It was announced yesterday that we have two million unemployed in this country. With our high tax regime – funding our big, intrusive government – naturally we don’t have the environment to attract the business to bring jobs to our shores. With fewer people to tax, therefore, how is the government going to afford the 524 jobs it’s offering today? Ask yourselves that when you get your Council Tax bill through.
Top of the pile this week is this job from Haringey Council:
“Senior Communications Officer x2
£35,481 - £38,463
Jobs in Haringey are tough and exciting and communications is no exception. It's a challenging time to be joining our energetic and imaginative Communications and Consultation Unit, and if you want to be part of a team who are results orientated, have ambition and strive for excellence, we want to hear from you.
We want two positive and proactive communications professionals who are enthusiastic, customer focused, team players and highly creative. You’ll be working in a fast paced environment that is constantly challenging. If you are talented and ambitious and looking for an excellent career move, then we would like to hear from you.
Haringey Council has lots of good news to share with residents, staff, and the rest of the country. We’ve also faced challenges and now need to help rebuild our reputation in some areas. We are looking for two Senior Communications Officers to help us manage our reputation and make the most of the media. You’ll also play a key role in the production of our residents’ magazine Haringey People, develop and implement proactive campaigns and write copy for a range of external and internal publications. You will have previous PR or journalistic experience and excellent project management, copywriting and editorial skills.”
It’s interesting how councils remain oblivious to their own negative publicity brought on by our reports into their non-essential and wasteful spending areas. Haringey have chosen to ignore our calls for councils to cut down on their propaganda departments by plugging these jobs and also their ‘magazine’.
Will this job mean the bins are collected more often? Will this job mean there are safer streets? Will it bring value for money? Of course not – it’s the effect of bureaucratic government. It’ll still find ways to justify to itself its own existence.
Frankly, and Haringey should know this more than any other borough, recruiting armies of press officers won’t enhance a borough’s reputation.