Author Archives: Dan Slee

Alarming research on how local Facebook groups are being used to spread hate has been published which public sector communicators need to know about.

A small number of interlinked groups have become the engine room of far-right opinion that has sought to normalise racism, disinformation and conspiracy theories, findings show.

Results of the 12-month investigation have been peer-reviewed by academics and published in The Guardian. 

As someone who has researched local Facebook groups for the past seven years this comes as no surprise. While some groups are cornerstones of their communities other groups spread hate. 

Before I go through the research’s findings I need to address public sector communicators directly. If that’s you, I know the urge to click away is strong. You’re busy but I’d urge you to stay. This has the potential to undermine everything you are doing.

Why Facebook groups are important

The data is really clear here.

• Two thirds of the UK population in your area use Facebook.
• Two thirds of all Facebook users are members of Facebook groups. That’s about half the population.
• Facebook groups are the most important sources of local government information for everyone between the ages of 25 and 65.
• Facebook groups are more than three times as likely to be a source of local news than a Reach plc website for a 30-year-old.
• There is five times more local news than national news in Facebook groups.
• On average, there are more than four local Facebook group memberships per head of population in London rising to 12 per head in parts of Scotland.

For more reading, I’ve blogged on Ofcom research here, the importance of Facebook groups to Meta and the importance of news to Facebook groups 

So, that’s setting out why Facebook groups are important. I’ll look at the research and then go through some strategies you can use. 

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

The research findings: ‘Inside the everyday Facebook networks where far-right ideas grow’

In 2024, rioting took place across England in response to the murder of children in Southport and was fueled by far-right disinformation. Researchers traced a handful of those charged and then researched their publicly-available Facebook groups.

They found they were members of overlapping Facebook group networks with 600,000 members with many posts supporting those charged. An analysis using AI of 51,000 posts made in summer 2024 in those groups showed:

• A distrust of mainstream institutions.
• Scapegoating immigrants.
• ‘White British people are fed-up.’ 
• ‘I’m not far-right I’m just right.’
• Conspiracy theories. 

Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology at Cambridge University, sums up: 

“Regular people interacting with this content often don’t know that they’re part of some playbook or agenda. Political elites and opinion leaders such as Farage, [the far-right party] Homeland, or Tommy Robinson do take a page out of the fascist playbook and are using it to dupe regular people into engaging with their rhetoric. So they come up with a narrative such as ‘the mainstream media is lying to you’, or ‘scientific institutions are looking to censor people’.

“And then they try to get regular people to support, amplify and engage with those topics.”

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

This is a community cohesion thing not a politics thing

The copout way of this is to think this is that it is ‘political’ and that’s not something public sector comms people do. You are politically restricted, yes? This isn’t. This is community cohesion. This is protecting democracy against radicalisation.

This is not about the comms team getting involved in ‘he said she said’ arguments. But it is about using Facebook groups as a place to communicate. Some won’t be receptive but many others will be.

Having concerns is part of the political process and its for politicians to take up the issue. Making comments that lead to arrest and conviction is breaking the law. Plain and simple. 

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

To engage online or to not 

I’ve spoken to many public sector people who roll their eyes and despair at online behaviour. I feel for them. I’m proud to say I was part of the first wave of local government communicators who pioneered how social media was used. There were many of us. But those pre-COVId days feel far away.

There’s no doubt that since COVID the way people can speak to each other has fallen into the gutter and in some cases far worse.

But this poses a very serious question. Should the public sector engage online?

I’ve heard of people ducking out of posting on some key topics because they know there’ll be comments. I feel for them too but for me the main issue here is a lack of support for those who are monitoring pages and a lack of any strategic plan to deal with incoming comments.

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

Social media house rules

The ditch I’m prepared to die in are social media house rules. Every organisation that uses the internet needs one. It’s not a nice to have. It’s an essential to have. Indeed the Health and Safety Executive place a responsibility on employers to protect their staff from abuse in the workplace. 

With a set of house rules you can firmly draw a line in the sand to block those who can’t talk online without shouting and swearing. Comms here is re-inventing the wheel that customer services has long been using. If you turn up to the council one stop shop and shout and swear there are consequences. So it should be online, too.

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

Engaging in awkward spaces in an emergency is sometimes a necessity

When a car drove into Liverpool supporters at the club’s city centre trophy parade the far right disinformation started within minutes. It was an immigrant, they said. It was an ‘illegal’.  

Within hours, Merseyside Police had staged a press conference identifying the culprit as a British-born local man. News outlets such as BBC News, Sky News, the Liverpool Echo and other mainstream news outlets reported this development. As a result, the misinformation withered.

Had Merseyside Police not made the press conference and posted on X as well as other places the field would have been left for bad actors. 

It is important to post in all spaces in an emergency.

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

Posting on your page with a plan is a necessity 

First, posting to your own page. 

I’ve heard of people who pull a punch rather than communicate on some issues. I can sympathise with that but for me it’s a team failing to do their job.

Instead, I’m impressed with the approach of organisations like Edinburgh Zoo, Sheffield City Council and Royal British Legion which stick to their guns and post on topics that will attract hate but have a plan to challenge it.

I’m pretty sure those organisations will remove the hateful content but they’ll also challenge snark pushing back. They’ll post a link to their house rules in the comments and push back at people criticising things like Black History Month or Pride. That’s so refreshing to see.

