Watch the Bus Bugs Don’t Bite! (1)
Question number 1044/2010
Meeting date 17/03/2010
Question by
Caroline Pidgeon
Were you as horrified as me to read recent reports about the disturbing amount of bugs on our buses and trains?

Answer by Boris Johnson
I am afraid that these reports are a classic piece of PR manipulation by a company trying to sell its wares, and are completely unfounded.
Rentokil subsequently retracted the claims, and London Underground’s occupational hygiene specialists undertook a full examination of trains, and found no evidence whatsoever of any infestation. Tube trains are cleaned after every working day, and deep cleaned every 14 days to maintain the highest levels of cleanliness. There is no evidence of infestation on buses, either.

Link: mqt.london.gov.uk/mqt/public/question.do?id=30763

If nothing else, the newspaper or advertiser will tighten up their safeguards on outgoing material. They might even employ some decent staff !

For example that Rentokil item should have been identified in the press as an ‘advertorial’ or whatever the term is.

www.rmspr.co.uk/team?team_id=1

“Honesty, decency, hard work, fun and a passion for generating masses of media coverage for clients are the core values upon which Ruth has built RMS PR.”

“Honesty” != “Everyone who’s has been offended by the massaging of facts in that initial story appears to be in the marketing profession – surely you should know better.”

I’m probably being hideously misguided here, but I kinda thought we had civil servants & appointed experts who are supposed to do this kind of thing for us/the government anyway? And if not, why not?

The enemy are organised at the very highest level and they use sophisticated propaganda techniques (check out Climate Cover-up by James Hoggan and desmogblog.com for the chilling truth). We need to start using some of the same tools for engaging or we will continue to loose ground.

It may seem over the top to use words like “enemy” and “propaganda” but I believe we need to start thinking about these people in those terms and we need to get organised and take them on. Count me in!

www.rentokil.com/blog/learning-the-hard-way/#comment-6378

The PCC’s code pf practice for editors (www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html) say , right at the very top…

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.

Fail fail fail. I do blame rentokil and the really rather irresponsible PR industry, but it seems lying to the press breaks no rule. The press printing utter rubbish does break a rule, but it seems to go completely unpunished.

Will it be tax deductible?

Ben, are you aware of the Open Rights Group? This originated a few years ago as a pledgebank post “I’ll pay a fiver a month for a UK digital rights campaign if 1000 other people also do.” Now, along several hundred other people (not everyone ponied up when the pledge matured…) I help to fund ORG to the tune of a fiver a month. This pays for an office in London and an employee. ORG has also got money from various foundations, but the core funding is independent. Could the ‘Bad Science Club’ work in a similar fashion?

I wonder if whoever in the mayor’s office winds up answering the questions does though. Could be an interesting response.

I think the fact she made a slight error of judgment (a tiny mistake in the grander scheme of things) isn’t the main issue.

For me the main issue is that the press routinely misleads, that churnalism is on the rise and that people don’t really understand or use evidence effectively.

@blueporcupine I welcome your comments on the “emphasis on evidence-based decision-making”

I’ve mentioned this before but one that I have done work on is around so-called HIV health tourism, where I think you can see a clear link between a series of unsubstantiated claims in the media and a change in public health policy, that has had a serious impact on people’s lives (i.e. people with HIV not getting treatment). The charity I work for produced this report on this issue – www.nat.org.uk/Media%20library/Files/PDF%20documents/Myth-of-HIV-Health-Tourism-Oct-2008.pdf

Some kind of coordinated campaign to tackle this kinda stuff would be very interesting. I do it just for HIV issues and that alone could almost be a full-time job, monitoring the media to identify the stories, pursuing complaints through the Press Complaints Commission, managing group of people ready to response to stories, lecturing journo students, producing resources etc. etc.…

Mostly came from some visits I did to some self-help groups who were letting all kinds of nutritionist-types come and peddle their wares to vulnerable people…made me a bit annoyed.

I think that anything like this, or Miked’s idea would link in well with the DH’s current love of a) social enterprise b) self-care and c)patient empowerment and choice so funding could be available through there.

Outreach could also be linked in with helping people achieve science A-levels and go to uni to do science maybe? Possible funding through universities wanting to widen participation from traditionally under reperesented areas.

Also maybe the British Science association might be interested.

Looking forward to seeing a vacancy I can get excited about applying for anyway…

In fact Ben, I would probably do the funding apps on a voluntary basis, because it’s something I care about. So if it turns out you can’t create a paid post, for whatever reason, I’ll bet there’s a few students around who would apply for an “internship”?