Ronnie Simpson blog. - Ronnie Simpson Consulting

First water – now I call on Government to pay for my consumption of Guinness out of general taxation

6/3/2018

Once again, we see the folly of the economically illiterate left attack (later backed by Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail) on water charges and metering.

There is little doubt that people running taps during Emmageddon contributed to reservoirs being depleted. Burst water mains obviously had an impact but the wasteful running of taps by some households exacerbated the situation.

This has led to current water restrictions in the Greater Dublin area which #IrishWater says could last for “the foreseeable future”. Some Dublin listeners to The Pat Kenny Show (#PKNT) reported no water supply at all.

If folks were being monitored and charged for excessive running of taps, it is unlikely we would have had the current water problem to the same extent.

It is worth remembering that when metering was installed and charges were being made, water demand reduced significantly as householders became more careful.

Because of the economically illogical elimination of household water charges, an essential service, which requires huge investment, must once again take its place at the back of the queue when general taxation is being distributed.

I’m thinking of running for the Dail on a platform that Government should pay for my weekly consumption of Guinness.

But how will we fund this you ask? No problem. This will be paid for out of general taxation. I already pay handsomely into Government coffers through income tax, PRSI, USC, VAT, property charges etc.

In effect, I’m being forced to pay twice for my Guinness.

But surely my consumption of Guinness is likely to increase if I get it for free?

You betcha.

I might even take a bath in it.

Brexit PRexit - Theresa May’s predicament

27/3/2017

One of the biggest failings of thankfully a small number of PR agencies is to over promise at pitch time. This may win new business but eventually leads to dissatisfied clients as the agency fails to meet expectations.

Political parties are guilty of the same sin and often end up with a kicking at a subsequent election. Labour’s infamous pre-election “Every little hurts” and “Labour’s way or Frankfurt’s way” eventually led to its implosion.

Managing expectations is a key component of retaining client and voter confidence. I’ve always held the view that I would prefer not to win business on the basis of unsustainable promises. This has undoubtedly cost me business but helped me to sleep easier at nights.

The Brexit campaign will go down in political history as a massive exercise in over promises and arguably blatant lies to the electorate. The cynical claim that the £350 million a week spent on EU membership would go towards the NHS was abandoned within hours of the referendum result. Rather than saving money it now looks like the UK will have to contribute anything up to £60 billion just to extract itself from EU obligations.

Once elected leader, Theresa May had the opportunity to dampen down expectations. From the blitz to present day terrorist atrocities, the British people have demonstrated an admirable ability to respond bravely and stoically to adversity. Churchill in his “we’ll fight them on the beaches” and other speeches did not underestimate the challenge facing the British people in World War Two.
May had an opportunity to start to manage expectations by saying, “Look, Brexit negotiations will be tough, there will be setbacks, we won’t get everything we’re looking for but long term Britain will be a better place.”

Instead, perhaps running scared of the Tory press and anti EU wing of the Conservative party, she talked about a “Red, white and blue” Brexit. In her Lancaster House speech on 17th January 2017 she referred to the need to control EU immigration while at the same time advocating a free trade agreement which would “allow for the freest possible trade in goods and services between Britain and the EU’s member states… on the export of cars and lorries for example, or the freedom to provide financial services across national borders”.

Good luck with that Theresa. On the latter front many City financial institutions already seem to be voting with their feet and implementing plans to export jobs to EU capitals. The Brexit cheerleading Tory media such as The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail has lauded the strong performance of the British economy over the last year in terms of employment, growth and a booming stock market.
But the fact is that the UK has not yet left the EU and already Brexit is starting to have a negative impact.

UK growth has largely been supported by consumer confidence. But the fall in the value in sterling has led to inflation which will reduce consumer spending. As Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Markit pointed out (The Daily Telegraph, 24th March): “The economy’s persistent resilience since last June’s Brexit vote has been largely built on consumers keeping on spending.

“With consumers now seemingly moderating their spending, the long anticipated slowdown in the economy looks set to materialise, unless other sectors can make significantly increased contributions”.

In the same newspaper the same day (yes some of us still read newspapers) Lord Wolfson, Next’s chief executive said that it had already raised shop prices by 4% to offset higher import costs from a weaker pound and that he expected prices to rise again by the same amount in the second half of the year. Reporter Ashley Armstrong adds, “he cautioned that this would weigh further on shoppers’ demand”.

Oliver Kamm reported in The Times (March 23) “Brexit has yet to be triggered but the poor are already suffering”.

He said, “Almost everyone in Britain is poorer than they were exactly nine months ago, on the day of the Brexit referendum.

“As the prime minister triggers Article 50…it is vital that policymakers be realistic not only on the prospect for trade deals but also about the challenges facing the domestic economy.”

