Here’s a CNN interview I did at an unholy hour this morning on rising food prices. Some of the cutaway footage they’ve spliced in is truly random. One shot shows someone (in Africa, as far as we can tell) looking with concern at a crack in the wall of his hut. Er…
The Conservative foreign affairs spokesman William Hague issued a press release on Tuesday calling on David Miliband, foreign secretary “to take urgent action with regard to the Chinese ship, currently heading to Uganda carrying arms bound for Zimbabwe”.
From the FT blog:
Hague’s intervention sent the Foreign Office into a spin, as officials pored over atlases trying to work out how the Chinese vessel might achieve the unlikely task of offloading its weapons in a land-locked country in the heart of Africa. Perhaps he envisaged the ship heading up to the Mediterranean, taking a right turn down the River Nile and then making the tortuous journey through sub-Saharan Africa to Lake Victoria. Not sure whether the river is up to taking ocean-going ships though. “What is he talking about?” asked one government official. So far there has been no explanation from Mr Hague’s team about this strange Ugandan affair
Aware that readers of Global Dashboard are an imaginative, thoughtful and pragmatic bunch we want to know how you would best transport the shipment of arms onboard the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang from is current position (off the South Western coast of Africa via Uganda to Zimbabwe). A small prize will be awarded for the best post.*
* Very small…
PR week, the gossip-laden magazine for political apparatchiks and comms people will no doubt set tongues wagging with their latest installment of Brown baiting. According to the mag rag:
Hordes of senior Labour special advisers are said to be passing their CVs to headhunters and recruitment consultants amid concern that their stock is falling. With Gordon Brown’s poll ratings plummeting, many Labour aides are now understood to be enquiring about roles at PR consultancies and large companies. A September cabinet reshuffle is also on the cards.
Full marks to Ros Kindersley (a PR Manager) for stirring the cauldron of uncertainty:
The political climate is changing, and whenever there’s a change in the political climate we get enquiries. More people are open to moving. It’s been across the board, including people in the top ranks.’
So which Special Advisers (SpAds) do people most want? (according to PR week and people they know)
- Geoffrey Norris who is residing at No.10 (business and economic adviser)
- Alan Johnson’s special adviser Mario Dunne is also said to be in demand,
- Des Brown’s special adviser and former Number 10 director of political operations John McTernan .
- John Hutton’s special advisers John Williams and John Woodcock are also being eyed by PR consultancies.
Stir, stir, stir…