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It's been a while since the man who left the Dorset Police under distinctly odd circumstances showed his face on the TV, but when there's a "crisis" of any sort, snow matter what sort of crisis, there's plenty of crisis management money to be made, even in times of general financial woe. What better way to kick-start an ailing business than with yet more free publicity from the dear old State Broadcasting Corporation. Cinderella Man provides some background information on how such cross media marketing trickery functions, Lord Patel has more, and yours truly provides the commentary for Power's latest appearances:
After a little bit of snow that everybody vaguely human enjoyed immensely for its day off work, day off school, and a day of fun and frolics chucking snowballs around, Mr Peter Power seizes the opportunity to advertise his Crisis Management services, courtesy of BBC News. Again.
While ordinary people enjoy a few inches of snow every now and then, the economy, along with Mr Peter Power's own personal bank balance, isn't very happy about that sort of thing. To Peter Power and his ilk, the economy -- the thing that left in the hands of the likes of Peter Power has entirely gone to hell in a handcart -- is very, very important indeed. Far more important than all the people that had a fun day off playing in the snow.
The ever charming Mr Power and those lovely people at the government are all going to save the world for us. As if that wasn't enough, Mr Power and those lovely people at the government are going to save the world and make money doing it. The clever things that they are.
So, here he is, that lovely unchanging hairdo and everything, blathering on in his usual way and trying to sound a little bit helpful and a little bit scary all at the same time. Amaze and amuse yourself at quite how he managed to get from home to a TV studio what with all that terrible, ghastly old snow that managed to bring the country to a standstill, but couldn't keep Mr Power off the TV.2009-02-02 BBC Two - Newsnight - Peter PowerEarlier the same evening:
2009-02-02 19 43 BBC News - Peter Power
Expect to see Mr Power again soon, courtesy of the BBC's self-defeating Conspiracy Files series, just as soon as the "7/7 helpers" show trial number two comes to an end. The CPS seems to have adopted a policy of "If at first you don't convict, trial, trial again." Except, in Mr Power's case, the CPS decided not to prosecute.
8 comments:
"lovely unchanging hairdo and everything" where "everything" includes being filmed with a room full of computers behind him, just like in his most famous broadcast even though that was on ITV.
Last night, in a show about the onset of Terry Pratchett's Alzheimers, Pratchett did a TV news interview sat in front of video camera pointing at a green screen in a small box room.
When the interview went to air he too was sat in front of a large room full of computers.
Recent interviews of politicians "Live from Westminster" have included remarkably snowless scenes in the background, including shots of Big Ben (bearing roughly the right time) without so much as a snowflake on it.
TV fakery isn't an aberration, it's the norm.
Having examined the video carefully I am convinced that the background is real, not green screened.
Not sure about Peter Power though. I think he might be fake.
how can you tell that?
@Anonymous
A few of my observations:
I couldn't find any trace of artefacts which often show up with chroma-keying.
The view perspective of the background appears consistant with the camera position.
The focus of the background in relation to Peter Power looks correct.
Muncher - Thanks for the pointers.
See him on “Panorama - London Under Attack” http://beta.vreel.net/watch_16429.html
I don't think he's been on national news lately, but his letter did get top billing on the Letters page of the New Milton Advertiser this week. You may enjoy the following for old times' sake, especially the cheeky reference to "sensational news coverage" as if he had never indulged in such a thing.
SIR – Over 20 years ago I was flattered to be asked by the then Department for Trade & Industry (DTI) to write a guide, to be issued by them to all UK organisations, on how to continue business operations in the face of any unforeseen drama.
The guidance was called Preventing Chaos in a Crisis (after an excellent book with the same title written by French researcher Patrick Lagadec many years earlier).
My research back then indicated that:
(1) if you were good at ‘just in time’ (JIT) business operations, as companies still are encouraged to remain competitive, you were very poor at ‘just in case’ contingency planning as there was no slack left in any systems to absorb sudden shocks;
(2) weak operational risk management was rife where fear or disbelief was often disconnected from fact;
(3) general cynicism prevailed of any government advice during a crisis to anyone at the coal face of our economy.
It’s sad to note that nowadays as we face the worsening Covid-19 crisis, JIT has perhaps resulted in even more immediate economic impact, helping global share prices to immediately plummet, alongside many companies waking up too late to the idea of working from home (seldom easy).
Fear usually exceeds reality and, linked to this, sensational news coverage often dwarfs well intentioned government advice.
You only have to look at empty supermarket shelves this week right across Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset to realise that preventing chaos in a crisis seems to be even more elusive today than it was yesterday.
Sadly, no end of government guidance or standards seems to make much difference. Plus ça change…
Peter Power FIRM FCMI FBCI BA, Lyndhurst
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