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There should be an outright ban on paying for civil service job adverts. They should be put up on free websites.

There should be an outright ban on paying for civil service job adverts. They should be put up on free websites.

I disagree. It's bad enough at the moment that so many jobs are only advertised internally. If the civil service is to reach out to the whole jobs market, getting the best of the best, it will need to spend money on recruitment.

However, I am very glad to hear the advertising budget as a whole will be reduced. A step in the right direction when it comes to reducing unnecessary state spending.

Great News! I am fed up being harried by the Nanny State on the TV as to what I should eat, drink, etc, etc, etc. The last person who I permitted to do this without a robust response from myself was my dear Mother and she died 8 years ago!

Now as well as taking these adverts off the TV, can we hope that the bodies which spawn these annoying ads are also abolished or at least drastically reduced?

Also it has just been announced that this Labour Government intends to offer "free" Health Checks to all middle aged people. This will cost a fortune and frankly is not needed! If I want this I will book a medical with BUPA. In addition such a process will give The State far too much additional information about each Citizen, no doubt to go on one of the infamous Databases that this Government so loves. I hope that a future Conservative Government will scrap this expensive and intrusive idea.

By the looks of things, it looks like CCHQ could make some savings of their own by outsourcing their policy department to Conservative Home!

This government, has ramped up advertising spend to ridiculous levels, not only for the usual tax-payer funded propaganda purposes for their latest hair-brained schemes, but because of Labour's very strong links with the media.
Commercial media as well as the BBC, have always been very sympathetic to the Labour Party and the loyalty rewarded or their continuing support is ensured with taxpayers money buying advertising from them. Nu-Labour has always been about media control and spin, bribing commercial advertisers with taxpayers money was an important part of that.
If you read, listen, watch or surf commercial media channels, you get a hell of a lot of government adverts. Some of these ads have clearly been made up purely as an excuse to give the media company public money. I heard a radio ad last year, that was basically telling people that if you use bad driving habits in front of your young children, they'll grow up to copy you!!
I suspect that now the political wind is changing, that you'll see Cameron being courted more by them, as he was recently by Absolute Radio. It may go against the natural political instincts of some of the individuals who run the media, but they know how important government advertising is to them. I suspect that a Conservative government may be happy to continue supporting parts of the media with advertising if they think they are friendly to them. The usual government-MSM bond will continue under the Conservatives, but not at the same level that this Labour government has created.

Surely the important thing is whether this advertising is effective?

E.g. if the 'drink less' message gets through, then it could save much more not just in the NHS, but across police, ambulance and even on into welfare etc.

If it doesn't work, that's another matter, but just quoting a headling rate is meaningless.

The worst thing is the constant stream of public service ads on radio! In an hour of listening to LBC one can be exhorted Not to Smuggle Sausages (as if one wanted to...!), Act FAST to avoid a stroke, know where to get help on holiday if your Little Chavvy Mate decides to throw herself off the balcony in a Drunken Stupor and Tell the DVLA if you are Moving House (sadly, they won't send you a birthday card!)
Whether this is simply using up the end-of-year budget or clearing the decks for Election Time, I am not quite sure but sometimes I am tempted to throw my radio through the window in frustration!

If you want a good example of wasting public money, how about Tower Hamlets PCT's Dept of The Bleeding Obvious advertising on massive billboards:' Spending time with my friends helps me relax'? I know in Tower Hamlets the examples come thick and fast but this one is particularly difficult to miss.

Yes, it's getting absurd - but I'm sure quite a bit more of it is hidden as not advertising, eg. I flew to a foreign land the other day. On arrival you pay the local travelex desk for the visa who ask if you have any animals in your bag etc.

Coming back to the UK we have a slickly (ie. expensivly) produced advert for the Defra and enough branding for the UK Border agency that you'd think the border was a theme park or something (it does have the queues!)

Sorry, Sally.

I cannot and will not agree that the F.A.S.T. campaign is a waste of money.

Perhaps we can ask Conservative councils to take a lead on this?

Nah, thought not.

It's a good message, comstock but does it really have to be repeated OVER AND OVER AGAIN?!

