Canuckflack

Today, millions of Italians are encouraging their government to perform a little act of self-love. It’s V2 day.

You have to understand, Italian politics is a giant mess. Governed by a parliament split into countless regional, ideological and personal political parties, Italy has been subjected to minority government after minority government.

Not that the ruling politicians have changed. If you bother to look up past presidents and prime ministers, you’ll see the same names popping up again and again - powerful politicians, financiers and oligarchs. Some have been cleared of conspiracy and corruption charges, others had the evidence disappear or claimed immunity as sitting legislators.

At the moment, Silvio Berlusconi is getting ready to become prime minister - for the THIRD time. There are some that argue, with some merit, that Berlusconi’s personal chokehold on print and television media in Italy plays a significant part in his abilities as a political phoenix.

Italians, understandably, are getting a little tired of their predicament. In fact, two million Italians hit the streets on September 8, 2007 to protest corruption and incompetence on the part of their government.

It was all part of a campaign of insubordination and protest organized around the “v sign” - the upturned fingers that really get the message across that an Italian would like you to vaffancuolo - perform intercourse on yourself.

Leading the charge is Beppe Grillo, a comedian, satirist and, now, political activist. Imagine Robin Williams, but with a lot more impact on the electorate. His foul but catchy anthem,

The New Yorker ran a lengthy interview with Beppe in February, which offered up an insightful examination of the political, economic and social currents that have prompted this sort of popular reaction.

Beppe has followed up on last September’s activity with V2 Day, being celebrated today, on April 25 (threw that in for you late readers on the feeds). From his blog:

…On 25 April we are liberated from nazi-fascism. 63 years later we can liberate ourselves from the fascism of information. It’s more difficult than it was then. It’s no longer rifle against rifle, hand grenade against armoured tank. The battle is between consciences that have gone to sleep and the freedom of thought, between those who no longer want to fly and those who cannot renounce the sky.

On 25 April we can change the country. We have the duty to do it for our children and for our conscience. The liberty of information cannot offer discounts. Three referenda for freedom of information in a free state: abolition of Mussolini’s Order of Journalists, elimination of a billion euro a year public financing of publishing, abolition of the Gasparri law and the duopoly Parties-Mediaset (shortly to be Mediaset-Mediaset).

In 400 Italian cities signatures will be collected. In tens of foreign cities there will be information about the control of the media in Italy. Music, bicycles, festivals and signs of peace. A new Renaissance. After so much shit, for Italy it is a duty…

Check out the flickr pool. Check out the PSAs, protest videos and citizen journalism reports on YouTube.

image courtesy of Stop.Media.Mafia

Technorati Tags: V2 day, Italia, Italy, Beppe Grillo, corruption, government, protest

I think the statement from 10 Downing Street says it all:

“…Gordon Brown will visit the US next week, his second trip to the country as Prime Minister.

The Downing Street website will run a live microsite including images, rolling updates and a Twitter feed throughout the PM’s stay from 16 - 19 April. Log on from Wednesday to follow the PM’s activities.

Mr Brown is expected to visit Boston, the United Nations in New York and meet President Bush at the White House in Washington. His meetings will focus on the global economy and other areas of mutual bilateral interest.

Gordon Brown’s first trip to the US as PM saw him travel to Camp David in July last year.

If I was a real social media nerd, or a real politics nerd, I would ask:

• does this mean there’s a communications assistant responsible for the twitter feed?
• what sort of vetting process is there for twitter messages? On the fly?
• is the content going to concentrate on policy announcements? Any chance of side remarks about the entrees at the state dinner? Snide remarks about the little kids handing over flowers at events?
• what sort of twitter app are they going to use? Is it on a BlackBerry, Treo or other PDA?

h/t to Simon Dickson

Technorati Tags: government communications, United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, twitter, public diplomacy

Barack Obama’s big banners for “Change” rely on an apt font: Gotham. The folks over at Helvetica noticed this, and pulled out an interview they conducted with Gotham’s designers:

“…Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones spoke about the creation of Gotham during our interview for Helvetica, and looking back at their description of what GQ wanted from the font, it sounds surprisingly Obama-esque. “GQ had a dual agenda of wanting something that would look very fresh, yet very established, to have a credible voice to it,” says Hoefler. It also needed to look very masculine and “of-the-moment.” Mission accomplished. (Helvetica: A font we can believe in)

h/t to Jeremiah

…but The City Desk, a blog about a fictional urban centre, is pure genius.