They’ll often do this by having a few bullet points up their sleeve around how to respond. 

All of this is a time-honoured approach. In the early days of Twitter when we would post gritting updates, we’d have a link to the grit map as a stock response to someone asking if their street had been gritted when the trucks had gone out.

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

Sharing content into Facebook groups is a good idea

In training, when I’ve gone through the importance of Facebook groups, one observation from a comms team is that they are really busy. Do they really have to monitor every conversation?

The answer is of course ‘no.’

But going to where the eyeballs are has always been one of the laws of the internet. If there’s a Facebook group for a town where there’s a large fire it makes sense for the fire and rescue service to post an update there. 

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

Getting help to share content into Facebook groups is an even better idea

Here’s where it gets interesting. 

If capacity is a problem then getting help with sharing messages is a good idea. 

In the past, I’ve worked with part of the NHS in a diverse area. Recruiting staff from across the Trust into a WhatsApp group to share messages in their own networks of Facebook group, Nextdoor or WhatsApp makes perfect sense.

A Romanian-speaker employed by the Trust can do a better job of sharing a message into Romanian networks than the comms team ever can.

In the public sector, it may be a mix of staff or community groups who are a waiting pool of people who are happy to share content. 

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

The risk of not doing anything with Facebook groups is high

Facebook groups are an important part of the media landscape for communities.

The public sector has moral duty to engage with people whether that’s to educate, inform, sell tickets to shows, flag-up community events or drive behaviour change.

It also has a duty to use the most relevant tools to reach people where they are. It needs to be flexible and adaptable. If people are using Facebook groups then that’s where they need to be.

For me, this has moved from a nice to have to an essential to have. If the far right are using groups to radicalise then it’s a moral duty on all of us to push back. 

If we ignore this, we may not like the society we may find ourselves living in. 

If these spaces are important to extremists, shouldn’t they be important to you?

The full research can be found here.

I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER, ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.
Creative commons credit: Grapes Hill Underpass by Evelyn Simak.

It appears that great myth ‘more with less’ is in circulation so I thought I’d give you tools to help you manage expectations.

The weasel of all slippery phrases is no stranger to anyone who worked in local government around the 2007 financial crisis. Budgets across the board were cut but nobody really wanted to face up to reality.

I recall an SLT request that a long list of stories be included in the residents’ magazine.

It was pointed out that they had cut this publication at the last meeting.

What ‘more for less’ actually is is a hope that the cuts won’t have an impact. Reader, they will and do.

Why ‘more with less’ is a myth

With the amazing power of AI I’ve produced this image.

Visually, this shows three machines that between them produce 15 widgets a week. If two of them are removed you are left with one machine that produces five widgets a week. 

Breaking: if you remove capacity you have less capacity.

Yes, you can cut some corners and with experience do things faster but fundamentally there is no escape from mathematics. One machine will produce less than three.

But how to push back at this?

Why ‘less with less’ is the argument to make

Your task is to be realistic. 

With less capacity, five things can be done with one member of staff instead of 15 things produced by three. 

I can tell you this with absolute certainty with a story to illustrate it.

When I started in local government there was six full time members of staff in the team. After about 12-months the head of comms left was not replaced and the other members of staff filtered out of the door too. For a spell, I was effectively left to do the work of six. Being quite junior I looked forward to the challenge of learning. However, what this meant in practice was if I worked until midnight five days a week I could go backwards at a slightly more acceptable way.

Looking back, the lesson it taught me was to manage upwards and adjust expectations.

Why ‘make AI do it’ isn’t an argument to make

Right now, it feels like AI is sometimes seen as a wonderful cure all. We’re at the edge of the Gartner hype cycle where we are working out how to make this new tool work. We are in 1997 before the dot com bubble rather than ten years later where it’s clear that a handful of web tools are really useful and others have fallen by the side of the path.

What less with less actually looks like

The only way that less with less can be made to work in an organisation with sky high expectations is to ask SLT to make a choice of where they are prepared to cut back.

What are the organisations priorities?

I’ll give you a tip here. An organisation that has 30 priorities has no priorities at all. 

If everything is a priority nothing is. 

Senior people need to see that list and work out for themselves what’s most important. What’s the top five? What’s the gold, silver and bronze? Gold gets done to a gold standard. Silver gets reduced support while bronze gets a minimum.

Without this senior buy in you will be trapped in an unsustainable hamster wheel destined to fail because one machine can only ever make five widgets a week.

Creative commons credit: Classroom by Fotothek.

I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER, ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

There’s no question that AI has become the buzzword but like all trends there’s quality and some fluff. 

For every pre-Be Here Now Oasis banger there is a small army of indie landfill that really never added much beyond wearing a cagoule.

So, here’s some potential AI tools and their drawbacks around video content creation.

But first, have a policy 

Remember, a lot of what is being written or created about AI is from vendors or people who work in the private sector. Neither have to work under the constraints public sector comms do. If you are looking to use a tool in earnest, have a framework to use it safely.

I’ve blogged before on the importance of drawing from the UK Government AI playbook for drawing-up your policy. Don’t leave home without it.

Remember, that if you post AI assisted video onto a social channel you need to declare it as you upload to meet their terms and conditions.