This lack of realism is at the heart of Theresa May’s PRexit problem. A good rule of thumb to retain voter confidence is to under promise and over deliver. May and her three Brexiteer ministers seem to have adopted the opposite approach. At the moment they are protected by a Labour party civil war and unelectable leadership. But Jeremy Corbyn won’t be Labour leader forever.
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Could water political football turn into Fianna Fail’s “own goal”?

27/9/2016

Just when you thought that Fianna Fail under Micheal Martin might have learned the errors of its previous populist policies, it now appears that they are against water charges. The critical need for investment in our creaking (and leaking) water and sewage system is to be funded out of “general taxation”.

This means that, as in the past, water will have to join the queue behind health, social welfare, education and Ministerial favoured constituency sweet spots. Neither will Irish Water be able to borrow for critically required investment funds. Good luck with that.

To be fair to much maligned Labour, Brendan Howlin appears to have taken a more responsible attitude expressing the need for some form of charging. This despite the pressure it faces on water charges from the spend and soak “the rich” far left. The rich in this country, based on the level at which they reach the top level of tax, is defined astonishingly at those earning €33,800.

As The Irish Times recently pointed out: “A high personal tax take has adverse consequences. High marginal rates reduce the incentive for individuals to work and, for the State, they undermine competitiveness. They make it harder to retain Irish employees with portable skills or to attract workers from abroad. Someone on a €75,000 salary in Ireland pays 21 per cent more in tax than his or her counterpart in the UK.”

The Irish Independent reported this week that Irish Water will need almost €300m in additional State funding to make up the cost of suspending water charges. “Additional State funding” translates as those already clobbered by high taxes paying even more.

Fianna Fail is hoping that its record of recklessly steering the economy onto the rocks will be forgiven (or forgotten) by the electorate. Martin has implemented classic PR tactics by apologising and implying that it won’t happen again. The danger is that its U-Turn on water may well act as a reminder and warning to a doubtful public that the leopard can’t or won’t change its spots.

If Fianna Fail leads the next Government (not inevitable if a straight talking Leo can drag Fine Gael out of the 19th into the 21st century) then it looks as if:

We face further increases in taxation to pay for water or
Our water and sewage system deteriorates to the extent that more citizens, as in a third world country, have to queue with buckets and basins at water tankers.

The impact of water on the economy goes far beyond basic health but has a direct impact on jobs through FDI and tourism.

It really is high time that some politicians stopped using water as a political football. Those that fail to do so may find that water turns into the ultimate own goal.

Barry Cowen plays with fire on water

3/3/2016

God love him, Barry Cowen couldn’t help himself. Like the England rugby team pre Stuart Lancaster, he displayed that innate Fianna Fail arrogance that Micheal Martin had gamely tried to damp down.
Water charges would be a red-line issue for Fianna Fail harrumphed Cowen on Prime Time, alarmingly sounding more and more like the brother. This despite the fact that Fianna Fail had not yet met to agree on any red lines. What’s more, he confirmed to the Irish Independent, that those who had paid their water charges would not be recompensed.
This from the party which planned to introduce water charges pre Troika at a cost to households of €500 a year. FF changed its mind later when it consulted its inbuilt populism monitor (remember the abolition of rates and the mess that caused?). Cue middle Ireland wondering whether they should pay the next water bill and being mocked by a non-payer on Joe Duffy’s Liveline that they would be naïve if they did.
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The resentment caused by this will make the medical card debacle look like Pyjama Day by comparison
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Meanwhile Simon Coveney in his car crash interview on Prime Time appeared to leave the door open to water charges being abolished if it helped FG get back into Government. What will also alarm and infuriate middle Ireland was that when asked if FG would talk to Sinn Fein he did not, as he should have, kick the ball into row Z, but said they (SF) would not talk to them. This perhaps due to his dear leader’s earlier ambiguous statement that he would talk to anyone.
So we have the situation that law abiding middle Ireland faces the prospect of being screwed again while FG and FF play power games to position themselves not so much for this Dail but the next.
Barry Cowen as well as FG are playing with fire. If either, in the raw pursuit of power, causes water charges to be abolished without compensation then the great silent majority will be crouching in the long grass with sharpened machetes. The resentment caused by this will make the medical card debacle look like Pyjama Day by comparison.
Due to cynical political failure from the beginning of Irish Water, we face once again third world water provision. Meanwhile pensioners lie unattended on trollies and the poor and well as middle income earners are being priced out of accommodation.
What a country. New party anyone?

December 31st, 1969

15/1/2016

Thank God for Ross O’Carroll Kelly

27/7/2015

As the Banking Inquiry descends into the predictable political pantomime farce (“Oh yes you did…”) one need look no further than Ross O’Carroll Kelly’s column in Saturday’s Irish Times to get a real insight into the culture of the time.