A piece from last year reeled me right in, with a mix of nearly believable retail history, technological confusion and urban conspiracy: The Permanence of Gillard’s Electric Typewriter Service

“…All large cities feature that staple of stand-up comedy, the retail storefront which seems to change hands every few weeks, and our own is no exception. The left-center unit of the Pioneer Square strip mall, currently S.E. Huang’s Kenpo-Karaterie, was a Spanish-language tax preparation service catering to the South Street area’s large Ecuadorian population as recently as last November- and, in the summer of 2006, it was a boutique specializing in salsa-related merchandise. Lot 47 in the Galleria at Woldman Heights is particularly infamous in this regard; in the last three years alone, it has been a Wittman’s, a Sunglass Hut, a Gap for Seniors, a Dobbins Farm Dairy outlet store, and a shop where one could commission tailor-made potato chip varieties….

Then the suggestion that actor William Atherton, who I remember most as the EPA inspector from Ghostbusters (”It’s true. This man has no dick”), was in the running for mayor.

The City Desk is magic. It is the paper of record for every neighbourhood you have ever lived in. It’s so familiar, so accurate, it makes you realize how foolish urban life and obsessions can be.

Technorati Tags: urban life, city paper, neighbourhood journalism

Okay. I understand that, in Iowa and New Hampshire, the Presidential primaries are almost as important and somewhat as interesting as college sports.

I also understand that the major Presidential contenders spend years visiting the states  - over and over again.

And I also understand that many of the political activities in the early primary states (Iowa in particular) emphasize a voter’s ability to “take the measure of a man” through personal contact. (Like the Ames Straw Poll)

I can’t quite understand, however, why 35% of likely voters would choose to listen to pre-recorded campaign calls. Is their dinner-time conversation REALLY that boring?

Stats from Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Technorati Tags: robocalls, direct marketing, political campaign

Granted, these results are only from three very small (but politically influential) states.

Still, it’s notable that interested voters will seek out supplementary information on candidates (especially if it’s viral), but their participation in politically-oriented social networks is much less enthusiastic.

Is this a reflection of the relative simplicity and entertainment value of viewing a simple video versus the actual energy involved in “becoming a fan” of a candidate?

This from research conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

The newest paper from Steven Levitt and Roland Fryer:

“…Rather than a terrorist organization, the 1920s Klan is best described as a social organization built through a wildly successful pyramid scheme fueled by an army of highly-incentivized sales agents selling hatred, religious intolerance, and fraternity in a time and place where there was tremendous demand.” (NBER abstract)

Hatred and Profits: Getting Under the Hood of the Ku Klux Klan is available from the SSRN or from Fryer’s own Harvard page.

I’ve been digging through the archives (more than 1300 posts) for something suitably intelligent and prescient to post in anticipation of BuzzCanuck’s 1% army bracket.

Instead, I’ve come up with a thought - two and a half years old - that seems right off the pages of this week’s Strumpette.

Ketchum, Williams, Rosen and the wood shed

Jay Rosen has rightly taken the PR blogging community to the wood shed for our (relative) lack of commentary on the Williams/Ketchum contract.

Many PR bloggers DID comment on the controversy - even those of us who do not work or live in the United States. Nonetheless, we can be critcized for not feeding this important debate on PR ethics at the speed or volume expected by most inhabitants of the blogosphere.

Not that we’re dealing with an isolated case. As Jeremy pointed out, the industry seems to be backsliding when it comes to transparency and ethical behaviour.

Public relations has long harboured underhanded operatives and unscrupulous tactics: the only way to demonstrate our commitment to open, honest and two-way communication is with the unstinting and outspoken leadership of prominent professionals, firms and associations (maybe even bloggers!) in the industry.

Neville Hobson, among others, hit the nail on the head when he asked where our professional associations have been hiding during this ethical imbroglio.

Several bloggers have suggested the associations’ low-key reaction may be a defensive tactic, designed to preserve their relationship with prominent members and sponsors.

If so, what is the worth of their codes of ethics? Are they just another page in a boring membership package, or a laminated plaque for the firm’s lunch room?