A tool to animate an existing interview 

You have someone who is happy to speak about being a foster carer but doesn’t want their identity revealed. That’s fine. You can use the audio from the video to create a chat. You keep the local accent, but you mask the identity through a cartoon rather than shooting the interview in silhouette to make them look like a gunman on the run.

There are plenty of tools that tell you they’ll take a video and then animate for you, but precious few actually do. In this example, I converted an mp4 video file into an audio mp3 and then uploaded it to the Adobe Express tool.

You can use Adobe Express or other tools to take a video and turn it into a cartoon.

Drawbacks: Be careful not to trivialise the subject.  

A tool to create an avatar of a real person

You may need to create a series of training videos on a subject but you may not have the time ot the subject.

Creating an avatar may be one way to tackle this. But, beware. GDPR still applies and you’ll need to check with the subject each time you want to make a film.

There’s also the issue that a long video with the subject looking straight at the camera may not be the most engaging thing imaginable. 

In this example, I’ve used HeyGen to create an avatar of me. I did this by using their website and my webcam to ensure I don’t just take a random video from the internet and create an avatar of them.

In the script I refer to ‘veed.io’. It’s actually created using HeyGen.

You can use HeyGen or other tools to create a video.

Drawbacks: GDPR and the voice clone may not be authentic.

A tool to make sure the subject makes eye contact with the camera

Some subjects are camera shy or may be looking at someone off camera. A lot of the time that’s probably fine. But just in case you have a subject that is shifting their eyeline an additional tool may be useful.

Here, I’ve used a tool to ensure the eyeline is always to the camera itself. I’m not entirely bowled over but it is worth pointing out that the finished results does what it says on the tin and also allows existing blinks.

You can use veed.io or other tools to make this correction

Drawbacks: the finished result may not look authentic.

A tool to create a cartoon of an existing video

Not satisfied with a straightforward video, here I’ve tried to give myself a cartoon look. Weirdly, it’s given me some grey hair at the sides and it’s also only allowed the export of three seconds. This isn’t the most generous of terms. You have to pay more than a free trial for longer.

You can use domoai for this.

Drawbacks: It’ll cost and you may want to be careful what subjects are chosen for this. 

A tool to create a cartoon internal training video

If you have a process you need to explain then using a tool to create a ‘how to’ video may be useful. 

You can use steve.ai or other tools to come up with a script and then produce the video using cartoon, AI generated footage or actual footage.

I’m not at all convinced with this level of outsourcing even if it had a decent stab at saying ‘Worcestershire sauce.’

You can use steve.ai or other tools for this.

Drawbacks: insincerity.

Using an AI-powered tool for subtitling

In the olden days, sub-titles needed to be added manually by a cycle of listening, pausing and then typing in words. This was very boring. It’s just the sort of thing that AI can devour. So, when the Kinemaster editing tool was upgraded to allow AI to transcribe clips I was very happy.

However, I quickly realised that the AI tool was making a guess at what was being said.

Someone I trained who made a video with the speaker talking about ‘Halesowen’ had the AI tool transcribe that as ‘Hell Zone’ in the sub-titles. This was not ideal when it was only spotted when it was published.

Always check against delivery.

You can use Kinemaster or a range of tools for this.

Downside: Be careful to spot mistranslations that could be embarrassing.

I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER, ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Creative commons credit: Audrey Hepburn and crew on Wikimedia Commons.

There’s a great scene in journalism memoir ‘Panic as Man Burns Crumpets’ where the author is left in an almost deserted newsroom and reads about how his company is ‘investing in frontline journalism.’

To bring that up to date, today there’d probably be no newsroom and maybe a hub miles away where the title was put together by people who’d never been to that town.

But, all this comes from a place where local titles and local journalism is seen as important. I’d say those days in many parts of the UK are over.

A couple of years ago, I ran some research on how much content was local in local titles. In Reach titles online, this was hovering at just over 50 per cent for the content posted to Facebook. Changes announced this month are likely to push that lower.

But what is it? 

And what does it mean?

Breaking: the announcement

Reach plc have announced plans to put 600 journalists ‘at risk’ and make just over half of this figure redundant. A further 135 new roles will be created and offered first to those at risk.

The company will blur the lines between the newsrooms of national titles and regional titles with reporters writing for the Daily Mirror and say Birmingham Live which is the online version for Birmingham Post & Mail. The aim, the company say, is to remove duplication.

More video and less text will be produced under the new approach.

Here’s what’s likely to be the impact for public sector comms teams. 

Fewer reporters to speak to

Speaking to comms teams, there’s already a frustration at being unable to identify and build a relationship with reporters. There are fewer of them and they move on far quicker. This trend can only increase.

Of course, the decline in relationships will harm both sides. A press officer is less likely to trust a journo they’ve never spoken to and has a shaky understanding of the patch or the backstory. Take this important element out and a decline in the quality of local stories is inevitable.

More Facebook comments as a bin fire

Newspapers post to Facebook and then often don’t monitor comments. Comments can sometimes be racist, vile and borderline actionable. Some Reach journalists, to their credit, are bothered by this. Let’s hope they are the ones who are retained and have the time to keep an eye out, eh?

Report, complain, act. 