After all, his estate agency Hook, Lyon and Sinker is the one that came up with the promotional tag line for a commuter development: “Arklow – A Piece of Heaven Off the N11”.

And when his mother remonstrates: “Exploiting the misfortune of other people for your own monetary gain is not a career, Ross,” he observes: “You’d have to wonder what kind of future this country has if that idea ever catches on.”

The Sunday Independent reported yesterday that Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at UCD, who predicted the property collapse, has turned down an invitation to appear before the Banking Inquiry.

The newspaper adds that Kelly has not been following the inquiry closely and as far as he was concerned "it's old news."

He’s absolutely right. Forget the inquiry. All you have to do is to read Ross O’Carroll Kelly to get a real insight into what went wrong.

Credits: Paul Howard
Illustration: Alan Clarke

Early PR memory of the gentleman that was Bill O’Herlihy

25/5/2015

The newest recruit in a PR consultancy usually draws (is given) the short straw i.e. jobs at the coloured end of the stick. Thus, it was as a young and naïve account executive that I was always handed the task of garnering national media coverage for a minor, invitation golf competition called the McInerney Scotch Foursomes, hosted by Foxrock Golf Club.

This was a passion of Dan McInerney of the sponsor and important former client McInerney Properties. To the extent that if you failed to garner coverage for the company’s much more newsy and important AGM his attitude was benign – but national coverage was expected for the McInerney Scotch Foursomes.

I still have nightmares of arriving at the press reception to shrill cries from the Foxrock secretary, “Ronnie! Where’s the press?” (Probably an appropriate title for my autobiography).

I had to explain even back in those days that there was no correlation between press attendance and coverage – (although unfortunately there usually was in the case of the McInerney Scotch Foursomes).

An abiding memory of those times was the helpful advice Bill O’Herlihy gave me at one of the receptions on maximising coverage for the event. In the normal dog eat puppy world of PR, the fact that he would freely proffer invaluable advice to a rival PR agency was demonstration of the man’s generous spirit.

Sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. RIP.

Why most online ads don’t work (and one that does)

22/5/2015

Spending on digital advertising in the UK is on course to outstrip all other traditional formats combined including TV, print etc according to a recent article in The Guardian. Sales and marketing researchers Strategy Analytics estimate that the total UK advertising market will hit £15.8bn in 2015, up 5.5% from last year. An incredible just under £8bn of that will be spent on digital ads.

But just how effective is this rush online? Despite the hours spent on your mobile, tablet or desktop, how many online ads can you recall? A lot of online content and advertising fails because it tries to recycle old media ads or content to what is a totally different channel. The old phrase of ‘putting lipstick on the pig’ seems appropriate to a lot of online marketing efforts.

US car insurance company Geico and its agency (The Martin Agency) understand this. See ad below that recognises the short attention span of online audiences (but do stick with it for more than 5 seconds!).

C

May 21st, 2015

21/5/2015

Half of advertising spend to go online in 2015 – the media and marketing revolution accelerates

19/2/2015

My name is Ronnie - and I am addicted to newspapers. So, it was with a little concern that I read that for the first time digital advertising will account for half of all ad spend in the UK this year. Think of that: more advertising spend online than on TV, newspapers, magazines or radio.

The news, reported in The Daily Telegraph from Strategy Analytics, highlights the increasing threat to traditional print media, not just in the UK but also in Ireland and across the globe. Sadly, another Irish title, the Metro Herald expired before Christmas. The massive growth in digital revenues also puts into context the recent announcement by the Irish Times of a paywall for its content.

Maybe it’s because I’m not using a tablet but relying on laptop and iPhone 6 but I remain a huge fan (OK, addict) of print media. Yes I’ll get my news online or on radio/TV that Debaltseve in Ukraine has fallen or that Greece has or has not applied for a bailout extension – but rather than peering at a screen, I’ll want to spread out in comfort with a newspaper and a cup of tea (or preferably at the weekend a pint of Uncle Arthur) for deeper analysis, comment and implications. The reality is that newspapers are no longer really news papers.

The move to digital and the importance of search has implications and opportunities for PR. A study by Curata last year found that over 70% of marketers plan to increase spend on content marketing. I have argued in an earlier blog that the online revolution and huge increase in content marketing plays to PR strengths.

We are in the middle of a media and marketing revolution but used correctly, PR remains one of the most powerful elements in your marketing and digital marketing mix.
Ends
Side note: A 30-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl earlier this month cost an eye watering $4.5m or $150,000 per second.

A blog about PR, football and politics

Ronnie has been watching the Irish soccer team since he was a kid and caught two buses in to Dalymount Park. He believes that a) politics today is mostly about PR and b) Irish politics is far more entertaining than Ireland under Trapattoni.

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