Another pet-hate of mine is the Health&Safety ad that features people as ceramic figures that break to pieces at the slightest tumble. Yes we are being terrible irresponsible daring to climb on a chair to change a light-bulb. How did the human race survive without scaffoldings, hard-hats, risk assessments, ear-muffs, goggles, harnesses for simple DIY? All this advertising, repeated enough will eventually imprint somewhere making us more and more timid to use our own brain and judgement, thus giving the Government busy-bosies ever-increasing powers.

"Surely the important thing is whether this advertising is effective?"

It's not! Just like the Health Warning on Cigarette Packets it is not only ignored but can have the opposite effect. Usually when these patronising Government Adverts come on the TV I hit the mute button on my remote or have a "natural break" put on the kettle for a cup of coffee with milk and sugar. If I react at all it is to mouth a couple of very rude American expletives about those made and those who commissioned the adverts. I would be a cold day in Hell when I actually take the slightest notice of what they are trying to convey.

(Steve now goes off to have his lunch lasagne, no veg, on which he will be sprinkling some salt and having a large glass of white wine).

Another sign of desperations from the Tories! You must have hoped for a much greater lead - but 10 points is nothing with 12 months to go for the British voters to come to their senses and vote for Labour.

It is easy to forget what Britain was like in 1997 - the NHS on its knees, schools crumbling, crime doubled and millions of families still scarred by unemployment over three million and interest rates still recovering from hitting 15 per cent on Black Wednesday.

And while we know that everything is not perfect now, Britain is, without doubt, a better, more prosperous and fairer place.

Your obsessive muck-raking and scandal-mongering isn’t what hard-working families are interested in.

Labour’s commitment to giving real help now and real hope for the future stands in stark contrast to the Tories who would do nothing.

By opposing Labour’s fiscal stimulus, the Conservatives have set themselves against providing real help now for families and businesses. They are committed not just to spending less in a time of need but also to spend less in the future. By doing nothing, they would deepen the downturn and delay the recovery, just as they did in the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s. They would make Britain weaker not stronger for the future.

Labour have accomplished a lot in 12 years. But another 4 years would help us to complete our project of transforming Britain into a happier, more prosperous, diverse, vibrant, 21st Century country that everyone - people of all faiths or none, people of all colours, gay and straight, can be proud of.

In your dreams Labour Pride!

What I do think is that it will be a lot closer a result than some here may wish, I think about 30 to 40 Cons majority. To be frank I am glad that those polls which gave a projected Tory majority of 100+ have passed and more realistic figures are now being given. Complacency is the worst enemy of any party as Kinnock proved in 1992 after his hubristic "Sheffield Wednesday" rally.

Labour Pride, I doubt you will get any takers for your propaganda piece from this Forum, except perhaps Jack Stone and Resident Leftie.

Brown lost his chance in the Autumn of 2007 when he failed to capitalise on his new PM honeymoon. Had he announced from the Labour Conference that he was gong to the country he would have wrong-footed the Conservative Party who's Conference would have then had to be cancelled at great cost and disruption and I feel he would have won with a working majority say 40 or so. In the event he was "frit" and has lost that opportunity, a bit like Callaghan in the Autumn of 1978.

Labour could always sack Brown but it is too near the next General Election for a new Labour Leader to turn things round.

"Labour have accomplished a lot in 12 years. But another 4 years would help us to complete our project of transforming Britain into a happier, more prosperous, diverse, vibrant, 21st Century country that everyone - people of all faiths or none, people of all colours, gay and straight, can be proud of." - Labour_Pride

Have you looked at the British economy recently or did you just sign Draper's post for him as "Stone" and Joshuwahwah do?

If you had looked at the gigantic mess that our economy is really in, you would take the revised name "Labour_Shame"

I agree with Cornstock over the FAST campaign.A very good campaign indeed. I wasnt aware of strokes seriously until then.

Theres a difference between sound money and simply cuts.

Somebody should tell Surrey Conservatives who spend £6 Million on advertising and spin! Outrageous.....

