As Mr Corbel, a man who represents thousands of the Island’s workers, said, it is amazing that this amount of money could be spent at a time when dozens of States workers face redundancy as a part of a £73 million cost-cutting programme. In relation to that amount, this spending might be peanuts but the States waste so much money on other minor matters as well.
As Helier Clement mentioned in his recent article: ‘Put bluntly, I have little confidence that those likely to face the media on this occasion will be anything other than out of their depth, and no amount of last-minute training by a UK communications company will be able to alter that situation.’
Having spent £15 million of taxpayers’ money to bring out the truth, what are the States now trying to cover up? In a recent statement in the JEP (26 April), Chief Minister Ian Gorst tried to explain the reasoning behind the decision to call in UK public relations gurus.
He said: ‘It is important that government is prepared for the anticipated national and international interest in the report of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, being able to respond at short notice in the minutes and hours following the report’s publication. We want to improve on the past handling of such matters.’
In other words, we want to hand-pick the questions and answers so the real truth doesn’t come out, not follow in the footsteps of Frank Walker’s interview with Jeremy Paxman, a bear of an interviewer. If only the present incumbent had the courage to face a Jeremy Paxman, and not cow down behind PR advisers, we would be better off.
Perhaps we should call on Frank Walker, our best ever Chief Minister and a media man himself, to conduct the PR on this important event.