More complaining about inaccurate stories

Stories produced by a reporter with poor knowledge of an area will lead to more inaccuracy and error. The need to pick up the phone and complain has never been greater. That said, people may not even have a number to call.

Report, complain and act (again).

Damage to civic society

Evidence has shown that there is a direct link between the decline in local newsrooms and local democracy. A council being publicly held to account in the Press leads to greater confidence and voter turnout. Fewer reporters with local knowledge isn’t a positive.

Less words and more video

The move from Reach plc towards more video and less text chimes with how people consume media in the UK. It’s a sensible approach. We spend a vanishingly small amount of time reading print local newspapers and lots of time consuming social media. Within that social media figure is a big chunk of video. Lord knows, I’ve been banging on about this.

However, I can recognise the pain this is likely to cause for reporters whose skills as a writer are suddenly less in demand.

A public sector comms team needs to be producing more video and less text. The reminder from Reach plc’s direction is a welcome reminder that should not be ignored.

News sites as emergency planning concerns

When the car drove into the Liverpool FC trophy parade, we saw Merseyside Police’s messaging move quickly to fill a void that was rapidly being filled by the far right. Those messages were picked up quickly by the Reach-run Liverpool Echo as well as national media. What followed was responsible reporting. A potential tinderbox was made safe that bad actors were desperate to try and set fire to.

However, had that incident happened in the Black Country where Reach plc are weak I’m not sure there would have been the staff to cover it properly. Under these changes, more flexibility to move assets in an emergency would appear possible. However, let’s see, shall we?

There will be more ‘clickbait’… much more

The  Collins online definition ‘verb. to encourage website viewers to click through to another website using an enticing hyperlink’ would cover much of what is posted to my local Black Country Live Facebook page.  

This is likely to play out as more content from other parts of the country. If it clicks in Belfast, it’ll click in Plymouth. Only the fact its in Belfast will likely be buried deep in the story for other parts of the country. A simple visit to comments sections shows how irritated people are with this. But hey, those messages count as engagement, right?

It would be more honest if Reach plc admitted their titles were now national with a bit of a local flavour rather than the other way round.

Invest in video and their own channels

Your corporate channels and your other owned media become more important. On Facebook, go and share it to the right Facebook groups. I keep banging on about this. There’s other 2026 strategies you can adopt but this isn’t the place to go through all of them. Do so. 

Where Reach go others may follow

If Reach make this work other newspaper groups may follow. Just because you don’t have a Reach title in your area doesn’t mean you will not affected. They may be inventing a template for how to make journalism pay in the UK. But by retreating from local knowledge they may also be opening a gap for others to move into. The email-first subscription Manchester Mill, for example, shows that people will pay for something local and quality. Whether enough do to make a difference is an open question.

More educate the client

I keep banging on about this. The most important thing a comms person needs to do in 2025 is educate the client. By this, I mean educating the chief executive, cabinet member, Councillor, clinician, civil servant or firefighter. Take data with you for this. It’s important to remember that this is a painting the Forth Bridge operation. You will never complete it but you must keep doing it. 

The councillor who is worried about the frontpage of the local paper is literally in the wrong century. It’s your job with data to educate them. Be their guide.

I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER, ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Creative commons credit: Newspaper shop by Dominic Alves.

A truth I keep repeating is there’s been more change in the last 12 months than the last 12 years.

But that’s all well and good but where’s the evidence, I idly wondered to myself. Here’s some randomly selected changes from earlier in my career.

Press offices sending out press releases as a way to manage the message

Earlier in my career, the emphasis of the communications team I was working in was largely about the local paper. A dozen media queries was not uncommon and between 15 and 20 press releases was about par. In 2025, the idea of ‘managing the message’ sounds archaic. You can contribute to the debate but local information gets shared in different spaces. The local news title plays an important but diminished role. 

In 2025, the Facebook group is twice as likely to be the source of local government information for over 18s. Source: Ofcom. Sharable content posted to Facebook groups is more effective.

Posting toolkit content to your social channels

Toolkit content is the generic national messaging that’s centrally created. Those that created mean well. It’s just that it no longer cuts through with engagement.

In 2025, toolkit content is 36 times less likely to get engagement on Facebook. Source: my own research of 250 public sector posts from the UK.

Posting content routinely with the nominated person

At the start of my career, the press release was signed off with the quote from the cabinet member pretty much regardless. Those were different times. If you want your message to truly connect with an audience it would be better served to create content that reflected them. Someone like me is far more likely to be given house room.

In 2025, ‘someone like myself’ was the second most trusted group of people with 71 per cent two per cent behind the most trusted group which is scientists. Source: Edelman Trust Barometer.

Posting a piece of designed artwork 

Someone has designed a poster. It’s been printed off and pinned to noticeboards. Can you just post this to Facebook and Instagram? When this is done, you need to repeat the text on that poster as body text to the update. But even if you do, the content is often not that engaging.

In 2025, a carousel of suitable images is twice as engaging as a piece of artwork on Facebook and three times as engaging on Instagram. Source: My own research based on 250 public sector posts on both channels. 

Not responding to comments on Facebook

We’re all busy, it’s far easier to ignore or hide questions and comments. There’s a time and place for that, sure but as a policy this is not a good approach. Take the complaints offline but try and engage and if needs be draw a line in the sand on challenging views.