But why was the PR blogging community so subdued in its reaction? Why didn’t a feeding frenzy of debate and recrimination erupt, as in other parts of the blogosphere, building and tearing down arguments by the minute?

This, I think, reflect the differing motivations of the global PR blogger community: as Steve and Jeremy point out, we have individual areas of interest and concentration, and we don’t necessarily jump on the issue of the day when writing for our blogs.

Of course, our collective reaction could simply reflect natural aversion of all PR pros to becoming part of the story.

And that would be a shame.

Originally posted January 20, 2005.

Technorati Tags: public relations ethics, PRSA, CPRS, IABC, ethical blogging, values, morals

A leaflet on a telephone pole. On many telephone poles downtown.

About time that the Anarchists get organized.

• Advocacy Calls vs. Push Polls (and DON’T call them push polls) from Stuart Rothenberg. “As I have argued every year for the past five and apparently will have to continue doing until I have taken my last breath, push polls are really advocacy calls aimed at thousands of recipients. They are like television or radio ads, except they are delivered over the telephone. They seek to convey positive or negative information to influence a voter’s final vote decision.”

• Not wanted at SXSW: NO MAN PURSES!
  

• Latest WebTrenz from the San Francisco Bay Guardian: “Using micropayments, Annoturk helps you pay people in the developing world very tiny amounts of money to annotate all the information on all the wikis you’re supposed to be using. It’s like micro-outsourcing. You might pay 50 cents to a guy in Sri Lanka to add historical information about Lowell, Mass., to a wiki devoted to an upcoming Boston-area conference you’re planning. Or you could pay kids in China’s Shandong province to write small articles about every noun on your work-collaboration wiki. Annoturk is good for the developing world, and it’s good for writing. Plus, it’s just convenient when you’re trying to fill up space with information.” (it’s a joke, folks)
  

I would suggest that the practice of hiring someone to pump up your wiki could be called “wiki baking.”

• More SXSW: Lee LeFever on community lessons from SXSW and Community 2.0; Chris Carfi liveblogs the SXSW session on Community Ecology; SXSW Interactive podcasts

Technorati Tags: push polls, advocacy, man purses, wiki baking, community ecology, communities

• Where the hell are all the new political protest songs? So asks Duncan Campell at commentisfree. (Billy Bragg’s got one!)

• Brief profile of Laura Bush’s press secretary, Susan Dryden Whitson. Interesting fact about her life? She was American Idol winner Taylor Hick’s Grade 9 english teacher. (she’s had her rough patches - and I’m not counting the twin’s old partying habits)

• Jimmy Camp, Republican campaign activist, ne’er do well, punk rocker and accomplished singer/songwriter. Can you believe he opened for Willie Nelson, David Crosby and Huey Lewis & the News? Part I and Part II

• Confessions of an Ex-Pollster - the Op/Ed editor of the LA Times. A touch of self-immolation, but it balances out at the end. First lesson as a new pollster: “What I failed to grasp was that the primary purpose of our business was not to learn what voters think — but to determine how they could best be persuaded.”

Barack Obama’s current Senate press secretary is moving on to the Presidential campaign, and he emailed reporters about his replacement:

“Ben is a Virgo who enjoys talking on phone with reporters and leaking like a sieve.” (Politico)

As opposed to the normal approach taken by government officials in Washington, as cited in the “Scooter” Libby trial:

“…One of the signature moments in the case came this week, when veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus was asked about the difficulty of getting top government officials to talk to him.

“Well, they’ll talk to me,” Pincus testified. “They just won’t give me information.” (LA Times)

Or maybe Robert Novak’s comments are revealing:

“… he had spent three fruitless years trying to land a single interview with former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage.

“He had not only declined,” Novak said, “but indicated it wasn’t because he was too busy. He just didn’t want to see me.”

Darwinian Pick-Up Lines, now available on tshirts and buttons! Also, Top Ten Darwinian Pick-Up Lines. (Memoirs of a Skepchik)

Lily Allen, Madonna and Kate Moss all try their hand at designing clothing for High Street retail. “The PR worth of the sort of coverage they get … is astronomical. Retailers all err on the side of making too few of the collections so that they remain in demand. But one consequence of it being so limited is that the real worth is really only in the publicity.” (Guardian)

The Office meets Glengarry Glen Ross: A Spec Script by David Mamet, in McSweeney’s. “Second prize? A set of steak knives!”

