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’. [...]

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 [...]

‘Jargon bin’ awaits for nonsense phrases

A random early morning tweet today has found its way onto a dubious list of bad language. Not swearwords: a ’jargon bin’ full of corporate nonsense, invented by specialists but used and understood by few people outside their immediate circle. I should point out that it was not my jargon or even my use of it that was being highlighted. I hate jargon and have [...]

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 [...]

In defence of the Pravda (sort of)

The excellent We Love Local Government blog has just posted ’in defence of the Pravda’ (tabloid-speak for council newspapers). It actually started more like an attack, but read on and it highlights the fact that there are actually some good and some bad council newsletters. And the decent ones are valued by their residents. I’ve blogged about this issue recently, making similar points. They [...]

Council slogans: missing the mark

A guest on the excellent We Love Local Government blog has written today about spread of council branding (although it actually faces rapid decline as communication activity is frozen across the public sector). While I do not agree with all of it, the key point that local authority brands are often badly managed is hard to dispute. And I said purdah is a [...]

Sharing services – the way forward?

This blog post from We Love Local Government looks at the well-publicised idea of sharing services between councils to improve efficiency and reduce duplication. This is an issue that will (or should) be familiar to public sector communicators, with their teams often put forward as merger potential. I could blog for hours on this topic. But this blog is [...]