Crosby, Hunt and Burnham.

I detect the hand of Lynton Crosby again – the prime minister’s Australian election strategist with a few skeletons in his cupboard.

Last week the health secretary, Jeremy hunt, accused his Labour predecessor Andy Burnham of ordering the Care Quality Commission to ‘bury’ a critical report into care standards at Basildon and Thurrock NHS Trust. At the same time some selective e-mails from the CQC were released to a Tory M.P.

Burnham bit back at the weekend – he pointed out that he had launched the enquiry into Basildon amongst others and demanded a retraction – then he threatened to sue.

Now the Cabinet secretary has apologised about the release of the e-mails which breached Civil Service guidelines and Hunt has sent a letter to Burnham saying that he never meant to suggest Burnham was “personally involved in covering up poor care” and did not doubt his rival’s integrity. (I took that from The Guardian, it’s their description rather than mine).

All the press stories went out, the minister’s tweet is still up there but there has been a mealy mouthed retraction of sorts, not amounting to an apology.

I doubt Burnham will sue – it’s a lot of wasted time and money. My view is that neither of them has anything to be proud of and that we are unlikely to ever find out what was really going on.

Meanwhile, some time ago I promised to review the frontrunners for the coming vacancy at the top of the NHS – something else we won’t be consulted over – I will do that in the next few days, while trying to avoid the lawyers myself.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Lynton Crosby - the smoking gun.

I found this interesting article by Jamie Doward of The Observer on the NUJ web site, dated December 2012.

 

“Campaigners raise alarm over tobacco giants' lobbying against plain packaging

 

Anti-smoking campaigners have expressed alarm that "big tobacco" has been employing two of the world's most powerful lobbying companies in a bid to stymie the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes.

Crosby Textor, which has been hired by the Conservative party to provide "strategic direction" at the next election, has played a powerful behind-the-scenes role in mobilising opposition to the Australian government's plans for plain packaging, which became law on Saturday.

Tobacco giants fear that the landmark law, which they tried to thwart by funnelling millions of pounds into an array of front groups purportedly representing small shopkeepers, will be copied around the world. The UK government has concluded a consultation on the issue and will report next year. Many other countries are studying Australia's decision closely.

 

News that Lynton Crosby, described as the "master of the dark political arts" and "Australia's Karl Rove", is to become the Tories' election mastermind triggered concerns from campaigners. "It's very alarming that Mr Crosby now has the ear of the prime minister while the government is still trying to make its mind up whether to bring in such a law," said Deborah Arnott, head of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).

 

While Crosby was federal director of the Liberals in Australia, the party accepted substantial donations from the tobacco lobby. Crosby Textor's co-founder, Mark Textor, has been an adviser to the tobacco industry in Australia, fighting plain packaging.

His clients have included Philip Morris, the owner of the Marlboro brand. His company, which has opened an office in London, Crosby Textor Fullbrook (CTF), has been on retainer for tobacco firms since the 1980s.

CTF has also represented British American Tobacco. Mark Fullbrook, CTF's co-founder, was also head of campaigning for the Tories.”

 

Crosby and Textor also masterminded Boris Johnson’s first campaign to win election as London Mayor. I wonder what clients they have with London interests?

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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Lynton Crosby.

In my last Blog (Keeping count), I was reporting on how the Office of National Statistics proposes to save money by stopping the collection of statistics in areas vital to public health. It isn’t just penny-pinching, its more sinister.

It just so happens that ‘Lynton Crosby’ has been in the news all weekend. He is Prime Minister David Cameron’s election campaign strategy manager, except the campaign won’t be starting just yet – there’s two years to go.

So, Crosby hasn’t given up the day-job – he’s a big fish in the P.R. pond. He set up ‘Crosby-Textor’ (guess who the ‘Crosby’ is) A.K.A. ‘CTF Partners’ and a lucrative business it is too. He’s going to hang on in there as long as he can.

It’s just that we don’t know for sure who his clients are. Every day we get a little leak or two – plainly the other fish in the PR pond are a bit jealous of the access he’s got to the PM.

One of CTF Partners clients is the U.S. based multi-national Phillip Morris, who sell cigarettes. Is it co-incidental that the governments declared policy of outlawing branding of cigarette packets has been quietly dropped? Research indicates that removing branding makes smoking far less attractive.

In the Guardian today, it was revealed that another client is the ‘H5 Private Healthcare Alliance’. The Guardian got hold of a slide presentation advising the sharks of private healthcare how to promote themselves  - to the Public, to the NHS and to the Government. Also how these predators can take advantage of the new NHS regime – for profit.

‘H5’ hasn’t been around too long – it was set up in December 2010, just before the Governments Health and Social Care Bill was published. This ‘reform’ of the NHS abolished the Primary Care Trusts and the safeguards they were required to uphold and replaced it with local Commissioning groups.

‘H5 has been extraordinarily successful on behalf of the fat-cats of private healthcare. As a result of their lobbying behind the scenes, there is now a requirement that the provision of all NHS services must be put out to tender – that not only opens up the whole of the (profitable) parts to private control but it leaves a nice option to the private sector; they can ignore the unprofitable, difficult and downright dangerous jobs they don’t want.

Anytime a plum service they did want is commissioned to the NHS, they can take the commissioning group to court. Nice work if you can get it – the NHS just can’t compete.

I decided to take a look at ‘PR Week’s’ PR and Public Relations news which is always a well-thumbed read in this household.

“Alex Deane, head of public affairs at Weber Shandwick, has worked with Crosby previously…called on Crosby to take ‘a leave of absence’ from his firm to dedicate himself to the Conservative role full-time, to help silence questions over undue influence.

Another critical step, he added, was for Crosby’s agency to declare his clients. ‘As agencies we all declare our clients through the APPC and PRCA as we believe in transparency, and it’s not helped Crosby’s case that they have not declared theirs. Transparency would help salvage the situation and lance the boil.’”

Chance would be a fine thing.

Plainly, all the other PR fish are panicking that CTF will get all the best clients because they will have gained the ‘mistaken’ impression that Crosby will be able to lobby on their behalf with the PM.

So anyway, this Blog would also like to see CTF’s list of clients – would it by any chance include some Alcohol producers or those in the entertainment and hospitality industries? Because the long touted government policy of ‘minimum pricing’ for alcohol, which would have improved public health by reducing binge drinking, has also been quietly dropped.

Remember the ONS? If they aren’t collecting negative statisitics on smoking and drinking then there won’t be any bad health news in the years to come and no more irritating calls to make smoking and drinking less attractive.

Ker-ching.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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