In 2025, a more nuanced approach of engagement is needed. Evidence: Cheng, Bala and Yang academic research ‘Engaging users on social media business pages.’

Not having an AI policy to shape your communications

We’re all busy (still) but using a cheeky five minutes to create an image to share is likely to be challenged. Trust is important and it can be burnt far quicker than it is earned.

In 2025, a policy to shape your communications is important. Evidence: GCS policy for generative AI. 

Not including traditional media in your emergency planning 

As the Liverpool trophy parade incident shows, far-right misinformation can land online within minutes of an incident. So, it’s far better to have a message to share swiftly and with traditional media. A press conference and message were shared widely by an array of news channels which drowned out the misinformation.

In 2025, a message to social media during an incident can be followed by a press conference or media statement. Evidence: Merseyside Police following the trophy parade incident.

Sending out multiple press releases

Newspapers have changed. For a start, they don’t call themselves newspapers anymore. For a second, they are more bothered about clicks. Yes, this can mean recycling contentious content. But it can also be an approach of ‘solutions journalism’ where the audience is put first. What’s bothering them and what can help with the solution? So, 10 things to do for free and for nothing for parents with under 12s can cover several press releases you may have once sold.

In 2025, solutions journalism is an approach your organisation should tap into. Evidence: BBC policy.

Sharing one piece of content everywhere

Back in the olden days, one video or form of words was shared everywhere. We live in a fractured media landscape where people consume media in different ways. A 30-second video to an audience of professional people may work on LinkedIn but wouldn’t on TikTok.

In 2025, the media landscape across demographics is varied. Source: Ofcom.

I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER, ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

As a kid I HATED the Back to School signs in the shops at the start of the summer holiday.

So, I’ve held back about shouting too much about training slots in the rest of 2025.

But now August is over, heck here’s a gentle nudge towards workshops and what you’ll learn.

There is no question that the pace of change is increasing and communications is evolving. 

• Video now makes up a staggering 60 per cent of people’s time on Facebook.
• 84 per cent of UK adults use social media.
• A majority of all age ranges use YouTube.
• 80 per cent of people say they still click on Google links despite AI summaries.

Back in 2013, I left local government to become a freelancer with the aim of doing more in the public sector. That’s been the case. My aim was to be ahead of the game by reading and researching because people didn’t have the time. That’s been bang on.

The strapline I have but rarely lean on is ‘future comms made easy’. That’s my aim. I’d like to put tools in people’s hands so they can do a better job.

One of the reasons why I use old pictures is to make the whole thing a bit less scary. 

Here’s dates:

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER

Five sessions to cover all the basics you need to be up to speed and ready for 2026. 

Workshop #64 – Starts on 24.9.25 – SOLD OUT

Workshop #65 – Starts on 7.10.25 – SPACES

Workshop #66 – Starts on 10.11.25 – NEW

ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS 

Five sessions to give you the basics to approach AI without fear and use it to help you.

Workshop #10 – Starts on 24.9.25 – SOLD OUT

Workshop #11 – Starts on 27.10.25 – SPACES

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED 

A rebooted video skills workshop that aims to help you plan, shoot and post effective video for landscape and vertical.

Workshop #38 – Starts on 3.10.25 – SOLD OUT

Workshop #39 – Starts on 27.11.25 – NEW

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS

A basics guide to give you skills and confidence to help you pitch a story and deal with a reporter.

Workshop #25 – Starts on 24.9.25 

Drop me a note if you’d like a chat. I’d also be happy to talk about delivering a session for you and your team online or face-to-face. 

Creative commons credit: School children by Steven Miller

You can trace the evolution of the media landscape through the medium of transfer deadline day.

As a Stoke City supporter, I’ve a love-hate relationship with this day of hype, cameras at training grounds and whooshing graphics.

Yet, once it was all so simple. The transfer window didn’t slam shut at midnight. In fact, not only did it not exist there was not even the internet. 

But how did I get my updates on my football club? It evolved over time and started at the paper shop. 

The 1980s

The Evening newspaper. Growing up in Stafford, one of the few places to find out what Stoke City was doing was the Evening Sentinel. This, boys and girls, was printed on paper and I had to cycle to a shop and pay 26 pence to the person in the shop to take it away and read it. It was a physical copy.

Sports news was on the backpage while other news was on the front. Occasionally, they would swap over. A signing was only confirmed when they were pictured holding a scarf above their heads.

This is what AI thinks it looked like.

There was no guarantee that Stoke City would have signed anyone.

BBC Local radio. Living in Stafford, I’d get BBC Radio Stoke. You had to make a point of listening on the hour and sitting through news of tailbacks on the A500 before you got the sport. 

There was no guarantee that Stoke City would even be mentioned. 

The premium rate phone service. The 0898 phone number came about after BT liberalised phone numbers. In central London, phone boxes became covered in 0898 numbers promising adult services. Not wishing to missout ClubCall was set up in 1986. This allowed fans to ring a premium rate service to find out news about their club.

The Stoke City ClubCall was an exercise in making a little go a long way. A basic piece of information would be spun out into 40 or 50 seconds. 

There was still no guarantee of Stoke City signing anyone. 

