Gordon Beattie
Gordon Beattie is the founder of Beattie Media one of the biggest and most controversial PR firm in Scotland.
Beattie Media came to public attention in September 1999 when The Observer newspaper published a sting on two key employees, Kevin Reid, son of then Scottish Secretary John Reid, and Alex Barr. The Observer sting had been inspired by a tip-off from a senior Labour party source, who was ‘appalled’ at the flood of job offers from lobbying consultancies ‘who wanted him to basically call in all the favours he was owed on their behalf’ (Dean Nelson on Radio Scotland, October 1999). This story quickly developed into the first crisis of the Scottish Parliament and was dubbed 'Lobbygate'.
Reid and Barr were asked about their contacts with politicians and what differentiated Beattie Media from competitors. Barr mentioned his former colleague Jack McConnell was now Minister of Finance in the Scottish Executive. He also pointed out that the Beattie Media did ‘a lot of [PR] work with the public sector, and with large corporate organisations and we are constantly involving politicians in launches, exhibitions, speeches, presentations, that type of thing’ (Observer transcript, 1999: 3). Barr stressed Beattie Media’s links to the business community in Scotland:
"We’re in contact on a very regular basis, not only with politicians and the Scottish Office (sic), but also with business journalists, industry journalists, and movers and shakers within local authorities and local enterprise companies…So we’ve got our finger on the pulse of what’s happening in business and in construction". (Observer transcript 1999: 6)
Jack McConnell had taken a job with Public Affairs Europe in April 1998, in between resigning as General Secretary of the Scottish Labour party, and being nominated as a candidate to contest the 1999 Scottish elections for the Labour party. Public Affairs Europe was a joint venture into the growing lobbying business in Scotland between Beattie and Edinburgh law firm, Maclay Murray Spens.
Alex Barr outlined the rationale for employing McConnell: "We appointed Jack McConnell … to head up our public affairs consultancy, in the certain knowledge that Jack would get a safe seat from the Labour Party, and in the hope and expectation that he would also get a cabinet position within the new administration. So we knew that Jack was going to leave us". (Observer transcript 1999: 2)
So McConnell was given a job to use his contacts for the commercial benefit of the lobbying firm, and no doubt to be a useful contact in government. Gordon Beattie tried to crisis manage this scandal by offering an immediate unreserved apology for the boasts of his employees. However, this was not enough to draw a line under the affair. A full scale parliamentary inquiry followed, whcih meant more humiliation for Beattie and his reputation as a PR guru.
Beattie is also a Director of Decus Ltd
