Links I like 12.05.05

Reaction to the elected mayor vote in Bristol – various Well done Bristol for bucking the national trend and voting decisively, if in small numbers, in favour of an elected mayor to lead the city from November. They were the only city to vote yes to the proposal following a pretty low-key campaign on the issue. The Centre for [...]

Campaigns get people to care about an elected mayor

I’ve been looking at the debate around proposals to devolve power to English cities, by installing elected mayors who (it is argued) will help areas outside London ‘punch above their weight’ and revitalise interest in local democracy. I wanted to find out more about the arguments around this idea in Bristol, where I work, which [...]

Links I like 12.04.04

Local elections 2012: predicting the 50 councils to watch – LGiU blog The Local Government Information Unit charts the more hotly contested local councils elections this year, which have yet to turn the heads of many people if my (very basic) tests of public opinion represent a wider view. It identifies a number of councils [...]

Cities need to make the case for a real deal

I’ve been having discussions and reading about the enhanced role our major cities can play, proposals to hand more power and responsibility to city halls, or Core Cities, and the ambition of towns to be seen as having more clout. Yesterday’s announcement that Perth, St Asaph and Chelmsford are to be crowned Jubilee cities brought [...]

Freedom of Information, or ‘freedom to fish’?

I’d like to share with you two views on our Freedom of Information legislation, which is the subject of some serious discussions about its future use. The Guardian has today published a leader in defence of the Freedom of Information Act, saying that any proposed move to restrict its application would be ‘a retrograde step’. [...]

Measurement made doable for local authorities

I’ve been spending the last couple of days reading a truly excellent report by Westminster City Council into how it measures its communications activity. I think the industry is good at talking about evaluation, as anyone who reads PR Week will know, but less certain of delivering it consistently and well. I’ve been involved in [...]

Lots of love for local government

I was recently asked by the We Love Local Government team to supply them with a tweet about why I ‘love’ the sector for a post they were putting together to mark the anniversary of their blog. I was flattered to be asked and duly set about putting my thoughts into a tweet for them to use [...]

Links I like 11.10.22

‘Engagement’: fashionable yet bankrupt – Canalside View Martin Weigel writes at length about the industry-wide misuse of the term ‘engagement’ and hits the nail squarely on the head a number of times. The problems he cites in his nine ‘bad habits’ of engagement highlight his main point that the phrase has become so widely used, [...]

Links I like 11.10.01

Local Government Oscars – We Love Local Government I’ve been on the periphery of a couple of entries for the Local Government Chronicle Awards this week, in connection with projects we support. They are fantastic schemes and worthy of recognition. Assembling an award entry can be time consuming and demanding, especially when left to the [...]

Why working as a council PR means taking a vow of silence

An entertaining post from a frustrated PR has appeared on the We Love Local Government blog. The poster (who is, of course, anonymous) writes about the culture shock of moving from the private sector to the febrile atmosphere of a local council in 2011. It’s a good read. But, given the complaints about the politically [...]