Dan Slee

There was a sports shop in Keswick where my Dad was born that was the last word in internal comms.

Sports teams would pick their 1st and 2nd teams and write them out before they were pinned-up in the window of the shop. Before the internet, and before phones were common this was how the town found out who was playing. It was internal comms for the rugby, hockey cricket and football teams.

Charming as it was the world has moved on. But there is still the lazy attitude from the centre that everything is fine because a poster has been pinned-up on a noticeboard. If people haven’t read it, it’s their own fault. This is, of course, cobblers and the price of this is a team who don’t know where they’re going or often what they’re really doing.

Ahead of the Public Sector Comms Headspace Zoom session on internal comms I went back to brass tacks on the topic. I re-read ‘Engage For Success.’ This whitepaper from 2019 is based in research and shows the importance of good internal comms. Before reading the ‘Engage For Success’ whitepaper I used to look down on internal comms. After reading it, I realised I couldn’t have been more wrong.

In a nutshell, if you don’t communicate with your staff and tell them what direction you’re going in you’ve no chance of getting there.

The Government Communications Service has a good internal comms resource and there’s plenty of good stuff there but for me the basic principles go back to that seminal whitepaper.

Engage For Success’ four enablers

At a time of COVID-19, it’s worth going back to brass tacks and looking at ‘Engage For Success’ to see what compass points it can provide.

Decent internal comms needs four things, the report says. These four enablers are ingredients you’ll need. A strategic narrative, engaging managers, engaged employees and integrity.

#1 Have you got a strategic narrative? 

The NHS didn’t need to sit down and work out what it was about. It knew instinctively that it was about all hands to the pump to stop waves of people dying. Everything it did pointed to this.

We’ve gone past the first phase of shock. We’re not really in recovery as we know it after a big fire. So what are we? We’re in a weird hinterland where some people want to crack on and other’s don’t.

The LGA have a toolkit for writing a strategic narrative that’s worth taking a look at. You don’t need something big and clunky but you do need to pay attention to it. You need something everyone can get behind.

#2 Have you got engaging managers?

Some things you can control and others you can’t. How engaging your managers are is a huge variable. When I worked in local government I was deeply unimpressed at the effectiveness of what is known as ‘cascading’ information. The idea is simple. Executive directors send out bulletins and they’re passed on down the chain by management. In my bitter experience it was only ever a third successful but it gave a false sense of having communicated.

If you’ve got managers who want to communicate that’s great. The chances are you probably won’t have lots of them. But that’s a problem for the organisation.

#3 Have you got engaged employees?

Now, this is where you can have most influence. You can find ways to reach staff and listen to what they have to say. At a time when some staff are happy to return and others aren’t this is really important.

I’m hearing glorious examples of people throwing the rule book out of the window and trying new tactics.  Closed Facebook groups have come to the fore and there are some tremendous examples of them being used with high levels of engagement. Right now, the window to be able to try this stuff out without too much sanction is open but its closing fast. The blockers haven’t gone away. They’re just working in the box bedroom. Do it.  Do it now.

There have been some great examples of human comms in internal comms with staff. The chief executive who has written to the children of staff to thank them for their patience and to tell them what great work their Mum or Dad is doing stands out in any era. So does the recorded Zoom call interrupted by music practice but sent out anyway because it makes the chief executive look more human.

All of a sudden, we’re discovering that staff are human and it’s glorious. Communications in essence is really simple. Humans connect to other humans. The hard part is making that happen.

Bit to be really engaged you have to actually listen as an organisation.

The Zoom chat came up with some cracking examples of online snap polling that help to take the temperature.

#4 Have you got integrity?

In the Zoom chat we skirted around integrity. Of course you’ve got integrity, you’re the public sector. But really, is that what the public think? The NHS are fine. They’re on a pedestal until the next round of pay freezes. But what about local government? What do the public think of them? Are they heroes to be clapped or are they work-shy skivers? And what does your staff think of management?

All this stuff has to be earned and I’m not sure if we’ve all neglected this.

Now you’ve got all that, have you got the right channels?

What has been clear for some years is that the one size fits all way of internal comms if it ever was alive is dead. Even the sports shop in Keswick doesn’t happen anymore.

