The perils of blogging: it’s rather hard to delete what you wrote

3 Comments

• Derek Young
  Posted 27th November 2007 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

  Yes, but …

  Gavin Yates’s SCVO blog was actually a media summary of what other news had been reporting over the previous fortnight. So when he was describing his new boss, Wendy Alexander, as abrasive, or his new nemesis, Alex Salmond, as impressive, he was simply quoting other coverage in the Scottish press. But never let the truth etc. etc.

• Andy Mayer
  Posted 27th November 2007 at 1:44 pm | Permalink

  It will probably make him better at his job. Press Officers need to be honest and challenging to ensure public positions are robust.

• doctorvee
  Posted 27th November 2007 at 1:50 pm | Permalink

  The blog in question had nothing to do with the SCVO (as far as I know) and if he was quoting other press coverage he had a funny way of going about it. No quotation marks, no blockquote tags, no attributions and no links!

  Here, for instance, is the full paragraph where he described Wendy Alexander as abrasive.

  Next, what happens to the Scottish Labour Party? Wendy Alexander, a former Minister who fell from favour with the so-called Labour ‘West-Coast Mafia’ is in pole position but her abrasive style might not prove popular with everyone. Also, she is seen very much as a Brown acolyte and that won’t go down well with MSPs that want a separate Scottish Labour identity from Westminster. The other front runner looks to be former Health Minister Andy Kerr. He’s seen by some as effective but by many others as simply uninspiring.

  And here is Alex Salmond on the top of his game:

  The SNP will not win an independence vote before the next general election. There, said it. End of. The interesting thing is that Alex Salmond is more than aware of this and his pincer movement with the white paper yesterday is a great example of a politician on top of his game.