Ding dong the witch is dead! But will he be unable to confirm or deny it?
It seems Simon Caplan has been fired as head of Bristol City Council’s PR department in a mass clear out of officers that also includes Head of Regeneration Ashy McKay, Head of Culture Paul ‘Bilbao’ Barnett and the Head of IT – recently slammed by James Barlow .
So BB the Planks are beginning to be put in place no doubts the walls and the roof
weill follow.
What a shame they forgot to lay the foundations.
Blimey – Keep us posted BB!
[Eek! This is a good one! According to Bristol Blogger Simon, Caplan at the Bristol City Council has been “fired”, not clear at this stage if he has resigned…? ]
I know very little about Simon Caplan apart from his response here over the Princes Street Bridge affair. He didn’t seem very professional on that occasion.
It’s never good when people lose their job.
But who was wealding the knife/knives? We deserve to know!
I think the interview panels are composed of Cllrs from each party not sure who else.
This is a real shame. Not only is the svelte Mr Caplan a principled, modest, unassuming charmer, he’s also a really talented communicator who is not prone to angry outbursts when things don’t go his way and who does not switch political sides depending on who’s in power in the Council House. A truly nice guy …
I for one am devastated at the apparent removal of the “Rock and Pop Nut”, Simon “Carole” Caplan.
A man of such warmth, integrity and undoubted talent was wasted scribing mendacious missives at the Count’s Louse.
Hopefully he’ll turn up as the new managing editor of Weight Watcher magazine, or Pompous Git weekly.
I assume that there’s a vacancy in Corporate Communications now. I might even go for the job myself – now that would be fun!
First press releases from my sweaty pen: “Holland and Ormondroyd in steamy lesbo clinch shocker!”
“Bradshaw not human after all.”
“Gary Hopkin’s moustache standing as Green candidate shock.”
“Richard Eddy.”
At the end of the day, regardless of what everyone gets caught up in within the council, a head of corporate PR only has one real ‘performance indicator’ don’t they – what people think of the council.
Since everyone criticises the council the whole time and public satisfaction is so low, whatever he’s been doing for so long now clearly hasn’t been working. End of story really.
Interesting to see Ashy McKay going too, anyone remember how she went around saying regenerating deprived areas of Bristol was going to be dead easy when she turned up a few years back?
Dear Ashy McKay She did work hard to try and regenerate deprived areas its just a huge shame her bosses didnt share her enthusiasm
To use the style of “lowestform”.. from my attempted dealings with her, Ashy McKay stood out as an energetic, easy to contact, conscientious person who really knew how to grasp and deal with a problem when presented with it. Thank goodness her style wasn’t to bury her head in the sand, ignore the situation for months then pop up a couple of days before d-day bleating “we’ve got a problem and I’ve hired a lackey yesterday to deal with it and take the flak”..!
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Just to add to the tributes, I’d like to say that what I’ll miss most about Ashey is her warmth, compassion, oratorial skills and ability to connect with an audience.
What’s going on at the Council is a top-down thinning-out process whereby each level gets to play ‘musical jobs’- when the music stops there are fewer chairs than people. Redundancies all round!
Whatever you think of JO, she is certainly deptermined to offload the superflious BCC staff. It remains to be seen whether it will be the right people who stay, but the previous form ain’t good.
The process has just finished for the Dept’ Heads. It’s their creeping lickspittles* next. Then Line-managers and finally the riff-raff.
*yes, it’s personal.
I remember the endearing Mr Caplan as the Rumpelstiltskin of the press office, stamping his little feet in rage when unexpected news stories bit him on the bum. Watch for wheelbarrows of cash to pay him off….
Recently heard a squeak that Simon, was made to reapply for the job and didn’t get it after a restructure of the dept….. but he is still working at the council….? Under which capacity I am not sure.
I feel a beer and a chat with a fellow rodent coming on…
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