So, the people with laptops may pick-up the emails and may even get the tailored home screen messages with ‘Thank you for what you’re doing’. But what about the bin crews? Teachers? Or countryside staff? The mix that your organisation needs is going to be specific to your organisation but what is clear is the need to do lots of it. Times is hard and staff are stressed.

Sometimes, people can pay too much attention to the channels. They can be magic snake oil. If only you had X then everything would be great. Be careful of that. You probably need X, Y and Z to reach everyone. But most importantly of all, without the four elements you can have the most amazing channels but you’ll fail.

Picture credit: Documerica / Flickr.

Like buses you need a guide and then three really good ones come along at once.

I’m really proud to be a member of the CIPR Local Public Services group who are doing some great work at a really difficult time.

So, I’m especially proud that there are three really good downloads that the group led by Kerry Sheehan have published this week that deserve your attention.

The guides back-up the existing web page that acts as a giant ever-updated super-resource to help public sector comms people.

To get through needs a big bag of knowledge and skills. If you’re expecting to be told what to do as a communicator you’re going to be in for a big old shock. Being agile and thinking on your feet is going to be a big skill. However, the publication of guides as a starting point for you is a really helpful port in a storm.

GUIDE: COMMUNICATING IN THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) CRISIS – TIPS FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATORS

There’s a stack of experience that the public sector has in dealing with crisis and emergency and it’s good to see some of it coming together in this guide.

If you need help in working out top lines, crafting messages, being a gatekeeper, using your network and tackling fake news and misinformation this is for you.

There’s also some handy tips on basic smartphone filming, going live and connecting with Facebook groups.

Particularly handy is some advice on how to conduct down-the-line interviews using tools like Zoom or Teams.

Much of it is common sense but its good to see it pulled together in one place. Emma Thwaites has done a good job of collating work.

“In a crisis, it’s vital your messages not only reach their intended audience but are instantly
understood so that they can be acted upon. When messages land badly, it’s usually because
they are written for the organisation (what we want to say) rather than for the audience
(what they need to hear).”

You can find the COVID-19 comms guide here.

GUIDE: CRISIS COMMUNICATION DEBRIEF AND REVIEW DURING A CRISIS

It’s important in a crisis not just to move ever forward onto the next task. It’s actually really important just to take stock and see what can be learned so you don’t have to make the same mistakes again. This is where communications comes in.

Especially useful is the section on running a ‘hot debrief’. This is something rough and ready that’s done on the spot so you can learn as you go along and also refer back to if you need to.

Hats off to ex-Greater Manchester Police head of comms Amanda Coleman for this.

There’s a lot of learning from the Arena terrorist attack that has gone into this.

“Debriefing and reviewing the communication approach and activity both during and after a crisis is critical. It ensures that you are capturing the learning throughout the crisis which will become the basis of how to develop and revise crisis communication plans.”

You can find the debrief guide here.

GUIDE: COMMUNICATING THE DEATH OF A COLLEAGUE, ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE OR VOLUNTEER FROM CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)

Many communicators will have worked on newspapers and will be well used to the idea of communicating death. But communicating the death of a colleague isn’t the same. A far higher degree of sensitivity is needed.

This guide is going to be sadly valuable to every public sector communicator. It comes from experience and Bridget Aherne has done a cracking job of capturing her own experience and industry best practice.

I like the fact that this guide acknowledges that each death like each life is different and is a starting point for discussion rather than an iron template.

“When emotions are high and stress levels at their peak, it can be difficult to find the
right words or formulate a clear action plan quickly and this is particularly the case when the event involves a death of a colleague from Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Simple checklists and reference materials can help to get you started and that’s the point of this guide: not to tell you what to do but to share the learning from others, in similar situations, which could give you the head-start if you need it.”

You can find the death in service guide here.

RESOURCE: CORONAVIRUS: WHAT COMMUNICATORS NEED TO KNOW

Aside from the three guides, the go-to page for communicators is the CIPR Local Public Services page that collates guidance, trends and evidence. 

Abha Thakor is playing a blinder keeping the resource updated and if you’re working in the sector the answers to many questions can be found on the site.

“This post provides a list of links and resources relating to coronavirus. The information from the official sources can assist communications practitioners working in the local public sector and other fields.”

You can find the CIPR LPS resources page here.

The textbook has it that after a crisis we enter the recovery period and we get over it.

