Media & PR

Conservative leader William Hague’s got it half right and half wrong

I’ve not blogged about William Hague this week as others have already said what I think, expertly and eloquently. The dignity with which he’s handled his personal life is matched by my feeling of distaste about the way it’s been forced into the public’s eye.

Where he’s not been so impressive is at handling the legitimate questions about whether he appointed someone properly qualified to a public sector job. In that respect, he’s in the same situation as many MPs who have appointed relatives to work for them. Some have managed to defend that well because the relative has been well suited to the role and doing well in the job. Those MPs who struggled to justify it were those where it wasn’t clear that a good person was doing a comprehensive job.

Hence my views expressed in a PR Week story today:

Mark Pack, associate director at Mandate, said: ‘Hague faced questions about his private life and his professional judgement.

‘He dealt with his private life very professionally, but people are still wondering why he appointed an adviser with apparently very limited experience in his field – the reasons behind this have not been addressed.’

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