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Saturday, 29 March 2008
£182,000 spent by Haringey Labour on PR firm
Sigh ... this is the story from the Ham & High:
More than £182,000 of taxpayers' money has been spent on employing Lexington Communications since 2005 - money that critics say could be better employed combating the Palace's asbestos contamination.You can read the full story here.
Lexington Communications, employed by the charitable trust which is administered by Labour-lead Haringey Council, also has Labour links. Founding partner Michael Craven has acted as chief media spokesman for the Labour Party.
Mr Craven was accused of waging a "massive disinformation campaign" by the Corporate Europe Observatory website when managing director of the Market Access PR firm in 1998.
Lexington Communications, which describes itself as "London's fastest-growing public affairs and issues management company", charged Haringey Council £108,000 in 2005, £33,200 in 2006 and £41,000 up to November 2007.
The total sum would come close to covering the £225,000 needed to clear the palace of asbestos contamination.
Clive Carter, secretary of Stroud Green Residents' Association, said: "Shouldn't the policies of the majority group be defended by the elected politicians responsible for them, rather than getting one of London's most expensive PR companies to put a gloss on what is going on?
"We need spokesmen who do not need to speak through PR firms at great public expense in order to persuade us."
Labels: alexandra palace
# Posted by Lynne Featherstone MP
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The money was spent by an arms length Council linked Trust. Not by the Council. And not by Labour. If that is from the Ham and High they have been sloppy and you have repeated it.
Hopefully you haven't just made it up?
Many Council's supplement in house teams with marketing and other consultants. Including Lib Dem councils. But this is at least one place removed from the Council, never mind any single party.
And if I recall correctly more Lib Dem MPs are ex-PR than any other party, pro rata.
Willie Rennie for example was part of the PR firm retained by a weapons firm Raytheon which make the cluster bombs he campaigns against.
He has visited their factory since his election to pat them on the back for their success.
Hopefully you haven't just made it up?
Many Council's supplement in house teams with marketing and other consultants. Including Lib Dem councils. But this is at least one place removed from the Council, never mind any single party.
And if I recall correctly more Lib Dem MPs are ex-PR than any other party, pro rata.
Willie Rennie for example was part of the PR firm retained by a weapons firm Raytheon which make the cluster bombs he campaigns against.
He has visited their factory since his election to pat them on the back for their success.
The Trust is made up of councillors - and it was the Labour councillors who pushed the decision through. So yes - it was a Labour decision, and yes - the Ham & High got the responsibility for the decision right.
And also - this is a huge sum of money to spend on trying to defend in public unpopular and controversial decisions that those same Labour councillors have been making.
And also - this is a huge sum of money to spend on trying to defend in public unpopular and controversial decisions that those same Labour councillors have been making.
More information on Mike Craven can be found in this article from PR Week (February 16, 2006). The article Power brokers go hunting on the left from the Nov 6, 1995 edition of The Independent is also quite illuminating in this context.
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