Six weeks after COVID-19 lockdown and we’re on a crossroads. Some people have had enough and some people are scared. We’re part emergency part recovery and stuck between the two.

No wonder communicators are wondering which way to turn.

Last night I joined some of those communicators in a Zoom session via the Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group on the topic of recovery comms. It was a really useful thought provoking session with some talented people. Here are things that struck me then and afterwards.

There is a textbook

Government has extensive notes on the classic emergency and recovery period. While all of this is unprecedented it’s reassuring there’s some ground rules. But I’ve a feeling we need to be flexible and creative with them. They don’t have all the solutions but in this world that feels as though there are no maps they’re a good starting point.

Some people will be fine with recovery and others won’t

After an emergency, some people who haven’t been affected will want to crack on. Those who have been directly won’t share that point of view.

I was struck by Bridget Aherne’s recollections of a death in service while working in fire and rescue. A firefighter died at an incident she was at. It hit people immediately connected hard. Those not affected thought that a charity fundraiser was a fine idea. Others were just not in the head space of even considering it and it caused friction, she recalled.

Listening to this I was struck by a recent conversations. A WhatsApp group contributor knows 12 people who have died of COVID-19. Just to round it off, she’s also been asked to make six of her team redundant. Recovery to her must sound a sick joke.

You need to help leadership really, really listen

Here’s a story. I used to work for an organisation that used to say that its staff are its greatest asset.  Then, the leader of that organisation went to the local paper to tell the reporter how he was going to make half the staff redundant. Only he hadn’t told the staff.

What larks!

There is absolutely a need for good internal comms but internal comms are only really an extension of really good sensitive leadership that listens to how people are and takes that into account.

So, the organisation that sends an all staff email ordering people to report back to the office first thing Monday is breathtakingly stupid. Your job as comms is to point this out. But your job may also be to provide survey data and focus groups to test the water.

You need to help your organisation have really, really good internal comms

If you’re listening really, really well you can better communicate with your staff really, well.  So, open channels that are truly two way feels like a good idea. Clarity of leadership helps. So is frequent internal comms and  trying new things that you haven’t done before. You’re going to have to be more imaginative than knocking-up a few posters to put up in the foyer of empty offices.

There is a really narrow window for cunning plans

One contributor to the session spoke of his determination to finally introduce a staff Facebook group.

Normally, this would have probably have had to go through countless hoops. But in a time of crisis the IT police have other things on their mind. Like not dying. Right now, as everything up in the air no-one is paying too much attention. Get going before the window closes.

Numbers are important

In peacetime, evaluating what you are doing is important to help show the difference you are making. Shayoni Lynn makes a good point that there is a need to capture numbers during this crisis too. When things calm down they’ll come in handy.

Speaking of which…

A new round of austerity 2.0

Lockdown is costing Government serious wedge. The UK economy is predicted to shrink by 14 per cent in 2020. That’s the largest crash in 300 years and one likely to make 2008 look like a tea party.  Other forecasts are for a 25 per cent shrink. That’s on a par with the post-1918 Depression that sewed the seeds for fascism and the Second World War.

The public sector is in for another kicking. More specifically, local government and everything that isn’t the NHS is going to be in for a shoeing. This could be the most important long-term point.

There is a really narrow window to change habits

While we have been in lockdown, we’ve had to change how we do things. Science says that twenty one days is the minimum for people to get used to something new.

So, what’s the habit that the organisation has been trying for years to change? Remote working? Working flexibly? A library service delivered Amazon-style by post and not books and mortar?

While on the one hand, maxing out on the business objectives while bombs are dropping feels like sending an email telling people that it’s a good day to bury bad news there is actually something in it. But then again.

Pace comes from Government but you need to be the slip fielder anticipating

Deciding when this whole recovery phase begins and ends isn’t in any one person’s gift but the starting pistol is absolutely fired by Government.

Laws to govern lockdown are drawn-up by Government and Parliament. Your chief executive needs to cool their boots and see where 10 Downing Street is heading. But they needs help in anticipating.

Local government communicator Sara Hamilton describes feeling as though she was having to think two weeks ahead of the rest of the organisation at the start of this crisis. That’s a smart. Like a good slip fielder on the cricket pitch, anticipation and being ready is going to be vital.

Shit, the mental health

We have a really good habit in Britain in applauding those we send into battle but when they come back we look the other way. In 2018, there were 60,000 homeless servicemen and rates of PTSD amongst service people are frightening.