Best - or worst - of the Atlanta Police Blotter at Creative Loafing.

Urban Nightmares Collective: plastering downtown Toronto with posters of Charlie Brown, Wesley Snipes and Heather Locklear. “They’re funny; they’re retro. It’s about surface coverage, and thinking like an advertiser.” (Globe and Mail)

A brief history of Bathurst Street, where I lived for one year during university. Photo montage as well, courtesy of Eye Magazine.

Technorati Tags: urban design, darwin, bathurst, retro, Glengarry Glen Ross, celebrity designers

• The Blogtrotters: behind the scenes at Umbria, trend trackers and blog monitoring service. (Denver Westword)
• Playing Dirty: the inside scoop on the role public relations industry in selling the “made in Canada” solution to global warming. It’s a full colonic, including a discussion of astroturfing and how the technique is used in policy lobbying by the big PR consultancies. (This Magazine)
• Phoning it in on a lazy Sunday: the NYT runs the yearly story on how tshirts and caps - preprinted with the loser’s logo - end up in Sierra Leone.
• How to keep the IM Generation involved - Paull Young’s notes on the AlwaysOn session.

Technorati Tags: astroturf, blog monitoring, blogger relations, climate change

Oh, I’m going to get flamed by the Star Wars loyalists on this. The 501st Legion is a group of Star Wars fans dedicated enough to create storyline-authentic costumes as Stormtroopers. They appear at fan conventions, local events and support charity work.

This past weekend, as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Star Wars franchise, about two hundred members of the 501st marched in the Tournament of Roses parade.

That is some strong brand chi. After all, the Stormtrooper represents the forces of evil, of repression and of colonial domination in the Star Wars body of work. In historical terms, many living survivors of World War II have been personally affected by “stormtroopers.” Colonizing or invading forces from decades, centuries and millenia past have left their imprint on Eastern and Western culture and civilizations - although such visually appealing costumes disappeared with the retreat of the Roman Empire.

Not only do Star Wars brand loyalists ignore these associations when participating in the 501st - they are welcomed openly and warmly wherever they appear in costume. Their energetic and passionate dedication to the Star Wars mythology is evident, and it’s also obvious there is no mean bone in their body.

Still - I was trained as a historian, and I found the image of two companies of Stormtroopers marching in the Tournament of Roses parade intellectually jarring.

This brand strength is a testament to how tightly George Lucas has controlled all aspects of the Star Wars mythology and marketing.

Technorati Tags: 501st, Star Wars, brand, loyalty

The Indian television market is booming, and Indian celebrities, politicians, activists and even the armed forces are adjusting to the pressures and behaviours expected in a 24/7 media environment dominated by visual reporting.

In North America, we assume that our talking heads know how to behave and speak in front of a mike: this is less certain in the world’s largest democracy.

We should remember that media awareness, information choice and broadband penetration are not equal in every nation: while North America may be peaking, some countries barely have a credible daily press.

Some examples of how India is making the transiton from a recent cover story in India Today:

“POLITICAL GROOMING Has led to the rise of a new breed of suave sound-bite savvy spokespersons who sit before a TV-friendly backdrop and dress in the right colours. Briefings for the cameras, usually at 4 p.m., are sacrosanct. Gag-orders on party workers ensure the best news is reserved for TV.

RIBBON CUTTING If you don’t have a starlet or even a former Miss World, you can wave that picture goodbye. The first line of press releases usually lists the celebrities before it talks of the event. Has led to the rise of minor event-openers like Amrita Arora who charge Rs 3 lakh per appearance.

ARMED FORCES Baptised in Kargil, the first televised war, the armed forces are grudgingly accepting media as a force multiplier and talk of “information warfare”. Prince was pulled out in an elaborate army operation supervised by a two-star general who got to hold him first.

BUSINESS ANNOUNCEMENTS All briefings are now meant only for television crews and between market hours 10 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. Mukesh Ambani’s 10 words to CNBC in 2004 - “there are ownership issues, these are in the private domain“-started the split in India’s largest business empire.

MOVIES The film promo has now crept into the news channel. Shah Rukh Khan bared his soul and plugged Don before NDTV’s Prannoy Roy; in Namaste London, Akshay Kumar took viewers on a guided-tour of the city, even as news channels also took editorial positions around movies such as Fanaa.

