Guardian reader to be David Cameron's private secretary

See here.  Hat-tip to ToryRadio.

Comments

[Sean Fear]

How apt.

[christina speight]

Now will people realise that the party has a leader who is not a Conservative?

I know the Guardian is vg for job adverts (people buy it for that alone) but if this was the ONLY place it was advertised Cameron's got something to answer for.

Still an advert does not surely imply that the appointee IS a Guardian reader - merely that he /she might be.

[Mark Fulford]

No problem with advertising in the Guardian, but this has got to be a wind-up!

Jane MacLaren - we've just spent forty-thousand quid on a shiny new logo. Can we use it please?

Assuming that “Secretary to the Shadow Cabinet” becomes Cabinet Secretary when we move into government, is “Secretarial > PA” quite the right category for the a position that ultimately becomes responsible for all civil servants within government?

[christina speight]

Mark - It isn't “Secretary to the Shadow Cabinet” it is "private secretary". One hell of a difference. One is an executive role and the other a secretarial job.

The Beeb did (?does) all its recruitment ads in the Grauniad and look at the bias that has produced as they in turn recruit their own clones. IF that was the only advert then Cameron's "Liberal" claim gets more flesh on it!

[malcolm]

Only Christina could have taken this seriously!

[Mark Fulford]

Mark - It isn't “Secretary to the Shadow Cabinet” it is "private secretary". One hell of a difference.

Christina, au contraire! 6th item in the list of Specific roles and responsibilities (and I quote):

" - Secretary to the Shadow Cabinet"

[James Hellyer]

Mark - the Cabinet Secretary is a civil servant (indeed, as head of the Home Civil Service, one might say he's *the* Civil Servant). This post, by contrast, is quite literally that of a secretary/PA.

It is about time Conservatives started advertising in places other than the Guardian though. It get more than enough advertising revenue from Civil Service non-job adverts, without our party helping it out...

[Deputy Editor]

This looks like the job Jonathan Hellewell vacated. I'm pretty sure it was on w4mp back in August.

[Mark Fulford]

IMO the whole thing is a spoof (at least I hope it is) so I am being somewhat tongue-in-cheek!

[christina speight]

Mark is ever the Pangloss where everything is always for the best in all possible Tory worlds. If it appeared in the Guardian then it will be genuine alright.

I missed the spec: relating to Shadow Cabinet but it is not an executive post nonetheless. Jmes Hellyer has it right!

[Gareth]

If you're going to paraphrase Voltaire, at least get it right.

[Mark Fulford]

Mark is ever the Pangloss

Christina, and you would be Martin(a)?

[Tory Solicitor]

"intellectual skills" is an odd turn of phrase

[matthew]

oh dear god... It's the thrice daily Cameron-bashing fest.

Hurrah!

I can't see anything wrong with advertising in The Guardian at all. I read The Guardian, although I disagree with pretty much everything in it, it's better than sticking to a single unchallenging world view.

[comstock]

IMO the whole thing is a spoof (at least I hope it is)

Well it is certainly the genuine guardian website, because it recognises my 'cookie' from Media Guardian and welcomes me to the site.

What makes you think it is a spoof?

[James Hellyer]

I can't see anything wrong with advertising in The Guardian at all.

Other than funding an enemy of the Conservative cause, which is unable to keep going on news stand sales alone, and helping maintain it's monopoly on advertising state sector jobs?

[Mark Fulford]

What makes you think it is a spoof?

1. It uses the old logo. We wouldn't spend £40K on a new logo and then, three weeks later, publish an advert with the old one.

2. It's not properly proof-read.

"The successful applicant will be responsible [for] key..."

"Helping the Chief of Staff to manage office the Office Budget; [office budget,] including the management of invoicing etc"

CCHQ wouldn't allow these mistakes to go into a national newspaper... somebody is trying to make us look stupid.

[UK Daily Pundit]

I'm resigning from the party hencewith!

[UK Daily Pundit]

......forthwith!!!!

[From the Right Side]

It's nice to know that they're looking for a 'seriously capable' applicant rather than, say, a 'frivolously capable' one.

[Richard Weatherill]

I'm really not sure about this. It's hardly funny enough to be a spoof (in fact, it's not funny at all), but if it's genuine then it's seriously illiterate. The stale logo is the most curious feature. I wonder what the Grauniad charge for this kind of ad ...

[Robson S Leeds]

Good grief - so what? I'm sure that role will be advertised across a number of different sites and mediums. A very Conservative panel will still consider the applications, draw up the shortlist, interview the candidates, make the reference checks and offer the job.

Is this another 'outrageous sell out' like DC's green silk tie?

I think we should focus on bigger and more important issues.

There are plenty of other things to focus on than such tittle tattle.

[changetowin]

There are no no go areas for the modern compassionate Conservative Party. Why should we write off all readers of a particular newspaper?

[James Hellyer]

There are no no go areas for the modern compassionate Conservative Party.

Apparently cliche free zones are a no-go.

[James Hellyer]

Mark - you seem to have a touching belief that CCHQ is competent. Given the frequency of "CCHQ is not fit for purpose" editorials around here, there may be grounds to question that belief...

[Monday Clubber]

Cameron has always struck me as a fairly typical PC Guardian Reader, so it's hardly surprising he's looking for bedfellows.

[Mark Fulford]

Mark - you seem to have a touching belief that CCHQ is competent.

I'm always an optimist and rightly so - there's good news! The logo has been fixed. Now all they’ve got to do is get rid of the typos and it'll be ready for public consumption...