I can’t begin to imagine what working in ICU must feel like right now. I have an eye on comms people who have worked 70-hour weeks since this started. Stress was already at almost 70 per cent rates in the public sector even before this.

But I’m not convinced this crisis is entirely textbook

Of course, the standard thing is for a crisis and then recovery and everyone gets on with their lives apart from those whose lives have been shattered.

So far in the UK, 30,000 lives have been shattered. That’s more than who died in the blitz. If you put the coffins of those who have died end to end it will stretch for 42 miles and take two hours driving at hearse speed to get past.

The impact of this will be as profound as anything in my lifetime.

While the discussion is recovery, we’re only through the first peak. There are likely to be more. We’ve had the equivalent of 312 Hillsborough disasters so far. We’re at a stage where only having six of them a day is somehow heralded as success.

If we’re honest, and to use a wartime analogy, we’ve had the worst bombing raid in our lives and some of us are climbing out of the Anderson shelters. But the bombers haven’t gone away and will be back in force. We’re at first peak and history says there will be more.

There is no map.

Anyone expecting to be spoon-fed is in for a shock.

But bright communicators can draw on some basic principles and make an absolute difference.

Thanks to all those who took part in the Public Sector Comms Headspace group Zoom chat.  It made me feel oddly optimistic. 

Picture credit: Documerica / Flickr.

 

 

 

A picture dropped into my timeline this week on facebook from three years ago and it made me smile. 

Posted seven years ago by one of the West Midlands Police Twitter accounts it captures an announcement in Cradley Heath Post Office.

Staff had written the announcement in long hand after a controversial change to how car tax was collected. I forget the detail. At the time it annoyed a lot of people.

What makes the sign brilliant is that it is written in Black Country. So, car tax is ‘car tox’. HMRC becomes ‘money mon’. You get the picture.

The image is here:

Why this is brilliant

The poster gets photographed. It gets shared online. It does two things. It tells people in there are changes but don’t shout at the staff. It also shows that the staff are human.

A while back Dudley Council made a Black Country dialect sign warning of road works. It got an overwhelmingly positive reaction and traffic flow fell which was the aim of the sign. Someone from Scotland, I remember, was quite dismissive at the time. Looking into it it was because lots of people do this with their Scottish comms and it was seen as a bit old hat. Thing is, people don’t do it in the Black Country.

People like the fact that they have a regional difference. They celebrate it. They also connect to it. Ten miles outside the Black Country and people will scratch their heads. But in the Black Country, oh boy.

Sometimes regional dialect deployed with the help of someone who speaks it goes down perfectly.

Yes, but this is a police account

It is. It’s great for the Post Office that a poster is being shared as it gets their message out. It’s also good for the police. Police police by consent. They are part of the community and the community agree to give them extra powers for the good of the community. It’s important for a good police force to know that and be aware. At times, such as Toxteth in 1981 and Tottenham in 1985 that consent breaks down with violent results. So, showing a human face here is good.

It’s also good from a social media point of view. If all your content is a call to action people get bored very quickly.

 

 

After seven weeks of lockdown it seems that comms people are missing other people the most.

Three times in the last few days it’s people rather than tools that people say they need.

It seems comms people miss someone to vent with, compare notes with, roll their eyes at and then move on to the next thing.

I’m not sure why that surprises me but it does.

But hearing it it somehow doesn’t surprise me at all.

At the heart of it, I think, is a feeling that we’re all in strange new territory. When the 19th century European settlers headed across America towards the promise of the Pacific blue coast of California they did so in wagon trains that shared the load.

What we’re doing is a similar journey separately but together.

It’s important to know you’re not alone, you’re doing the best you can and that connecting is the most human thing you can do.

Picture credit: Documerica / Flickr.

I’ve been banging a couple of drums these past few weeks about the role that your frontline people play in all this.

The nurse, the care worker, the binman or the firefighter all have a massive role to play.

We’ve seen ‘Stay Safe, Stay Home, Protect the NHS’ and we’re tiring of it.

Putting a human face on it showing how frontline people are working with it renews it and helps it land.

The human face cuts through in a way a politician or senior officer cannot. I’ve blogged the data to win the argument about not turning always to politicians here. In this post I’ll show crowdsourced examples of real people’s stories.

