Government Communications appoints a professional translator
Government Communications has hired David Dinsmore as a Permanent Secretary level director. His task is to make government speak clearly to the public, beginning with the phrase Permanent Secretary level director.
Dinsmore will lead the Government Communication Service across departments and agencies. At last, every announcement may sit beneath one person who can ask why paragraph three contains world leading twice and still says nothing.
The appointment aims to transform public communication. This will require departments to identify which of their previous transformations each new transformation is transforming.
The message gets an adult supervisor
“Clarity is our core mission,” said Arabella Message House, Deputy Head of Explaining The Explanation. “We have prepared a plain English framework. It is only 184 pages because we respect people’s time.”
Government Communications often begins with a policy idea. It then becomes a briefing. It becomes a statement. At some point, someone adds the words bold, ambitious and world leading until the original idea seeks asylum in a footnote.
The new role gives a senior lead across government. It also gives every meeting an extra chair for the moment someone suggests putting the key message in the third paragraph after the context.
Dinsmore brings media and executive experience. His first challenge may be explaining that one new senior role reduces complexity by taking a commanding position above the complexity.
Confusion will now arrive on brand
Departments welcome modern media. A prototype now turns any official sentence into a social post, a ministerial quote and a reply confirming that it does not answer the question.
A dashboard will measure public understanding. Green means people understood. Amber means they saw the release. Red means a minister has begun explaining what the release never claimed.
The public may notice change immediately. Future confusion will be centrally coordinated, carefully branded and delivered before breakfast, with a concise summary available in a separate 74 page document.
Read the real story: The Cabinet Office announcement of the new communications director.
