the fine as charitable activity. John will sort it out. Also from tip number seven in the BAE playbook: "Know when to hold your hands up and admit where mistakes were made."
? Heads will roll as a result of the parliamentary boundary changes. Familiar faces may struggle to hold on to their seats. No wonder Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude is worried. "My seat becomes marginal," he told a press gallery lunch mournfully. "Well, quite marginal." He paused. "Might be enough ? even for me."
? Meanwhile, our friend Simon Heffer at the Daily Mail steps forward amid fanfare to announce RightMinds, its new rolling comment section. It's an attempt to copy our own excellent Comment is free site and to steal some of the illiberal crankiness that sustains the blog site at the Daily Tel. So far so good for the Heff, but it's not been easy. As free marketers, the Mail's star names couldn't understand why anyone in their RightMind should be writing even more "why oh why" and "hell in a handcart" stuff for no extra pay. It's now said those such as Littlejohn and manic Mel Phillips will acquiesce. But as one irritation is soothed, another looms for Heffer. There are rumblings of discontent at the Garrick Club about the Heff appearing in the Mail's shouty blurb for RightMinds wearing the club's distinctive salmon and cucumber tie. The rules are clear that the club should never be used for commercial purposes. The precise offence is "bad form", we think.
? And with so many fiddling their benefits, there is a deal of coverage devoted to the tale of Dionne Stenner. She's the model, known to some as Morgan James, whose claims for public assistance were undermined by the fact that while being helped to the tune of �7,000, she was also making �18,000 as a TV presenter. All grist to the mill at the Sun and the Telegraph, both of which are hot on that sort of thing. But you can't find any mention of Dionne and her wickedness in Richard Desmond's Daily Express, despite the paper's distaste for cheats and scroungers. Could that be because one of Dionne's proudest boasts is that she has fronted programmes on Dirty Des's Television X?
? Finally, an apology. On Tuesday we wrote about Nick Clegg's trip to the London School of Economics and the fact that even those encouraged to attend were not being told until the last minute where the deputy PM would be speaking, or even where they could pick up their tickets. We said IDs would be checked, as would those bags deemed admissible. Cleggy's had a rough time recently, on account of all those cuts and the public restlessness. We asked: "Are they nervous, do you think?" Well, the answer came quickly, for soon someone close to Clegg was on the phone and he was pretty angry. Deeply irresponsible, he said. Would you do that for the prime minister? Would you do that if the dignitary concerned were a member of the royal family? We're upset that he's upset and we're sorry because we didn't mean to upset him. As to his question, the answer is ? probably.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/13/hugh-muir-diary-bae-systems
Ted Kennedy John Kerry Ban Ki-moon Henry Kissinger Dennis Kucinich
No comments:
Post a Comment