Big thank you to Public Sector Comms Headspace members Stephen Penman, Nikki Todhunter, Emma Pettis, Jack Showell, Paul Compton, Mark Miller and Kellie Thompson for contributing ideas.

Sharon’s human appeal for PPE

Sharon the Home Care worker was the face of this North Lanarkshire Council video that appealed for protective equipment at the start of April. It’s lovely. Sharon comes over well and Stephen Penman and his team can be proud of the 20,000 items it generated and a lead to a key supplier. A side benefit was the fact that businesses felt connected because they could help even though it may only be a box of gloves.

You can see the clip here.

Hospital staff’s video message about dignity in dying

NHS Grampian’s video message from hospital staff raises the issue of dignity in dying.

It offers thanks for the 8pm round of applause every Thursday but it also changes the conversation slightly to focus on those who have lost loved ones. It talks of how nursing staff take care and pride in offering death with dignity when they can no longer save a life. That’s an awkward thing to do and the fact that the scripted message is delivered in a hospital setting by nursing staff who may have been involved makes it powerful.

You can see it here.

Hannah’s diary about being redeployed

Staff are being asked work out of their comfort zone because of the impact that COVID-19 is having on their employer.

What was once a regular job may have disappeared and new tasks are needed to be done.

So, the example of Hannah who has been asked to carry out new duties is interesting. She works for Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear NHS Trust. She talks about her anxiety and her worries. She talks about the help she got settling into the new tasks. She talks about how that felt and how she feels as though she is doing something helpful. It is not North Korean positive. She talks of her apprehension. It’s all the more powerful for that.

Also notable is that while a prime audience may be staff it’s posted onto the Trust website so the public can read too.

You can read the blog post diary here.

Andy the binman’s Facebook post about messages of support

Bin crews are still working to take away waste.

On his rounds, Andy noticed the messages of thanks he was getting from people attached to the bins they were leaving out.  So, he took them home, photographed them and posted them onto Facebook.

Horsham Council’s comms team to their credit re-posted the image onto the corporate news feed.  This is perfect. A human voice being recognised by a council.

You can see the post here.

A binman says ‘thank you’

This bin crew was videoed with a message of thanks for support by West Sussex Council.

It does what it needs to. A human voice with recognition of the support they’ve been shown and a request to clean bin handles and park safely so lorries and emergency vehicles can get past.

It has a broad Sussex voice for a Sussex audience.

You can see it here.

Jack’s human message about driving ambulances

Firefighter Jack Charles normally drives fire appliances but during COVID-19 he’s been switched to driving ambulances.

Devon and Somerset shot a video of the officer talking in the back of an ambulance about his new role. He’s already trained for driving under blue lights, he says. He’s also trained to give lifesaving first aid.

“In the meantime, stay home and stay safe,” he reminds us.

You can see the video here.

Some important numbers for you if you’re in the public sector trying to communicate to people.

A majority of people trust you.

If you’re NHS then boy, you’re in for a treat.

Survation have published some UK-specific survey numbers with a towering 81 per cent trusting the NHS followed by 70 per cent Scottish Government, 56 per cent Welsh Government, 54 per cent UK Government, 52 per cent local government and 48 per cent Northern Ireland Executive.

Interestingly, the organisation you work for at 64 per cent scores highly. So, get the message to that big employer’s internal comms team and you can have your message even more trusted.

Here are the numbers

SURVATION: polling says the UK public sector is trusted

News media is less trusted

The BBC remains the most trusted source of broadcast news media with no national newspaper title getting past 39 per cent. The Sun is bottom with 14 per cent. Frustratingly, local news media isn’t there.

COMSCORE: People are heading to news sites

Anecdotally, people are visiting news sites less but that’s not borne out in the numbers.

New Europe-wide data from Comscore would appear to show the immediate search for news from news sites hasn’t diminished in the UK.

YOUGOV: People trust scientists not politicians

Sky News published YouGov stats that showed trust for politicians as low but the trust in UK Government scientific expert Chris Whitty high. This chimes with long established pre-lockdown data that says our trust in politicians is low. Journalists score overwhelmingly negatively in the trust score.

REUTERS INSTITUTE: News organisations are trusted

While journalists individually appear to fare badly in other polling news organisations as a whole fare better. In total, 57 per cent of UK people trust them according to the Institute’s April 28 data.

