PubAffairs Blog
Polling is not for the birds (parakeets excepted).
Dan Fox15 April 2009 7:05 AM
One of my favourite West Wing moments is the meeting between a reluctant President Bartlet and a flashy opinion pollster who claims that ...
Treading a line between research and stalking.
Dan Fox23 February 2009 2:58 PM
As a quick follow-up to my previous post on nano-campaigning, it is worth noting that social media has a further significance in terms of trad...
Think big, act small. It’s time to start nano-campaigning.
Dan Fox19 February 2009 5:48 PM
In the title of his 1973 book, criticising technological progress and financial growth, econom...
There's a difference between throwing a temper tantrum and gaining influence.
Dan Fox09 January 2009 5:43 PM
My niece is an expert in persuasion and influence. Derren Brown? You have nothing on her. Some more chocolate buttons? Staying up a half hour later? Another go with her favo...
Historians confirm: "internet existed before 10 February 2007".
Dan Fox29 November 2008 6:43 PM
During the 1997 General Election, I was lucky enough to be working in the Labour Party Leader’s Office. So crucial was my role, Alastair Campbell decided against revealing it in last year’s bestselling mem...
Is it time for public affairs to wag its long tail?
Dan Fox12 November 2008 2:34 PM
One of the odder by-products of the banking collapse has been the confidence with which we can all now hold forth on the intricacies of the international business system.
Analysing the consequences of securiti...
Can we fix it...
Lobby-Lite11 November 2008 2:33 PM
A great political speech not only transcends time but also time zones. It resonates with rich and poor, black and white, male and female. It should mean as much to someone in Boston, USA as Boston, Lincolnshire. And l...
Heineken don?t do party conferences. But if they did?
Lobby-Lite29 September 2008 5:38 PM
…they’d be the brains behind the Conservatives this year. In ten years of Party Conference attending I’ve never seen such a slick, logistically smooth event.
The security staff are smiling ...
Tittle and tattle at Labour Conference
Lobby-Lite21 September 2008 8:24 PM
Party conferences are surreal places. All those people who would qualify for a P (political) or M (media) list spot when you notice them once in London are suddenly everywhere – and only genuine celebs (there&rs...
Lib Dem conference - the alternative fashion week
Lobby-Lite21 September 2008 8:22 PM
Yup – you weren’t expecting to see Lib Dems and fashion in the same sentence were you? But while London Fashion Week raged in London, those politically exiled from London, swept down to Bournemouth to work...
Party conference on (but not too much)
Lobby-Lite18 September 2008 11:06 AM
I was asked last week how a lobbyist can judge whether a party conference has been successful. The girls in my office say it is the freebies I bring back. Well I’m back from Lib Dems and I don’t think the ...
2012 Manifesto
Lobby-Lite25 August 2008 1:23 PM
As the last firework faded over Beijing, the British media were still conveying a sense of shock that Team GB finished so high up the medal table. But, with the highs come the lows, and now our fickle media warn that ...
Silly season for pointless PR
Lobby-Lite12 August 2008 9:45 AM
For anyone involved in the media, August is a lost month. Apart from the middle Thursday where the papers write indignantly about dumbed down A Levels, and then fill the front pages the next day with pictures of beaut...
The trials of being Gordon Brown
The Rambler31 July 2008 12:20 PM
Normally I am concerned with all things EU and European, but given Gordon Brown's recent problems I could not resist the temptation to comment.
For a start, lets be honest, had Gordon not got too confident...
End of term
The Rambler13 July 2008 10:11 AM
Your blogger, as he walks around the corridors of power in Brussels, listening to the policy makers, has struggled to find one subject that can be written about. This could be because tired Eurocrats and MEPs are looking...
NO!
The Rambler21 June 2008 11:01 AM
The Irish have somewhat agitated the EU bubble this week. Their NO vote last week in the only referendum to be held on the Lisbon/reform/ex-constitution/end of democracy Treaty has sent shockwaves through th...
Hold the front page - something is happening in Europe
The Rambler06 June 2008 12:27 PM
Front page this morning in the Guardian "Tory EU enforcer quits over expenses". A picture of Giles Chichester lighting up the grey Brussels gloom. A red letter day as for the first time in as long as I ...
Lets hold a hearing!
The Rambler25 May 2008 12:29 PM
Your blogger has not blogged for a while. Whilst I don't want to claim that all I have been doing is attending hearings, it has dawned on me that a hearing serves little purpose and is an idea that ...
Of summits and Sarko
The Rambler17 March 2008 9:58 AM
Some of you may have noticed that last week there was a European Council. A European Council should not be confused witht the Council of Europe nor the Council of Ministers. It is the meeting of EU leaders that set th...
A few points if I may
The Rambler10 March 2008 5:37 PM
Your blogger has been quiet of late. I have been unable to find one big topic to write about (as you are all probably bored of the EU Treaty debate in the UK). So I thought I would write about a few things instead.
Low Carbon, High Politics
The Rambler10 February 2008 12:02 PM
For a few weeks now your blogger has been trying to understand, disect and generally get to the bottom of what the Commission's package of proposals on climate change really mean. Therefore, after some thought I must...
Survival of the fittest?
Lobby-Lite24 January 2008 6:18 PM
The Times this morning reports a story guaranteed to make gym bunnies’ blood boil. The government’s considering paying fat people to lose weight. As part of a strategy to fix the bad eating habits and sede...
Gordon says...get skilled
Lobby-Lite20 January 2008 11:11 AM
Having seen those adverts with the hands telling us that we need to take control of our futures and get skilled, I signed up for an evening course.
I was a little concerned when I called to register to find th...
Brown, Blair, Lisbon, the Treaty and the EU
The Rambler20 January 2008 11:09 AM
Given the recent antics of Gordon Brown it has become hard for the rambler to avoid writing a blog entry on that most hackneyed and overwritten subjects: Britain and the EU.
Before Christmas Gordon decide...
Gordon says...get fit
Lobby-Lite12 January 2008 11:06 AM
So new year, new body! The regular January proclamation of the unhealthy, mince-pied up and newly tee-total. And, as Gordon says, we should do thirty minutes of exercise a day. As a result I, along with many thousands...
Gordon says...get recycling
Lobby-Lite06 January 2008 11:21 AM
As an (occasionally) dedicated public affairs consultant I’m constantly advising clients and colleagues on the latest directives and ‘suggestions’ from Government. With the New Year coming round and ...
An empty diary
Lobby-Lite05 January 2008 11:19 AM
On the desk lies a pristine looking diary, not yet stained with coffee, not yet featuring the scruffy, ripped pages indicating a forgotten notebook on far too many occasions. 2008 stares up blankly. The 2008 comms pla...
We are all Belgian now
The Rambler03 January 2008 9:51 PM
Many things happened in 2007. Some big, others small. Belgium, for once, got some attention in the UK press. Some of you may have read that the country has been without a Government for more thansix months. Even ...
If a week is a long time in politics - where did the whole year go...
Lobby-Lite30 December 2007 9:34 PM
As my first ever post I figured it was worth a look back over 2007.
This was the year of elections real ones, non-existent ones and controversial ones. There was a ...
Show me the money
The Rambler26 November 2007 7:30 PM
Last week the European Commission began to muse on how companies and Governments should change how they measure success. In order to switch policy making into another gear, they went back to a tried and tested formula...
I'm British, get me out of here
The Rambler20 November 2007 12:16 PM
An interesting story was running last week. It seems that 400,000 Brits have left the country and "around" (cause nobody seems to know) 519,000 people have arrived in Britain seemingly to either sponge off t...
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