Posted on The government is rightly focusing on doing all it can to fight the spread of the coronavirus but it won’t get everything right all of the time. There is a case for public affairs and engagement but think through the risks and pick the issue carefully. As I discussed in last week’s blog, there are …
Posted on As together we face the ‘worst public health crisis for a generation’, the impact on individuals, families, communities and organisations will be huge. We all have to work out what it means for doing our jobs as well and public affairs is no different. I must admit to stopping and thinking twice before writing this …
Posted on The Government is being clear on what its immediate priorities are – preparing for exiting the EU, addressing climate change (COP 26) and ‘levelling up’. But what ‘levelling up’ really means is far from clear. So in public affairs we need to help define what these priorities really mean. The foundation stone should always be …
Posted on Just as public affairs is reacting to having a majority government in place, there are also implications when it comes to campaigning as well. What do you do when facing a government with a big majority? Following my look at the implications for public affairs now we have a majority government, this blog considers what …
Posted on For the last ten years in Westminster, we have known nothing but coalition and minority governments. Boris’s sizable election win last year put an end to all of that. Now we all have to get used to doing public affairs under a government with a majority. Just what does that really mean? Having been public …
Posted on By Jon Gerlis, public relations and policy manager, CIPR, When Queen Elizabeth began her reign in 1952 the UK had 850,000 army personnel – a clear indicator of a county’s attempts at ‘hard power’ – with a GDP of £470bn. Today we have significantly fewer troops (150,000) and higher GDP (£2,090bn). Soft power is more about hearts …
Posted on After nearly three years, the MLAs are no longer MIA. How did Northern Ireland’s lobbyists and comms professionals navigate the political vacuum in the absence of a devolved government? By Claire Smyth, “We’ve been here before. We didn’t panic. We’re pragmatic. We just regrouped and said, ‘Well, decisions still need to be made. Who will …
Posted on The government may be new but the expectations of business are increasing further. Without proper engagement to shape policy, businesses will be blamed if things go wrong. The Conservative (and coalition) governments under David Cameron and Theresa May both took quite interventionist approaches when it came to business. The new Johnson led government appears to …
Posted on The Conservative election victory has brought with it the promise of policy development and an end to uncertainty. But this is not business as usual as far as business is concerned. The comments made by the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, to the Financial Times about the future relationship between the UK and EU were revealing. Whilst …
Posted on Dominic Cummings’ plans for a radical overhaul of government has set pulses racing. For the first time since Mrs Thatcher had a go in the 1980s, the traditional workings of Government could be seriously challenged. But what would such changes mean for public affairs? Cummings’ blog on the proposals being considered secured plenty of media …