SPORTS Anything about cricket is breaking news. The Chappell-Ganguly slanging match is the world cup of TV coverage. Shows like Match ke Mujrim ensure the hysteria stays on after the stumps have been drawn, prompting a player to announce a boycott of at least one news channel.(India Today, December 25 - sub. req.)

Revisting the firing of Jan Pronk, the former U.N. special envoy to the Sudan, who was fired in part for what he wrote on his blog: Jeremy Wagstaff has posted the transcript of his interview with Pronk. They discuss why Pronk blogged in the first place, and whether the blog was truly responsible for his firing.

Place the quote. Late at night, after a Republican victory party in Minnesota, or late at night, after a party at Jake’s house?�

2:37 a.m.: A young Republican counsels an elder comrade on protocol for hooking up on election night. “Give it up, dude,” he tells him, sipping from a can of Coors beer. “She’s a college Republican. I’m a college Republican. You’re like 50.” (City Paper)

The Geek: Girls will do that, Jake. You know? They know that guys are, like, in perpetual heat, right? They know this shit, and they enjoy pumping us up. It’s pure power politics. I’m telling you.
Jake: I thought she hated my guts.
The Geek: Games, Jake. Silly torturous games.� You know how many times a week I go without� lunch because some bitch borrows my lunch money? Any halfway decent girl can rob me blind. Because I’m too tourqued up to say no! It’s heinous, I’m telling you. (Sixteen Candles)

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David Miller’s running for re-election in Toronto. These are some of his ads. This is not an endorsement.

Recognizing that today is election day in the United States, and that November 13 is municipal election day in Ontario, I hereby present a list of poor Get Out The Vote ideas:

• Door knocking by the Blue Man Group
• Telephone outreach by Tom Carvel and Harvey Fierstein
• Street Teams - composed entirely of mimes
• Voting guides - printed co-op with the local greek take-out place
• Indictment and/or disbarment of your candidate
• Providing shuttle service to the polls - on recumbent bicycles
• “Get to know your post-election appellate lawyer” meetings for party faithful in tight races
• Voter micro-targeting - based on an analysis of old usenet postings
• Localized� comment spam� on community-based blogs
• Catering your voter rallies with� Belmont Steaks*
• Losing a land war in Asia

For your enjoyment: a vintage Carvel ice cream radio ad.

*For those of you too young to remember, Belmont Steaks was the name on the cab of the truck delivering food supplies to the summer camp in the movie Meatballs. Anyone remember what the truck was carrying?

Years before I really became interested in a career in public relations, I read books on politics and popular culture quite voraciously. P.J. O’Rourke was a favourite, not for his political leanings but for his rapier sharp wit and analysis.One of his assignments for Harper’s magazine was to accompany the “Volga Peace Cruise” - a boat full of Americans visiting a pre-Glasnost Soviet Union.

Here’s his assessment of one night on the Peace Cruise:

“That evening, seven or eight young Russians from the local� Soviet-American friendship club were ushered on board …. Their president was a stiff young fellow, a future first secretary of the Committee for Lies About Grain Production if ever there was one. ….”

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Either a collossal waste of time or a beautiful combination of punk rock, politics, and social media. Tony Blair at the Labour Party conference, mixed to the lyrics and beat of The Clash’s Should I Stay or Go?

Some quick thoughts on the communications involved in campaigning for municipal office, from Vicky Smallman, candidate for Ottawa City Council.

In my ward, (a mushrooming exurb dominated by builders, road construction and big box stores) the roadside signs planted by candidates have to compete with realtor’s signs, mobile billboards, and giant hoardings directing drivers to new developments. Oh - and we seem to have twelve candidates for council in our area, each with their own sign in two or three sizes.

Anyway, here’s the candidate on signage and other vehicles:

“…They are also one of the few parts of “the message” that a campaign team can control.

• Web sites only reach the people that seek them out (as you, our dear reader can attest to);
• media coverage is solely at the discretion of the publishers and editors who also must (hopefully) carefully weigh the coverage amount;
• public debates are hosted and moderated by (sometimes self) interested third parties — in our case, the ward’s community associations;
• even pamphlets are just as likely to end up in a recycling bin unread as they are to end up in a voter’s hand.

Signs though, they’re right there in your face: Announcing who’s in the race. They can’t be avoided. They also cost a tonne of money.”

