Michael Gove, the UK Minister for the Cabinet Office made a recent speech on the need for reform in the public service. He spoke of the need for clear writing and clear thinking.

It seems that when it comes to waiting for the completion of home renovations, Britain’s Royal Family is no different than the rest of us.

According to an article in this morning’s Daily Telegraph (bottom of Pg. 3, 15 June 2020), The Queen has been granted permission to repair a leaky north roof at Buckingham Palace, a problem first identified 200 years ago.

According to the Telegraph article, the north range of Buck House dates back to a the second major re-development. That work took place between 1820 and 1837.

The architect, John Nash, was sacked for over-spending. In 1831, expert advice was sought on the integrity of the building. Rain had already penetrated the covering of the south-west tower.

As the Telegraph notes, the roofers of the time used an asphalt precursor, known as Stanhope’s Composition, made of tar, dry powdered chalk and sifted sand. As the Telegraph article states:

But now, conservationists are set to strip and replace the original roof and replace “structurally defective chimney stacks”. However, still no copper or lead.

Those of us waiting on hold for bathroom or kitchen renovations can take some solace from this fact: At least you don’t have to wait as long as royalty.

And here’s a picture I took of Buckingham Palace on a trip to London in February of 2012:

While her New York Times colleagues try to link this week-end’s violence to everything from Globalization to climate change to 9-11, in my opinion Roxane Gay captures the visceral sense of hopelessness felt by black Americans. Something is seriously wrong, and “no one is coming to save us”.

There’s a question a lot of people are asking themselves in May and June of 2020–could it get any worse? A global pandemic, economic collapse, record unemployment–and now, to the south, an apparent collapse in law and order as rogue police officers take innocent lives and civil unrest, perhaps inevitably, follows suit.

The answer to this question is, of course: yes. It can get worse. Noted American author James Follows provides some important historical context.

The most traumatic year in recent American history—1968—offers some disquieting lessons for the present.

Source: 1968 and 2020: Lessons From America’s Worst Year – The Atlantic

What you want to do in any kind of political crisis is get out in front of the story by being the first one responding, being utterly transparent with the most complete and accurate message you can muster and then try to move on. What you want to avoid is having unanswered questions left to linger, which promotes other actors taking further steps that may not be in alignment with your goals.

The problem with the political crisis now engulfing the UK government is that they broke all those rules. It was a holiday long week-end and they delayed answering until  Monday night after the story broke on Friday.

The answers, when they did come, failed to appear completely transparent. Those delivering the message  were left with a very small piece of real estate to stand on:  I did what I did, I acknowledge others may have responded differently but I’m not going to apologize. Thin gruel for citizens

who obeyed the lock down rules, missing important family events like a parent’s funeral.

And, now you have other ministers resigning.

It will keep going, because they’ve lost control and new events beyond their control will keep the story alive:

Minister for Scotland Douglas Ross quits as MPs press PM’s adviser to consider his position

Source: Tory revolt grows as minister resigns over Dominic Cummings’ lockdown trip | Politics | The Guardian

So, you’re the Prime Minister. Your chief advisor is under attack for ignoring travel restrictions during a global pandemic. Thousands are calling for a resignation to prove there is not one set of rules for the powerful, and another set for the rest. What do you do?

Hold a news conference, express your continued support for your advisor and push ahead with a controversial plan to re-open schools in a matter of days.

Change the channel, turn up the volume.

This is my new website. You can come here for random musings on matters that I have found interesting through-out my eclectic career. This includes politics, journalism, communications, message development, speech-writing and crisis communications.

I’m called on at times to deliver media training workshops and sessions on writing in government. You can find notes from these sessions in the Presentations section.

All views are my own.

Ian

If there’s one thing a global pandemic can teach you is the need for good, clear messaging. This past week, Boris Johnson’s UK government ran into criticism when some of its messaging on what they wanted people to do was less than precise. Here’s the original government messaging:

The initial public messaging was exceptionally clear. People knew exactly what to do: nothing. Stay at home. Then came the desire to loosen restrictions on activity and get some parts of the British economy back in business.

The message was changed to something that was arguably far less clear.