Commercialisation of government communications:submission to the Government Communications Review Group, Stirling Media Research Institute

Much of the debate around government communications has focused on the use of special advisers, the lobby system and the centralisation of the system under Alastair Campbell. This is a legitimate focus and much has been said on this topic which is borne out by our own research.2 However the purpose of this submission is to raise a different set of issues which are less often discussed. These relate in particular to the organisation of the civil service and government communications and to the increased role of commercial agencies and commercial criteria in running and evaluating government communications. I wish to concentrate on six aspects. These do not fit very neatly under the headings of the review but are most relevant to the issues of context, politicisation and organisation.