Ceefax. This was the internet of its day. It got delivered through the television set and you punched in numbers to find out what the news was. Because Stoke City was not a big club you had to turn to page 312 on the service. This was the catch-all for most of the Football League as football used to be called. However, there was often many sub-pages to get through and it was not unusual to have to read it for five minutes while you scanned every page. 

There was still no guarantee Stoke would sign anyone.

This is what AI thinks that looked like.

The 1990s 

The supporters’ messageboard. Early social media was messageboards. A fan could start a public topic and then others could contribute. To me this was revolutionary. Instead of the odd paragraph on Ceefax I was now getting ALL the hot news. It took me a while to work out I was getting ALL the misinformation and ALL the arguments when Gudjon Thordarson got sacked.

Once, ‘I’ve seen Lee Trundle looking for houses in Trentham’ was the cue to think the Swansea striker was about to sign. Very soon, I realised that the internet could actually lie. The Oatcake messageboard in its pomp was a truly wonderful place.

There was no guarantee that Stoke City would sign Lee Trundle.

Signings were celebrated with hackneyed local news poses. When Sheffield Wednesday swooped – it was always swooped – for Italian duo Benito Carbone and Paulo di Canio the photographer from the Sheffield Star brought along an uncooked pizza as a prop. Italians signing, see? 

Amazingly, the pair agreed to be photographed.

You can Google the original. It is owned by Getty who are notorious litigious. Here is an AI impression of what that photograph looks like.

The 2000s

Newspaper websites. While the internet was invented in the 1990s, it took deep into the 200s before the club pages became worth paying attention to. Overnight it became pointless in paying to buy a newspaper when it was all online for free.

The Sky Sports transfer deadline day coverage. This started in 2003. For a news channel with 24-hours to fill deadline day was a God-send. Send reporters to the training grounds of the big clubs, have Jim White in the studio. 

However, when fans of one club placed a marital aid into the ear of Sky Sports News reporter Alan Irvine in one live broadcast steps were taken to sanitise the event. 

There was no guarantee Stoke City would be featured.

The 2010s

Fans with Twitter accounts. Enter social media, where respected fans with Twitter would supply the breaking news. Newspapers had turned into news brands and would operate on Facebook as well as Twitter. Eventually, clubs would catch-up.

Club websites. Forget, Ceefax. The breaking news is now only confirmed on the club website the final arbiter of fact.

The signing big reveal video. Forget the shot of the new signing in front of the Boothen End with the scarf above his head. It’s now the Big Reveal video. So, when German midfielder Wouter Burger signed the video was staged in a cafe where the dish of the day was a… Wouter Burger. I do see what they did there. 

The 2020s

Now , the football reporter must be a self-facilitating media node. The local news title’s football correspondent is a blogger, reporter, live streamer, tweeter and WhatsApper. Reach plc’s coverage of Stoke City – which is excellent – has a WhatsApp group, website and Facebook page. 

There is still no guarantee of Stoke City signing anyone. 

The club as media organisation. Most football clubs want to announce the news and give the first interview themselves. Fine when you are winning but not so good when you are bottom of the table. Some clubs charge for the chance to hear the manager paraphrase: ‘We’ll take the positives. We go again.’

Conclusion 

In the olden days, we were once thinly served badly with print but the information was generally accurate.

Now we can get information and comment when we want it. The veracity of that is a different thing. For me as a football fan, the trusted source is the club website and the local paper – sorry, news brand – is the benchmark.

When I worked in local government, a neighbouring council’s traffic warden put a parking ticket on a hearse outside a church. It kicked off.

The story, quickly turned from local row to national story which didn’t play well for the council. The general tone was ‘What kind of jumped-up little Hitler would do something like that?’

At my next meeting with parking services, I flagged this up as a banana skin to avoid. Their response stunned me. But, Dan, the car was breaking parking regulations of course it should be ticketed, to a man and woman they said.

Here’s what I learned. There is a right way according to the rule book. This may not be the best approach. Parking services care bout traffic regulations not community cohesion.

So, we come to the flags issue in England. In recent weeks, a semi-organised campaign has seen street lamps decorated with England flags and Union Jacks. Even mini traffic islands are having red paint daubed on them to make them look like circular Crosses of St George.

To some, this is an outpouring of patriotism. It’s England. Why shouldn’t we raise the English flag? To others, this is the far right on the move trying marking territory and intimidating rivals. Hope Not Hate have identified Britain First as playing a role in ‘Operation Raise The Colours.’

It’s also a quandary to local government and police in how to deal with it. Take them down by following the rule book and it may antagonise some of the population. Leave them up and they may antagonise others.

Last week, I blogged what this all meant for local government communicators.

In this post, I’d like to look at what lessons can be taken from 50 years of flags in Northern Ireland. 

Lessons from Northern Ireland

Flags in Northern Ireland have been a charged issue for decades. Streets in some communities which are Republican and Catholic often fly the Irish tricolour of green white and orange. Some Unionist and protestant communities fly Union Jacks and can also paint kerbstones in their own colours of red, white and blue.

So, how is this dealt with?

The Housing Executive in Northern Ireland is one of a number of public bodies that has had to grapple with the issue. It has five decades of experience since the early 1970s  communicators in England can learn from.