Government radio advertising is enough to bring on a bout of road rage at the best of times, but one particularly annoying recent example involves background sound of disco music accompanied by a voiceover along the lines of "This is the sound of a bomb not going off in a crowded nightclub, thanks to a vigilant citizen calling the police" and some bland encouragement to report suspicious behaviour. With the track record of this government, we can half expect the ad to conclude in Not The Nine O'Clock News fashion with "And this is the sound of a bomb going off.....thanks to our ineptitude in opening the country's floodgates to all comers and wasting time and resources on treating everyone as a suspect so as not to give offence, rather than focusing properly..."

"There should be an outright ban on paying for civil service job adverts. They should be put up on free websites"

I thoroughly agree, and you could add the vast majority of ads to job ads a la Google Page layout.

You would still have to advertise where these pages are but that would be far less.

For the argument that to recruit the best of the best, I would say
(1) The best of the best if they want a Govt Job will know where to go :
(2) The savings could be used to beef up Library usage and speeds of ICT to also address the needs of those who do not have home access.
(3) Those rural post offices that remain could also be cabled up

>>I disagree. It's bad enough at the moment that so many jobs are only advertised internally. If the civil service is to reach out to the whole jobs market, getting the best of the best, it will need to spend money on recruitment.<<

I disagree with your disagreement. The Civil Service should advertise in the Job Centre, which would be free. That's all. Nowhere else.

"Labour have accomplished a lot in 12 years. But another 4 years would help us to complete our project of transforming Britain into a happier, more prosperous, diverse, vibrant, 21st Century country that everyone - people of all faiths or none, people of all colours, gay and straight, can be proud of." - Labour_Pride"

Don't be stupid, Labour have wrecked Britain and destroyed long held freedoms.
Of course we know what the problem with Labour is, like J.S. husband your a bunch of Wan****. Living is a fool's paradise of dependency. " people of all colours, gay and straight, can be proud of." Obsessed with sexuality are you not? Labour has dragged Britain into a Moral vacuum, were anything goes and the Tax payer is the ultimate sucker.
"Your obsessive muck-raking and scandal-mongering isn’t what hard-working families are interested in" this hard working family was promised an end to sleaze instead we get wall to wall smut paid for from the public purse.
"And while we know that everything is not perfect now, Britain is, without doubt, a better, more prosperous and fairer place."

Tell that to the sick and disabled who have seen a real term cut in support from this government. Worse they have now been vilified a scapegoat for the disorganized system that Labour has put in place.

" You must have hoped for a much greater lead - but 10 points is nothing with 12 months to go for the British voters to come to their senses and vote for Labour."

I agree with you here, its not as big a lead as we deserve. Of course its not surprising when so many people have been made dependant by this reckless spendthrift government.

"By opposing Labour’s fiscal stimulus, the Conservatives have set themselves against providing real help now for families and businesses." Not so they have signaled that the waste must stop and that the tax payer cannot afford Labours silly plans. The ID card scheme is a good example of Labours need to destroy freedom and make the public pay for the privalidge.

"And while we know that everything is not perfect now, Britain is, without doubt, a better, more prosperous and fairer place."

Were do you live? I don't suppose you have visited the real world since you put the rosy glass's on.

"Labour have accomplished a lot in 12 years."

Which is excatly why they must go. "no more return to boom and bust" with New labour its bust all the way to the Jobcentre+.

The Civil Service and other public sector employers should advertise in the most cost effective way which produces the highest calibre of candidates, and not be shackled by ideological bleating. Currently, that location is the Guardian. An improved online job website on which all public sector jobs are advertised is on its way.

As for advertising - the private sector spends billions and much of it is to persuade us to do things that are very bad for us or our children. Of course, the Tories want to reduce restrictions on private sector advertising and increase th length of ad breaks:

"They heard warm words of support for fewer restrictions on advertising -- in particular from Ed Vaizey, shadow minister for the arts who professed to be "a massive fan of advertising and the industry".

"Vaizey said he wanted to relax many restrictions, including rules on the length of ad breaks."

The public sector response is in comparison poorly funded. As with all advertising, some is wasted, but some of the campaigns have been very effective and saved far more money than they have cost in advertising. According to COI (admittedly not an unbiased source), a 21m Home Office campaign saved an estimated £600m - more than the entire government ad budget.

I see the smoking ads have been a raging success, smoking is in fact up after the smoking ban,

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