Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, or as most of
you will know it, Western Isles Council, is
resorting to innovative measures in it's
attempt to reduce costs. The following is an
example of that twentieth century
innovation. One of their information signs near
Horgabost on Harris evidences the Council's progress in cost cutting as they miss
out punctuation and an unimportant letter.
A Council spokesperson told our roving
reporter that while this example only resulted
in a small saving on paint, it was the
way forward. 'If we watch the pennies then the
pounds will follow.' The spokesperson
went on to say that all internal Council
memorandums and e mails are now
'twittered'. The plan, once they perfect the
system in-house, will be to tweet all
Council communications, internal and external.
When asked what percentage of the
Council's customers presently tweeted, the
spokesperson had no idea, but was
adamant about one thing. If people vote in a
Council to run the place, they should
expect their councillors, aided and advised by
the officers, to 'run the place'. After
all, he opined, they are the experts and a
forward looking Council like Comhairle
nan Eilean Siar would not be held back by
people who, in all likelihood, had
hardly ever been off the Island. No that is not how
it works. People have to learn to trust
their Council to make the decisions that are
good for them. In terms of this
'tweeting' idea, Council experts have carried out
research in many far of places; New
Zealand, Tahiti, California and Thailand and have
come back quite sunburned but more
importantly, full of praise for the innovative
ideas picked up in these far flung
corners of the globe. The spokesperson seemed a
tad defensive when asked if the research
could not have been carried out a bit
nearer home, replying, 'well, in an
attempt to keep the research realistic we had to
find places similar to those in our own
area, such as Pabail Uarach and Tolastadh a'
Chaolais, a difficult task, but worth
the effort. We have to get this right.'
In terms of 'Tweeting', they expect it
will take a few months to 'bed in', a quaint
Thailand expression apparently. No doubt
there will have to be a steep learning curve,
however I see none of that as a long
term problem and if they all simply trust their
Council and follow instructions things
would work out for the better and they will be
thanking the Council. The spokesperson
was confident that when the public, their
'customers', realized just how much
their elected members twittered they would
soon warm to the idea. The Council's
accountants and Corporate Communication
experts estimate that once all Council
communications are tweeted they will save in
the region of a third to half a million
pounds in the first year and expect that to
increase in the years that follow. They
look forward to the day when they, Comhairle
nan Eilean Siar, will be the first in
the UK to twitter their Annual Report.
Feedback from people in the street was
less than enthusiastic. One gentleman
suggested that the only tweeting was
coming from the twits at the Council and if he
needed 'tweeting' he would have bought a
canary. Another said they could 'twitter
on' before he learned to tweet, adding
that with my false teeth I can hardly fecken
whistle never mind tweet. A lady who did
not wish to be named said it sounded a bit
like the 'Clangers' and she wondered if
the Council were on the same planet. As us or
the Clangers? She never said.
