How David Cameron’s PR team duped newspapers across the country with generic ‘love letters’

[Denzil_DC]

THE Yorkshire Post could have published a bylined article this week from David Cameron in support of English Tourism Week, a well-intended promotional initiative which began with Prince Charles urging families to holiday in flood-hit areas.

The Prime Minister’s piece began with the words “I love Yorkshire & the Humber” and was designed to highlight some of this region’s attractions and why this is the UK’s premier visitor destination.

...

And then, when the column did arrive, doubts quickly surfaced – it appeared very formulaic, lacked empathy and only made passing reference to the misery caused by the Yorkshire floods.

...

And then the insincere – some would say sham – nature of this media operation became clear. The Herald, Plymouth’s newspaper, published a piece from Mr Cameron which began with the words “I love Cornwall and Isles of Scilly”.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/how-david-cameron-s-pr-team-duped-newspapers-across-the-country-with-generic-love-letters-1-7792333

The same generic love letter was also carried by papers in Northumberland and Lincolnshire with minor tweaks to give it local colour.

The Post article then moves on to take George Osborne to task over the muddled and stalled "Northern Powerhouse" scheme in advance of next week's budget.

[Denzil_DC]

1. Things didn't go much better for them in Norfolk:

In a piece for the Eastern Daily Press extolling the virtues of holidaying here, marking English Tourism Week, David Cameron reflects on his love for Norfolk.

The only drawback to his ode to the county, and first-hand knowledge of our shores, was a declaration of his love for the coast at Holcombe.

We scratched our heads and scoured the internet in search of what we thought might be an undiscovered secret East Anglian cove, eventually wondering if maybe his loyalty to the South-West had resulted in confusion with an isolated beach at the base of the cliffs between Teignmouth and Dawlish in Devon.

An aide – who admitted the spelling error had been his – later clarified it was Holkham that he had been referring to.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/prime_minister_says_he_loves_the_sweeping_sands_of_norfolk_s_holcombe_1_4448691

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Lucky Kent gets 58 million visitors every year! So they're counting the cars on the M20

I love
Northumberland. From Hadrian’s Wall to Europe’s biggest sky park,
Yorkshire and the Humber. From the historic city of York to the glorious countryside,
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. From their stunning beaches and coastal walks to their creative arts projects,
Lincolnshire. From the quaint market towns to the rolling countryside,
Norfolk,
Kent,
this county is one of the many jewels in Great Britain’s crown. It’s no wonder it attracts
over nine million day visits every year.
more than 1 million visits by international tourists every year, and I’ve been there myself when I went to see the Tour de Yorkshire.
hundreds of thousands of international visits each year and more than 14 million day trips made. In fact, I’m one of those visitors; I go on holiday here with my family every year.
22 million day visits every year.

58 million visitors every year.

This week is English Tourism Week and it is a time to celebrate all that our country has to offer. But it’s also a chance for us to build on that. Let me give you one shocking fact: for all the money that is spent by international tourists in our country, half is spent in London. That means there are millions of visitors who come to Britain and never leave the M25; thousands who never get to experience places like
Alnwick Castle or Holy Island.
York Minster or Fountains Abbey.
The Eden Project or Fistral Beach.
Lincoln Cathedral and the tranquil Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve.
Holkham (in Norfolk, not Holcombe in Devon. Oh no.)
Canterbury Cathedral and Leeds Castle
This is wrong. Tourism is so important to our country. It creates jobs –
including 13,000 in Northumberland.
199,000 in this county alone.

35,000 in this county alone.

68,000 in Kent alone.
...

Sources:
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/david-cameron-i-love-northumberland-11009526
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/business/news/14337966.Cameron__Backing_York_s_tourism_businesses/ (who have now dropped the "Writing exclusively for the York Press, Prime Minister David Cameron" they originally gave it)
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/David-Cameron-want-foreign-tourists-enjoy/story-28882083-detail/story.html
http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/David-Cameron-loves-Lincolnshire-Prime-Minister-s/story-28893410-detail/story.html ("Prime Minister's personal message to Yellowbelly county&quot
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/prime_minister_says_he_loves_the_sweeping_sands_of_norfolk_s_holcombe_1_4448691
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/cameron-why-i-want-more-92491/

I think we can infer, from the "I've been there myself" messages for Yorkshire and Cornwall, a "I wouldn't dream of spending any time there myself" for the others.

[chapdrum]

3. I was born in Britain, and

it breaks my heart that Cameron and his ilk want to begin (if they've not already begun) fracking there.

As someone who's studied the process fairly closely, fracking is nothing but protracted suicide.

[Bad Dog]

4. He's the master of ersatz sincerity.

Remember when he forgot he was a "Villa" supporter because West Ham wear the same colours?

It's not like it's that hard to fake it well. He could just have paid different people to pen their own letters. Instead he tried to do it on the cheap. And that's at the root of all of this, his contempt for the ordinary person. It's born of elitism from Eton to the Bullington Boys. Clearly his contempt for ordinary people is such that he thinks we're all too thick to notice.