Feb 25 2008
Let’s get Rod to Blog

Rod needs to blog.
Rod’s an experienced PR / Public Affairs practitioner whose experience is well worth tapping into. He’s also one of those people who’s often talking and, when he is, it’s generally worth listening. Would have been an excellent teacher in another life, one of those ones you could sidetrack onto pretty much any topic, but who still managed to instill knowledge without your even realising. Scarcely a day would go by at H&K without Rod uttering the phrase “Jimmy B, tell me what you think about this …” – and then we were off.
An industry stalwart and vocal advocate for the Public Affairs profession, Rod was on telly the other week giving evidence before the House of Commons Public Administration Committee as part of their lobbying enquiry – and did alright, too. He’s written all manner of articles, reviews and so on for various exalted organs of the mass (and not-so-mass) media. Get him in a pitch and you can light the blue touch-paper, sit back and watch Rod impress your potential client. We can all learn from Rod.
But that’s not why I want him to blog. Or at least not the whole reason.
Rod-isms.
Rod is blessed with a particularly eloquent turn of phrase and, every now and then (and generally several times a day by tea-time) he’s come out with one of those pearls of wisdom that you just have to file away and keep for future reference. Think Saint and Greavesie rolled into one, or perhaps Murray Walker. Maybe Jeremy Paxman when he’s really on form. Even Donald Rumsfeld.
Sadly most of the Rod-isms I can remember, involving, as they do, clients named Richard or Marcus’s expert mastery of the Cox Review, aren’t fit for printing in what is, after all, a U-rated blog. So I’ll content myself with just one:
Well that was an interesting pitch. We’ve either definitely won it, or we definitely haven’t …
… which doesn’t really illustrate the full breadth of wisdom, innuendo and sarcasm which Rod is capable of cramming into one short phrase or sentence.
Rod, if you’re reading this, please start blogging. If you do, I’ll change that picture.
“Support”
Especially since the enlightened government under which I currently toil has taken the far-sighted decision to block me from using mine.
I also hear that those lovely boys behind the pirate bay have been arrested and renditioned to Guantanamo.
To coin a pharsee, there’s a war going on out there.
Rod, we knead you.
M
As you say, Jimmy B, there is so much that he could say. I can imagine an internet backbone goaning under the weight of his commentary… And a family wondering when he’ll ever come home.
I am, none the less, 100% behind this recruitment effort. I would take great pleasure in seeing that ‘somewhat sinister beard’ in print.
However, I think we need to make it a bit easier and suggest a theme. I think he could so easily write on any topic at all, that we need to suggest a framework for his contributions… The Top Ten topics that we’d like addressed…
All of which should start with the line: “That reminds me of a story. I am not sure if I have told you this or not, but…”
Count me in.
/df
How about Rod starting a blog on squash? I understand he’s quite the demon and he might motivate fatties like me to take part in a multi-agency competition if he were to set on up…
… might need to tie his arms behind his back if I’m to stand a chance of winning.
Ah yes, the sinister beard. Now it all comes together. Has anyone actually seen Rod and Hugo Drax in the same room?
Hugo Drax, megalomaniac businessman
intent on destroying the whole of humanity
Rod
Time for a Moonraker quote:
Hugo Drax: Mr. Bond, you persist in defying my efforts to provide an amusing death for you.
Absolutely couldn’t agree more. Why should only a select group of individuals be blessed by (or subjected to) daily Rod-isms?! I know my life is a more predictable and less colourful place to be without the constant anticipation that either a Rod-ism or a pearl of wisdom could just pop out at any moment.
[...] Here’s an article Rod wrote for PRWeek the other day, on the regulation versus self-regulation debate currently surrounding the lobbying industry in the UK. It’s rather good, if a little lacking in Rod-isms. [...]
Top 10 you say? – his name is an anagram of ‘Grow dirt chart’.
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