(Vicky Smallman)

An afterthought about the effort being put out by the Ottawa Citizen to cover the municipal election: the paper itself is doing a great job, but its effort at blogging really suffers from poor design. It’s hard to distinguish between posts, the headlines for the posts are undescriptive, and the text and kerning is quite tight.

Choice placement for a couple of Tim Hortons coffee cups - in the hands of Peter MacKay, the Foreign Minister, and Condi as they tour his parliamentary riding. The photo — and a salacious article — were found on the NYT’s splash page.

How does the marketing team at Tims quantify this placement?

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Two points to be made about on-the-fly writing and publication from the early 1970s. First, from the NYT review of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72:

“…Perhaps whistlestop and jet-plane campaigning should be abandoned and the candidates should compete solely through the electronic media. …”

In the interest of context and full disclosure, I attach the lines that follow the above quote (and which I find amusing AND true):

“… What Thompson does know, however, is that whatever the campaign procedures, the White House will continue to loom in the imagination of power- addicted men as the glassine-bagged white powder does in the imagination of the junkie. Watergate was the attempted rip-off of a fellow addict. “Fear and Loathing” lets us understand why the men we elect to the Presidency may have needle tracks on their integrity.”

The second quote comes from the book itself, and relates more directly to the creative process.

“… The time has come to get full bore into heavy Gonzo Journalism, and this time we have no choice but to push it all the way out to the limit. The phone is ringing again and I can hear Crouse downstairs trying to put them off.

“What the hell are you guys worried about? He’s up there cranking out a page every three minutes … What? … No, it won’t make much sense, but I guarantee you we’ll have plenty of words. If all else fails we’ll start sending press releases and shit like that … Sure, why worry? We’ll start sending almost immediately.”

… Crouse is yelling again. They want more copy. He has sent them all of his stuff on the Wallace shooting, and now they want mine. Those halfwit sons of bitches should subscribe to a wire service; get one of those big AP tickers that spits out fifty words a minute, twenty-four hours a day … a whole grab-bag of weird news; just rip it off the top and print whatever comes up. Just the other day the AP wire had a story about a man from Arkansas who entered some kind of contest and won a two-week vacation — all expenses paid — wherever he wanted to go. Any place in the world: Mongolia, Easter Island, the Turkish Riviera … but his choice was Salt Lake City, and that’s where he went. …”

Technorati Tags: Hunter S. Thompson, H.S.T, Salt Lake City

Given the new interest in astroturfing/public affairs/activist campaigns, I thought I’d refer you to some data from a survey of Congressional staffers, which I first discussed in April:

“I understand the value, from the pespective of sheer quantity and physical impact, of organizing a petition or letter campaign. But what is the real effect of all that work (or, in the case of an online email campaign, not that much work)? Research with members of Congress has shown that form letters, or letters that are evidently the product of an organized lobbying or petitioning campaign, are discounted by politicians. Communicating with Congress: How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy, prepared by the Congressional Management Foundation, provided quantitative and qualitative backing for this finding:

“I wish that outside groups would understand that overwhelming our office with form letters does more harm than good for their causes.”

- House Correspondence Staffer

“One hundred form letters have less direct value than a single thoughtful letter generated by a constituent of the Member’s district.”

- House Correspondence Staffer

“In cases where the Member/Senator has not reached a firm decision on an issue, 44% of staff surveyed said that individualized postal communications have “a lot” of influence, compared to 3% for identical form communications. As one House staff member noted, personal communications are more effective than form messages “because the recipient knows that the author was truly motivated by the issue.”

Technorati Tags: astroturfing, public affairs, activism

Visiting California, Tony Blair had some strong things to say about the qualities of leadership - and the responsibility to fight for ideas that are true and just. He also took a smack at the negative aspects of one-issue activism:

… Which brings me to my final point about leadership. The world changes fast; the policy changes necessary to cope are hugely challenging; opposition from traditionalists is immense. In these conditions, political leaders have to back their instinct and lead. The media climate will be often be harsh. NGOs and pressure groups with single causes can be benevolent but can also exercise a kind of malign tyranny over the public debate.
For a leader, don’t let your ego be carried away by the praise or your spirit diminished by the criticism and look on each with a very searching eye. But for heaven’s sake, above all else, lead. (10 Downing Street)