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Boris scraps The Londoner

untethered said:
So I return to my previous questions. How should the mayor communicate with the electorate, or shouldn't he bother?
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I think his work and it's results (or not) thereof should do all the talking. If I need a grotty rag (and umpteen street billboards) to tell me how wonderful everything is getting, then chances are I'm not noticing any tangible improvement.

Here's a joke. Two people walking down a street. One turns to the other and says, "do you read The Londoner?" to which the other replies, "Of course I do. How else would I know how happy I was in London?".
 
poster342002 said:
I think his work and it's results (or not) thereof should do all the talking. If I need a grotty rag (and umpteen street billboards) to tell me how wonderful everything is getting, then chances are I'm not noticing any tangible improvement.
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Well obviously you can oversell things, and I'm not saying that the Londoner didn't.

But isn't there a value in people finding out about things outside their areas, forthcoming events, explanations and interpretations of things, suggestions for future policies, etc.
 
scifisam said:
Bloody Hell. You post on something that's quite reasonable to laud Boris for doing, and still manage to sound like a Ken-obsessed stalker. Could you not have left the second sentence out?
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I should have explained better. Boris is going after the previous incumbents messes like The Londoner and the LDA.
 
Particularly around the Olympics....fine if you're actually going to communicate what's happening in London, 100% behind that concept. But The Londoner was a spin and PR exercise seemingly just to keep a PR team busy and practice their writing skils and very little to do with informing Londoners about what was happening.

Almost as bad as that bloody TFL page in the Metro :mad:
 
KeyboardJockey said:
I should have explained better. Boris is going after the previous incumbents messes like The Londoner and the LDA.
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How do you think the Mayor of London should communicate with his electorate?

How could such a communication be anything other than propaganda?

Do you think the Mayor of London needs to communicate with his electorate?
 
Guineveretoo said:
How do you think the Mayor of London should communicate with his electorate?

How could such a communication be anything other than propaganda?

Do you think the Mayor of London needs to communicate with his electorate?
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I agree with the previous poster who said stick it all on the web and have hard copies for Dr's surgeries, Libraries etc.

I do believe the GLA needs to communicate with Londoners but this communication has been abused by the former mayor and turned into a personal propaganda sheet.
 
Of course The Londoner was propaganda. As is all information provided by government. It's an important part of democracy and helps voters hold governments to account.

Essentially, we elect these people, they charge us taxes, and then they tell us how these taxes have been/will be spent. And a printed version of this explanation is an important and relatively inexpensive part of the process. Or do people believe that democratic accountability should only apply to the computer-literate?
 
KeyboardJockey said:
I agree with you with one caveat. KL used the Londoner basically as a propaganda sheet paid for both his supporters and his opponents. If the Londoner was a genuine exercise in informing the popultion then it wouldn't be a problem but the Londoner was basically one long massage for KL's ego.
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It's ok though. Johnson doesn't need another newspaper ('The Londoner') in which to talk about what he's doing as he already has one. It's called 'The Evening Standard'. Which is basically a propaganda sheet paid for by both his supporters and his opponents. If the 'Evening Standard' was a genuine exercise in informing the population then it wouldn't be a problem but the 'Evening Standars' is basically one long badly-written and syntax-killing massage for Johnson's ego, the Tory party and the new right.
 
The Londoner used to piss me off but it did inform me sometimes. It was definitely too big with too much padding though. A leaflet to replace it would be good.
 
poster342002 said:
Propaganda is an important part of democracy?! And it helps hold govenments to account?! What sort of doublethink is that?
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Propaganda as defined as the information produced by government. It is then the free media's task to scrutinise the propaganda, ensure its accuracy, unspin all the 'good news' and generally hold government to account. But if government does not first give an account of itself, the task of the media is a great deal harder.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
How do you make sure everybody knows about these hard copies? What about people who are housebound, how to you ensure they have access?
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Perhaps by having one last general distribution issue with a freepost subscription address inside for those who can't get the info any other way and actually read the thing in the first place. This could also publicise the web site.

At least this way only the people who have actively requested a copy would get one from now on, rather than the current situation where I can see a good proportion of them going unopened from doormat to bin.
 
poster342002 said:
Did Pravda "communicate with the populace" of the USSR? Did it's existance hold the soviet government accountqable or was it just an uncritical mouthpiece?
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The crucial difference is the absence of a free media that could criticise that which Pravda reported (and also report on that which Pravda left out).
 
Radar said:
Perhaps by having one last general distribution issue with a freepost subscription address inside for those who can't get the info any other way and actually read the thing in the first place. This could also publicise the web site.

At least this way only the people who have actively requested a copy would get one from now on, rather than the current situation where I can see a good proportion of them going unopened from doormat to bin.
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Lots of voting cards also go straight into the bin. Should only those who first promise to vote receive them?
 
littlebabyjesus said:
Of course The Londoner was propaganda. As is all information provided by government. It's an important part of democracy and helps voters hold governments to account.

Essentially, we elect these people, they charge us taxes, and then they tell us how these taxes have been/will be spent. And a printed version of this explanation is an important and relatively inexpensive part of the process. Or do people believe that democratic accountability should only apply to the computer-literate?
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I think that the majority of GLA info should be on the web but there must be provision for those who are not computer literate and or housebound. A targetted hard copy run would be cheaper by a consdierable amount than a 'newspaper' sent to every Londoner stuffed to the brim with ego massage for KL.

There are ways to dump the Londoner and still get the info out.
 
Radar said:
Don't change the subject :p

Why send a paper newspaper to someone who doesn't want it and doesn't read it ??
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The same could be appled to the shrieking and factually incorrect Standard boards that were used to great effect during the mayoral campaign. I didn't want them and I didn't want to read them, but still they were there.
 
ChrisSouth said:
The same could be appled to the shrieking and factually incorrect Standard boards that were used to great effect during the mayoral campaign. I didn't want them and I didn't want to read them, but still they were there.
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I didn't see that much that was factually incorrect about the Standards allegations about Livingstone.
 
citydreams said:
Maybe cause you're so off in cookoo land you don't know what a fact is anymore than you know how to argue your convictions.
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Enough of the mud that the Standard threw at Livingstone was true enough to stick though. You can't deny the pernicious influence of the Jasper affair in his downfall either.
 
The amount of propaganda the mayors office was putting out had got to disgusting levels.

I don't understand the argument that there is even a requirement for these for democracy to function? I don't get a leaflet from the govenment telling me what they are up to.

It's down to manifestos, the rest of the media and of course actual results to guide peoples choices. Anyone who relies on propoganda to make their voting decisions needs their head examined IMHO.

Hopefully there will be a reduction in the huge amount wasted on other advertising by the mayors office, tfl etc.

Big_Brother_is_watching_sml.jpg
 
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