[Mark Fulford]

p.s Not ending sentences with a preposition is probably too pedantic, but “…how you match the skills required to below” should at least have a comma.

[toryabc]

FYI this is the second time the party have advertised the role. It was orginally advertised earlier in September both on the party's own website and the Westminster jobs website, perhaps the reason it's in the Guardian is that they didn't get anyone of the right quality applying,, if you had a background in recruitment advertising you would know that the Guardian is probably the most useful place to advertise this type of role

[Richard Weatherill]

I can't see how a comma, be it placed ever so judiciously, would render the sentence grammatical. More radical surgery would seem to be required!

"to (what?!) below"

I hope the successful candidate (whether serious or frivolous) will be more literate than whoever drafted the advertisement.

[Richard Weatherill]

Oddly enough, this vacancy doesn't appear in the current raft of CCHQ jobs advertised on w4mp. However, anyone desperate for a place on the A-list could do worse than apply for the vacancy listed at:

http://www.w4mp.org/html/personnel/jobs/disp_job.asp?ref=3842

[Angelo Basu]

I'd imagine that the use of the old logo was probably more cock up than conspiracy. Is anyone surprised by typos and errors in the Grauniad?

As for subsidising a paper which can't get by on newsstand sales revenue alone, I'm not sure that the Guardian is the only paper to fall into this category and I don't see what is wrong with choosing to advertise in a paper which is recognised as being the leader for public policy jobs.

I'm sure I'm not the only Tory who reads the Guardian (know your enemy) and perhaps not the only one who ends up grinding their teeth only sentences into the Mail.

[Richard Weatherill]

"Is anyone surprised by typos and errors in the Grauniad?"

Absolutely not, but I would be surprised if some of the grammatical errors in the ad can be laid at The Grauniad's door. Much more likely, I suspect, is that these were present in the copy provided by CCHQ.

[James Hellyer]

As for subsidising a paper which can't get by on newsstand sales revenue alone, I'm not sure that the Guardian is the only paper to fall into this category...

Which rather misses the point that it seems strange to finance an intrinsically hostile newspaper.

... and I don't see what is wrong with choosing to advertise in a paper which is recognised as being the leader for public policy jobs.

Because you entrench the left's hold over public policy positions. Despite the protests from those Conservatives here who read the Guardian, I think the majority of its readership are from the left of the political spectrum, and it's from that pool the applicants for such vacancies will overwhelmingly be drawn as a result.

We'll know a future Conservative government has done its job cutting public sector waste when the Guardian folds for want of advertising revenue!

[comstock]

stale logo is the most curious feature.

Now changed for the new squiggly one, if anyone cares..........

[T Sinden]

I am a longstanding Guardian reader - although not wedded to it .There are often some good articles which are very readable I tried the Telegraph for a while .
The Times at a stretch but it is newsMurdoch so one can only tolerate it in small doses .

Indy on light hearted days when I am feeling very green .

I do not really warm to any of them and the key point I have come to realise is that they are all relentlessly British and not English . Indeed , they are often anti English in their assumptions and attitudes . When they do get around to considering England as itself and not subsumed into the UK , we get an impatient quizzical look and then get dropped .

Occupation media really .

If only we in England had a specifically English and Unionist newspaper along the lines of The Scotsman which provides just that corresponding service north of the border ie Sottish and Unionist .

If only . I would buy it.

[Opinicus]

One of the things that any properly constructed future Conservative government should do is transfer the entire government and QUANGO recruiting drive to the Telegraph and Mail to bankrupt the Guardian.

Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.

[Monday Clubber]

It's rather touching how the steadily dwindling clique of Cameroons keep repeating the mantra that the Guardian ad is a spoof.

I suppose this goes alongside the comfortable belief that every Tory who criticises Cameron is a "troll" (whatever that may be)

Sadly for them, they can repeat this nonsense as often as they want but it won't make it true.

And now, on the very eve of the Conference, Dave's poll lead goes into freefall.

May I recommend worry-beads?

[changetowin]

Even the oft-hostile Editor of this site admits that the poll result is hardly free-fall given the Labour Conference! But I've always said that while we've made unprecedented progress under David the change needs to go much further. While many people warm to David and his brand of politics they need to be convinced that the whole party has changed. This is a process leading up to the election by which point we should look, feel and act like a completely new party. Until then the polls will not get up into the 40s where we need to be.

And I am a Cameroon and I commented on this advert above!

[malcolm]

I've asked you this several times before with no reply Changetowin.Change to what?

[comstock]

If only we in England had a specifically English and Unionist newspaper along the lines of The Scotsman which provides just that corresponding service north of the border ie Sottish and Unionist .
If only . I would buy it.

Given the relative sizes of the populations, I don't see it as workable. The London Evening Standard proberbly has a bigger circulation than The Scotsman . I would guess at least 90% of the content of something like the Daily Mail is England orientened, and on something like football it's nearer 99%

And if you are "english and unionist " wouldn't you want Scottish, NI and Welsh news in your paper?

[Monday Clubber]

"While many people warm to David and his brand of politics they need to be convinced that the whole party has changed."

Well, changetowin, unless you plan a massacre of the grassroots, it hasn't and it won't.

Still that won't stop you your endless trite sloganising.

Even Malcolm seems to have rumbled you. Why don't you answer his question?

[lnjoy cvbtrjfox]

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[Robert Eve]

Surely we need to be sure the whole party has NOT changed!