Category: Uncategorized

Taking postive steps forward after International Women’s Day

Raised purple fist of a woman for international women's day and the feminist movement. March 8 for feminism, independence, freedom, empowerment, and activism for women rights

This is awkward. Posting about International Women’s Day 24 hours after everyone else.

No excuses. It’s been a busy time. Today’s my wife Lisa’s birthday. We went out to dinner at a recently opened Italian in Wells yesterday evening to celebrate. I’ve seen her work hard over the years to complete her MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy and become a family therapist in a busy team in Somerset.

My daughter Penny heads to New Zealand for a month on Thursday. She holds down two jobs to save for the trip since getting the grades to study archaeology at York in September.

My mum Gwyn ran a high street business for decades with my dad, who she married at 18 in 1973. Fiercely loyal, she stuck by me during some wild times when I didn’t deserve it. It’s their wedding anniversary tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing them in Pembrokeshire later this month.

Clever, caring, dedicated, honest. These women make the world a better place.

I’m so lucky to have them in my life. So, yes, of course I celebrate them. But I’m also hacked off that we’ve got some way to go to create a world that they deserve. If anything, in recent times it feels like we’ve gone backwards.

Beyond the huge volume of celebratory posts we face some huge challenges. The Middle East is in crisis. Russia continues its hostility towards Ukraine. The climate crisis is deepening. Economic uncertainty is growing. Men are running things badly. Women and girls bear the brunt.

That’s why we start this week clear-sighted about how much further we have to go, in so many ways.

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What next for blogging and X? Changing two old habits for 2026

What next?

I’ve been thinking about what to do with two long-standing communication habits I let drift for different reasons in 2025.

The first one is blogging, specifically this blog after a year in which I’ve published very little on here.

I was a civil servant when I set this blog up in 2010. I used to write very often about what I was doing and thinking. It gradually grew a following without getting into trouble with my employer.

Four jobs later, I lead a small very busy PR agency with around 20 clients on its books. We did a hell of a lot last year. At times it felt like I barely had time to draw breath, let alone write here. This infographic from the team sets out some of our achievements in 2025.  

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Starmer’s red-tape crackdown won’t fix the trust problem

Starmer gives a speech in Hull in March, surrounded by people in a crowd

Overly cautious, hidebound by process, blocking the path to progress.

So said Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he voiced frustration over public bodies’ collective process problem which he says obstructs the government’s growth ambitions.

His address in Hull last Thursday highlighted familiar complaints about a lumbering state, which play out more vividly in American politics.

Bits of government – notably the quangos* – don’t work together well, or quickly enough, it’s claimed. There’s too much duplication, with comms teams coming in for special mention. Organisations announce endless, repeated consultations which masquerade as action. And politics finds itself in a ‘defensive crouch’, ducking big decisions.

All this while housing and energy costs rocket, patients wait for hospital treatment and living standards slide.

Those sentiments underpinned his headline-grabbing pledge to slash bureaucracy by abolishing the body set up to run the NHS in England.

I think you get more from listening to a speech as it’s given than you do from reading the pre-briefed, slanted headlines. You can catch it here.

The points about regulation chime at least in part with complaints by Liz Truss – remember her? – about red tape strangling growth. Tanking the economy with a recklessly disastrous mini budget didn’t help either, in fairness. But here we are today, with process in the firing line.

As someone who worked for a quango in a comms team and has run a few consultations, I feel drawn to offer thoughts on the speech and where it leaves us. There’s loads more to say on collaboration, culture and why good regulation matters.

If you want another take on how we got here, The Economist’s leader from January sets it out well.

For now, here are three things that struck me about a speech that, let’s not forget, came from a Labour Prime Minister less than a year into the job. That he’s speaking in such tones at all is noteworthy.

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National Service spin sidesteps today’s challenges

Broken plate strewn across a floor.

Less than a generation ago, students could get a degree without accruing a lifetime of debt. Some received maintenance grants to give them the confidence to go university, often as the first members of their family to do so.

House prices were around three times average incomes, or maybe four at a push. I remember writing stories in 2003 about housing in parts of Sheffield costing more than £100,000 for the first time. Saving for a deposit was possible within a year or two.

More recently, young people could travel, work and live all over Europe.

These basics are much harder to get today, thanks to the actions of a generation of leaders who benefitted from them and compounded the interest.

Rather than understand, or even acknowledge, these challenges, the beneficiaries feed a sense that if young people stopped protesting and worked harder (like we did) all will be fine.

Worried about the climate crisis? You’re a snowflake! Need a £50,000 deposit to get on the housing ladder, on top of your £1,500 a month rent? Stop eating avocados! And so, it goes on. Statements and sponsored social ads speak to an older, home-owning group of voters but don’t get near addressing the challenges facing an entire generation.

This is the lens through which I see Rishi Sunak’s weird and hurriedly compiled weekend announcement about rolling out National Service for 18-year-olds.

Whether the policy would work, and others ask questions here, here and here that I won’t repeat, is barely relevant. This is part of a pattern of behaviour from a political class that appears to prize spin above delivery.

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Businesses unite to respond to COVID-19

Businesses in the West of England face a challenge like no other as the national response to the COVID-19 outbreak has taken hold.

Employers across the region have moved quickly to adjust to new measures whilst dealing with a flurry of information and guidance from government about what to do and how to access business support. Concerns about the pressure on the NHS and public bodies combines with anxiety about how businesses can continue trading as the economy is placed into temporary hibernation.

As director of a small and growing business in Bristol, the most striking thing about this crisis for me is that everyone is impacted. Whatever sector we are in, we are indeed all in this together.

The principles of collaboration and working together have never been more important than they are now.

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#Togetherstronger: more than a marketing slogan

After the chaos of Brexit and divisive tone of much of the reaction to the vote, there’s nothing like sport to bring people back together.

And what a rollercoaster of a week it’s been. As a remain supporter and proud Welshman, I was disappointed that so many people in Wales voted to leave the EU.

The prevailing, and sometimes lazy, narrative that has emerged since is one of a nation divided.

Then Friday night happened…

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