A Night In Playbox

I was at a meeting tonight of the campaign to save Shortwood Infants School and Playbox playgroup. Tonight there were parliamentary candidates, county and borough councillors as well as parents, support staff and governors. This is a testament to how quickly the campaign has been mobilised and how hard the campaigners are working. Lots of ideas were exchanged, as well as a plan for the next 4 years for the school to grow it's numbers and build stability for the future. There are still questions for the council to answer as I said before, but key is to keep engaging the local community and keep up the pressure. The publicity has started really well, but the story needs to stay fresh for the media to keep running on it. I think that the ideas we shared tonight will help move things forward. I have a commitment from our county councillors to carry on providing information that can be useful to the campaign, and I hope to help with campaigning experience too, although frankly this group of people are doing a fantastic job already!

A Quarter Of A Billion

That's the amount of money spent last year on publicity by the Government. Clearly there is a need for significant spending on this area to ensure people know about and get good access to services they need. However, for the spending to rise by 40% last year in the midst of a financial crisis is bad management and bad judgment. Money can be saved by the Treasury if advertising is done correctly, but so much extra spending right now is surely folly.