Welcome to my blog. I am a former local journalist who now works in PR and a Conservative and community activist in Woking and Horsell. This blog will keep updated on local issues as well as my interests and quirky news stories.
I’m beginning to understand how annoying I must have been as a journalist. I often used phrases that were technically true but stretched the lexicographical boundaries of semantics and the great English language. They nearly always made for better headlines and more irrate PRs.
This week, the News and Mail have carried on the noble traidtion with Woking taxpayers fund energy for Milton Keynes. Let’s start with the first par:
“Woking taxpayers have invested more than £44m in a company that provides
energy to Milton Keynes.”
No, they haven’t. Money for Thameswey has largely come from borrowing and money for the subsidaries has entirely been taken from the money markets. Nothing has come from the council taxpayer ie through council tax to fund Thameswey operations.
The paragraph implies that the company only supplies energy to Milton Keynes – it doesn’t. Most of its activities are Woking-based, including subsidising cavity insulation for residents and providing information on energy efficiency. Furthermore, Cllr John Kingsbury and the Conservative executive have pledged to conclude operations in MK early at the end of Phase I and that no new borrowing be approved for further project. There has been no such pledge from the Liberal Democrats.
Bob Shatwell, always good for a quote, thinks the whole thing is “scandalous”, which is about as good as it gets from him. Chris Bore makes a much more valid point – that the lack of transparency about Thameswey – which Ray Morgan insists is just because he’s never gotten around to it – is it’s own worst enemy.
In good times, the company has failed to get across the message of its success. In bad times, the level of resentment is that much higher because people don’t understand what the big secret is and assume the worst.
When I was at the News and Mail, I tried to run a series of articles on Thameswey to explain its role to readers and spent several hours with Ray Morgan getting into the financial nitty-gritty. It was about as enthusiastically received as mouldy bread by editorial staff and stonewalled on the grounds that people weren’t interested. They can’t have it both ways!
For once you're nearing the mark on the mouldy bread analogy, though I've seen stale loaves snapped up with more relish than your turgid Thameswey pieces for the N&M. Surely your agonising three-piece lecture on this was pulled by the N&M editor not because people weren't interested in Thameswey, but because your writing only served to muddy the already turbid waters surrounding the subject?
I'd (humbly) suggest that one of the many reasons for the suspicion and misunderstanding over Thameswey is that during your time at the N&M it was clear to anyone but the most slack-jawed of Woking's denizens in which direction your political leanings lay. Shouldn’t the news media endeavour to be impartial?
Few people have ever written about Thameswey in a tone that wasn't condescending and verbose, and you're certainly not one of them. The puffed up and politically-biased ramblings of a failed journalist are part of the problem with Thameswey and will never be the solution.
It is with a smile I read your opening statement; you certainly were an annoying 'journalist', but congratulations, you've blossomed into an equally annoying 'PR professional'. And what gives you the right to tout your propaganda as the 'mouth of Horsell' anyway?
Dear Frustrated,
You are clearly very frustrated. About what I'm not sure – but some decent therapy might expose the source of your bitterness.
Rather than hiding behind an apt pseudonym, I'm happy to put my views forward with my name attached (another unfortunate characteristic of ex-journos) – whether you like them is not, frankly, my concern.
I look forward then, to seeing some really insightful and informed comment about the *real* solution for Thameswey on your blog, which I notice is currently blank. Don't leave it that way, please – it might be an appropriate channel for your frustration.
BTW, the blog name is a pun (you know, with words). I don't claim to be the mouth of Horsell, otherwise it would say that in the "About Me" bit to the right. But I expect you'll figure that out once you set your own page up.
I smiled too at your suggestion that I contributed to suspicion and misunderstanding about Thameswey and that my politics had something to do with that. Come on – I'm quite prepared to admit that I simply don't have that degree of influence on people's thoughts – even the "slack-jawed denizens" that are so obviously your fraternal companions. I was taking your comments semi-seriously before that bit, so I'm reassured that you are, after all, a total joker.
Regards, Simon