Newport’s Chartist mural has been destroyed, but the city council has one chance to seek redemption and avoid “another suicidal public relations disaster”, says David Mclean.
Newport City Council is in a serious predicament. It clearly misjudged how people felt about the Chartist Mural and obviously never expected the reaction to the moronic and cynical act of its surprise destruction two days before a well publicised protest march to save it.
Perhaps they expected that by ripping it down when they did, they would be faced with little more than flash-in-the-pan outrage that would die down quickly. How wrong they were.
Instead, the Council finds itself faced with growing anger and a highly organised and determined campaign to uncover who ordered the mural's destruction and the truth behind the scheming in the run-up to this act.
The campaign is employing a range of highly effective tactics, from snapping at the ankles of Councillors wherever and whenever they can; to gaining national and regional media coverage; to successfully enlisting the support of celebrities; to making Freedom of Information requests aimed at finally pulling the covers off the entire story from start to finish. It's not over by a long way and this really isn't looking good for the Council. The feeling on the street is that a lot of very dirty linen will shortly be uncovered. And as things are uncovered, the Campaign will only gather momentum until it gets its head-on-a-spike.
Newport City Council is in a serious predicament. It clearly misjudged how people felt about the Chartist Mural and obviously never expected the reaction to the moronic and cynical act of its surprise destruction two days before a well publicised protest march to save it.
Perhaps they expected that by ripping it down when they did, they would be faced with little more than flash-in-the-pan outrage that would die down quickly. How wrong they were.
Instead, the Council finds itself faced with growing anger and a highly organised and determined campaign to uncover who ordered the mural's destruction and the truth behind the scheming in the run-up to this act.
The campaign is employing a range of highly effective tactics, from snapping at the ankles of Councillors wherever and whenever they can; to gaining national and regional media coverage; to successfully enlisting the support of celebrities; to making Freedom of Information requests aimed at finally pulling the covers off the entire story from start to finish. It's not over by a long way and this really isn't looking good for the Council. The feeling on the street is that a lot of very dirty linen will shortly be uncovered. And as things are uncovered, the Campaign will only gather momentum until it gets its head-on-a-spike.