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β›ˆοΈ A week is a long time in politics

Hi I'm PR Futurist Stuart Bruce and I'd like to welcome you this week's That Was The Week That Was.

Apologies as it is a bit of a bumper issue this week... and I've even left stuff out!

In the UK it's been a busy week at the intersection of public relations and politics. At the start of the week a Sunday Times' exclusive revealed that a small Newcastle-based public relations company had been awarded a Β£670,000 contract to work directly for the government's COVID-19 vaccine czar. There were lots of question around the probity of the procurement process which became worse when the Financial Times revealed one of the company's directors worked with one of the UK prime minister's adviser's farther-in-law in the North East of England - Dominic Cummings as if you needed to ask.

Government communication remained in the spotlight with the news that Boris Johnson was to appoint Lee Cain, his director of communications (and Dominic Cummings' close mate), to be his new chief of staff. This was swiftly followed with the news the appointment had been vetoed by Carrie Symonds, Johnson's live-in girlfriend (herself a former head of communications for the Conservative Party), and Allegra Stratton, his new press secretary for the No 10 televised briefings.

The news of Cain's appointment was swiftly followed by the news of his resignation amidst rumours of mighty rows in Downing Street. The following day Dominic Cummings followed him out of the door by resigning and staging a photo opportunity of him carrying his 'cleared desk' box out of the famous black door.

Best wishes - Stuart  

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Remember I'm always available to help you with consultancy or training on modernising your public relations practice including team skills and capability audits, measurement and evaluation and the choice, purchase and implementation of public relations technology #PRTech. Just get in touch via my Stuart Bruce Associates website. I'm always happy to jump on a Teams or Zoom call.

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Stuart Bruce, PR Futurist and founder of Stuart Bruce Associates