Allegra Stratton - Johnson’s Press Secretary

My guess is that it will all end in tears - whether of sorrow or laughter it’s too soon to say

Our very own KellyAnne Conway?

Ah, bless...

Wife of the editor of the Spectator whose commissioning political editor is the well known fiction writer Mary Wakefield who is married to <drumroll> altogether now ........Dominic Cummings.

Well, what a surprise

It was always thus: you have to know someone who knows someone!

Oh, I didn’t see that one Cumming!! ?

"Wife of the editor of the Spectator..... etc etc ... Dominic Cummings." That's a pretty creaky series of links to offer up in an attempt to discredit her professionalism. Strange that you didn't mention her background as a Guardian journalist and BBC Newsnight editor... but I suppose she's grown up a bit since then.

And currently working for Sunak. She’s the latest spin doctor - that’s her profession. A well paid spinner - well she’ll have her work cut out considering the utter omnishambles of a PM we have - why should the tax payer fund a professional spin doctor for an MP who incapable of getting his message across?

MP=PM

"...why should the tax payer fund a professional spin doctor for an MP who incapable of getting his message across?" Like Alastair Campbell, perhaps? Although Tony Blair did quite enough of his own spinning about Iraq and such.

AS is going to hold daily televised press briefings - AC did NOT do that. It’s different from the AC/DC roles as SPADs. AS role is new, extra, no previous equivalent - do keep up Bod.

Is she Vanessa Feltzs daughter, or am I thinking of someone else

Someone else - same first name

We elect out representatives on having a nice face or the gift of the gab. They have no experience or qualifications for the job. A track record of school, Uni, Researcher, Councillor and then MP in whatever Party they think will get them into the sinecure of being and MP. Today they get a £4,000 pay rise. Nice work if you get it. Then we expect them to run the country to,our benefit and well being.

It should be ministers facing the press, not a spin doctor.

Do we really have to copy the US in all things presentational - everything from the lectern to the carefully draped national flags. It's cringeworthy.

Prime Ministers have had a Press Secretary for very many years, at least since the 1940s and probably before.

Some of the more notable were Joe Haines, Bernard Ingham, Chrstopher Meyer, Alistair Campbell, Damian McBride.
It's nothing new.
The name 'spin doctor' was coined for Alistaur Campbell, I think.

Their role really is to advise the PM on how to present the government's views to the media, not to present the government's views on world affairs themselves.

I doubt we knew what their salaries were years ago.

Unless I'm having a senior moment, the above named didn't hold daily televised press briefings which I understand is to be her role.

The world has changed River since those days, and being
Out there putting your views daily is what we all do!

A very sensible post Callistemon that’s exactly what a press secretary does and has been doing for a very long time.
Sounds a case to me that Allegra Stratton is ideal for the job with her credentials, and yes, sometimes it’s who you know as well, but that’s universal.

Daily televised briefings? On the BBC, no doubt. The BBC who will not broadcast daily briefings direct from a first minister of Scotland on the pandemic, but will do them from a Press Secretary in Whitehall on - what exactly?

I think that a PM does need a press secretary & it mskes sense that they share similar political values. Whether the Press Secretary should be the public face of the PM or paid a ridiculously high salary from public funds is debatable. Would not matter who the PM is.

Listen to the views of Bernard Ingham, who, like Stratton, once worked as a Guardian reporter before he ended up as Margaret Thatcher’s formidably effective press secretary throughout the 1980s. Ingham describes the new system as a “constitutional outrage” and he is right about that. He’s also right that, sooner or later, the new press secretary will reveal “inevitable ignorance” about one of the infinite numbers of subjects on which she will have to give perfectly formed and accurate answers to the press each day. That the new system contains the seeds of its own eventual downfall may reassure some. But we shouldn’t have to wait for that to happen.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/09/allegra-stratton-downing-street-press-secretary-mistake

Martin Kettle - Guardian Journalist spot on!

Today, spin doctors window dressing exposing an inability of government to do the job which the public pay for and expect. A ministerial defence against answering from lack of experience or understanding clearly evident.

Mind you, Bernard Ingram, for whom I had great respect, a faithful bulldog to Margaret Thatcher. But then she would not have found herself in the position of the present lot.

Her knowledge would have been fearsome and woe betide any of her ministers not up to the job with clear answers. I may not have approved of some of the things she did but by golly she could be relied upon to get the job done.

He’s also right that, sooner or later, the new press secretary will reveal “inevitable ignorance” about one of the infinite numbers of subjects on which she will have to give perfectly formed and accurate answers to the press each day.

Why should Ms Stratton be less informed, as a former journalist, than anyone else?

Bernard Ingham was a journalist who worked for the Guardian too as did she so had similar credentials to Allegra Stratton?

Her knowledge would have been fearsome and woe betide any of her ministers not up to the job with clear answers. I may not have approved of some of the things she did but by golly she could be relied upon to get the job done.

Whether you liked her or not, you knew there would be no shilly-shallying and waffling!