However, councils fare less well on the yardstick of how they are responding to COVID-19 with 36 per cent approval compared to 92 per cent NHS and 54 per cent Government.

IPSOS MORI: Journalists are best at holding Government to account

From a collection of data, there’s a few things you need to know if you are public sector.

On balance, more people think that journalists are doing a good job than a bad one. In my timeline, some vocal people are criticising the performance of reporters at the daily news conference. But the UK population don’t all see it that way. For them, they are the best at holding Government to account.

 

So what does all that mean?

• Firstly, if you’re public sector thank you and keep up the good work. It’s tempting to be deflected by the handful of the hard to avoid who hate everything you do and will fill part of their day telling you. They’re not representative.
• Internal comms is powerful. It doesn’t have to be yours it can be anyone’s. There’s big trust towards the organisation you work for.
• People are still heading to news sites in large numbers compared to their pre-lockdown habits but they’re not trusting all they read.
• Politicians are not the people to be putting up for interview if you want people to trust what they are saying.
•  Journalists are not trusted but they are getting the most credit for holding the Government to account.
• Local government needs to do a better job in telling people what it is doing in response to COVID-19 but people get and value what the NHS do.

Picture credit: Documerica / Flickr

 

 

All this will be won or lost on Facebook.

All this will be won or lost if people follow the advice stay, safe and stay home.

All this will be won or lost if we have NHS staff willing to put themselves in harm’s way.

This is Leanne and she posted a selfie to her own Facebook timeline and made it public.

In two days it has been shared 35,000 times.

What she’s doing is interesting. She’s making the appeal to stay safe, stay home and protect the NHS but she’s also showing with her face the impact of not doing it. It is careworn and tired. She doesn’t want to go back to hell. How can you refuse a request from that face?

Is your comms anywhere near that human?

How can you tap into that?

 

 

A lifetime ago I was a assistant chief reporter in a district office of twelve.

There were seven deadlines and two schedules a day and it wasn’t uncommon for us to clear a hundred stories a day.

Every day was a crisis until it dawned on me that crisis was normal. It would be a crisis if its wasn’t a crisis.

I read a good meme posted by A&E Twitter last week with words to share from the Ebola epidemic to people in the medical profession.

There is no emergency in a pandemic.

During the Ebola outbreak, people were dying. But at no point did we rush in, we took the 10 minutes to put on our PPE with our spotter. If we didn’t have proper PPE we did NOT go in.

There is no emergency in a pandemic.

You may work in long term care, and want to rush in to save a patient you have had for years. Do not go in without your PPE.

There is no emergency in a pandemic.

You may have a survivor in the room, screaming at you to come in because their mother is crashing. Do not go in without your PPE.

There is no emergency in a pandemic.

You may have an infected woman in labor. Screaming for help. Do not go in without your PPE.

There is no emergency in a pandemic.

You may have a self-quarantined patient with a gunshot wound who is bleeding out. Do not go in there without your PPE.

There is no emergency in a pandemic.

It would be wrong to equate A&E with a newsroom or a public sector comms team even though the right message well delivered does save lives. But there is something in the broad lesson of pacing yourself, pacing your team and just breathing. If you go down you can help no-one. 

Picture credit: Documerica / Flickr

I was involved in a WhatsApp discussion in a group I’m in on the need to build hope in a time of crisis.

Hope is the thing that keeps people walking towards the bright light at the end of the tunnel.

Sure, public sector communications needs to warn and inform and do all of those really things. But I’ve been reflecting for a while that if all it does is warn and inform without hope people will switch off.

In Britain in the Second World War, the Mass Observation project captured what people were really thinking.  The results shaped public policy and its communications. Historians have used them to comprehensively debunk the popular idea of the blitz spirit.

What are people thinking now?

Fear in part but a grudging acceptance of the normal.

We are through the first phase of covid-19 communications and need to establish what the second phase looks like. The first phase was warning posters and a request to ‘stay safe, save lives, protect the NHS.’ Phase two needs to be human. But they need to come from people rather than politicians. We can feel hope and we can recognise it when we see it. We can’t be told to hope on demand by a politician.

If my postman and the nurse who lives in my street gives me hope then I’ll feel hope too.

Picture credit: Flickr / Documerica