I’d suggest anyone with half an interest in this look at ‘A Good Practice Guide to Flags, Emblems and Sectional Signals: A Community Perspective.’ This download has been drawn up by The Regional Strategic Housing Authority for Northern Ireland with the Housing Community Network.

 This is a well developed, mature, responsible bottom-up approach. 

Here’s what I take from that approach:

1. Flags can be flash-points

There are many instances in Northern Ireland where the flying of flags has led to civil disorder. In 2012, moves to limit the number of days the Union Jack was flown from Belfast City Hall led to rioting and months of protest. This is not to predict similar would happen in England if flags in Weoley Castle in Birmingham were taken down. Rather, it just points out that they can escalate.

It’s also important to note that Paramilitary flags are a different thing. That’s a police matter.

2. In Northern Ireland, they don’t do anything without talking to the community

Workers from the Housing Executive are charged with building a relationship with each community to understand what makes them tick and build dialogue. No action is taken without talking to the community. Why? Because things can escalate really quickly.

The flag document clearly states a number of key points:

1. The pace of change will be determined by the local community. 

2. The process is dependent on local circumstances

Vision: 

People have the right to live in a tolerant, diverse society where differences are recognised and respected. 

Aim: 

To create an environment where people feel safe to celebrate and respect culture within and between communities. 

Objectives: 

1. To facilitate communities to create a stable environment free from aggressive cultural displays. 

2. Promote community empowerment in the management of flags. 

3. Raise awareness and mutual acceptance of cultural diversity. 

4. Encourage the removal of tattered and torn flags, emblems and sectional symbols.

 5. To explore alternative expressions of culture. 

Principles: 

1. The safety of residents, staff and property is paramount. 

2. All matters discussed re flags, emblems and sectional symbols will be treated in a confidential manner.

As part of the Northern Ireland approach there is a process for gathering information, data and opinion from the community before action is taken. Questionnaires can gather information and insight. I’m guessing this is slow but thorough.

My worry is that in England, many community workers who may have networks across the community have long since been lost since 2007 in cuts. In the mind of English local government, the next default setting would be elected members. However, this introduces a political element which may not de-escalate the problem.

3. This argument  is a strong one: ‘We think the flag should be honoured… do you think a tatty and dirty flag does that?

As a piece of rhetoric I’m paraphrasing, but I find this utterly compelling. This takes the flag seriously and goes to the core of the argument. It does not draw on traffic regulations or health and safety. Instead, it draws on the well of patriotism that prompted the flag to be put up on a lamppost in the first place. This is something that crosses the Irish Sea and would work in Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham or Dudley.

The flag should be respected. Does daubing a red X on a white traffic island so cars run over it honour the flag?

British military history is filled with stories of the Regimental Colours being protected at all costs. It is a slight on the Regiment’s reputation if the colours touch the ground. To be dragged through the mud is a slight. 

At the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, 15 men died defending the 2nd Somersetshire’s Regimental Colours. At the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879 two lieutenants drowned saving the Colours in a defeat at the hands of Zulus. At Dunkirk in 1940, the Royal Welch’s colours were hidden to stop them from falling into enemy hands and rediscovered 40 years later.

So, using this argument, a mini roundabout with tyre tracks and a red cross on looks pretty pathetic.

Communicators in England would be well served not just to look closely at this argument but to play it back to the decision makers. It is powerful but it needs to be made real. Perhaps, this is through installing flagpoles in the community to tap into sentiment but fly the flag properly.

In Dudley, Cllr Adam Anston in the past donated a flagpole for by the war memorial in Upper Gornal. This feels like a step to take.

The Northern Ireland approach sees an action plan drawn-up with the community itself. A joint clean-up to remove tattered flags for example, the download says, should build confidence within the community.

4. Communication involves the community

The Northern Ireland approach is clear on expecting community input on how any changes are commuunicated. This is striking for an English audience. I’m guessing that this may be as the result of trust being built and maintained across a community. 

5. The approach has had tangible results

In Portadown, there were 350 flags. These have been reduced by 90 per cent with an agreement with the community to fly them eight weeks a year instead of 52. 

In Strabane, political murals have been removed with a rotating and updated mural instead offering a place where voices can be heard.

In Belfast, the city hall flag issue was resolved after a long period of violent protest.

Conclusion

Northern Ireland is not England and while there is some shared history and culture they are different places. Flags there can be incendiary. But it should not be downplayed that the English Cross of St George and the Union Jack also bring baggage with them. Not everyone approves of them. In England, they are often seen as being more closely connected to the far right than they are to the rest of society. Yet, should that be so? When the Lionesses retained the Euros it was England flags that greeted them.

Labour leaned in to the Union Jack in their political messaging before their successful General Election campaign in 2024 but not everyone was thrilled by this.

However, head to Facebook and the flag issue and there is an at times hostile discussion between two sides. One side are ‘flag shaggers’ while the other are seen as ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘happy to let ‘illegal immigrants in.’

It’s in these arguments that the real issues the flag debate in England provoke come to the surface. Online, they can be a places where people feel as though they can freely voice their opinions on immigration. 

From observation, Facebook posts on flags can be rallying points for both Reform and protests against hotels being used to house asylum seekers. These protests have sometimes turned violent.

In England, community cohesion is the issue at stake. There are some hard-won lessons in Northern Ireland that communicators and policy makers would be well served at looking at.

I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER, ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Picture credit: istock.

As if from nowhere, England flags on lampposts have suddenly become a political campaign tool. 

On the one hand, this is a spontaneous expression of cultural identity and a celebration of English identity. They have national flags in other countries. Why shouldn’t we have them in our country? 

On the other hand, flags can lead to crude nationalism designed to mark out a territory for those who belong and those who don’t.

In Belfast, flags mark out areas of political influence. Union flags marking Unionist areas and Irish tricolours marking out areas of the Republican tradition. Academic Dominic Bryan who has studied the phenomena in the city says flags can bring alarm.

 “A flag can simultaneously be the marker of official and legal sovereignty and can become the marker of local space… It is emblematic of democracy but also the harbinger of fear. The display of a symbol can be defended as freedom of speech whilst also be criticised as intimidation.”

In short: it’s complicated.

In Birmingham, the flags on street lamps have centred around West Heath, Weoley Castle and Northfield. Birmingham is a city built on immigration from the Irish in the 19th century to post-war South Asian and Caribbean and in recent years from Eastern Europe.

How does this all play out online?

Inevitably, it comes back to Facebook groups where the issue of flags has been highly divisive. 

A search on Nextdoor found nothing. 

Ofcom have said before that Facebook groups are the primary place where people find out about what’s going on with their council from the age of 24 to 65. So, no wonder it plays out there.

A swift search shows flags can be found in debate in the B37 Facebook group with 30,000 members, Castle Bromwich ‘Official’ Group with Weoley Castle Community with 11,000, B News and Views with 62,000. 

In the Alvechurch Road Residents’ Facebook group there has more than 3,000 engagements and 300 shares. This is huge for a community group with 1,800 followers.

On the one hand there are those in the group that say this is an expression of national pride. 

And also…

But the range of opinion also leads to other British people pointing out that they feel British but they don’t feel the need to fly a flag. Others say adding a flag halfway up a streetlamp looks as though they are at halfmast. Who died? they ask.

With depressing predictability there is a racist element to the comments. Here on Birmingham Live’s coverage.

And comments which mirror far right tropes.

Elsewhere, Birmingham Live have limited commenting on posts. 

And in Birmingham, the far right have arrived. Turning Point UK, a group with links to Donald Trump have been quick to move into the space. The group post video which claims to be of ‘leftists’ in Wythall in North Worcestershire taking down a flag on VJ Day. This has been taken up by Reform in other parts of the country.

Birmingham Live, the Reach plc presence in the city, report one of the group behind the flags says there are 1,500 flags across the city. That would indicate there is serious money behind the campaign. Go online, and a single England flag varies from £8 to as much as £18. That means £12,000 minimum has gone into this. 

Not every flag will have come from the group to get the thing off the ground takes time, money and step ladders.

So what does this mean for public sector communications?

Everything is political, says 19th century novelist Thomas Mann. However, flags come with a special kind of politics. 

That British hero Winston Churchill was always careful with patriotism. Tradition helped being a country but also patriotism was also the last refuge of a scoundrel. 

So, some things to consider. 

It’s a community cohesion thing. This is absolutely about how different groups of people from different backgrounds can get along with each other. That’s central to local government communications.

It’s a social media house rules thing. Yet again, I’m going to bang the drum of having a set of house rules. This allows you to take action against people who break them. So, racism and abuse shouldn’t be tolerated. Polite discussion is fine even if it disagrees.

It’s anticipating responses thing. One lesson from Royal British Legion’s social media is to anticipate comments and have some lines to take. So, why Black History Month? Because six million troops from the Commonwealth served including India and the Caribbean is a good response to politely push back with. As ever, always push by sticking to the facts. 

It’s a question about the limiting of comments thing. There may be rare occasions when comments do need to be limited. I’m not sure if the flags issue is that point. 

It’s a disinformation thing. The space for disinformation and misinformation on this issue is huge. So too is the damage it can cause. UK Government’s excellent Resist 2 resource here is your friend. Any public sector communicator should be breaking this advice out. 

“Public communication should strive to be independent from politicization in implementing interventions to counteract mis- and disinformation. Public communication is conducted as separate and distinct from partisan and electoral communication, with the introduction of measures to ensure clear authorship, impartiality, accountability and objectivity.”

It’s a street lighting thing. In my experience, street lighting engineers who work for councils are very black and white people. There is a right answer and a wrong answer. Putting ladders onto street lamps is dangerous. It’s a reasonable message most of the time. But can it appear council jobsworth?

It’s a comms team rota thing. At times of stress, you shouldn’t leave social media to just one person. In cricketing terms, rotate the strike. Have a rota of people who can pick up the baton. Share the sweets. 

It’s a police thing. Some of the comments look pretty actionable. But they also highlight areas of tension in the community. 

It’s a Facebook group thing. In the General Election, Labour and Conservatives both encouraged supporters to post shareable content into groups and into WhatsApp groups and onto Nextdoor. The flags issue once again shows the importance of groups in the media landscape of communities. This is not new. So, what would sharable content on this look like? 
I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape ESSENTIAL AI FOR PUBLIC SECTOR COMMS, ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER, ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

Creative commons credit: Silver Jubilee boys race, 1977 by Madhava.