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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 4h

Given Norway's vast hydro-carbon exports, this does feel a bit like a crack dealer congratulating themselves on the fact they don't use the stuff.

Electrek @electrek.co · 4h

Norway says ‘mission accomplished’ on going 100% EV, proposes incentive changes

For years, Norway has been the poster child for electric vehicle adoption, a perfect example of how a combination of ambitious goals and robust incentives can transform a nation’s entire automotive industry. Now, with the country on the cusp of achieving its goal of 100% all-electric new car sales by 2025, the Norwegian government is signaling a new phase in its EV strategy, proposing changes to its incentive program that include the introduction of taxes on electric vehicles. more…

electrek.co

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 5h

I cannot consider him for a single moment without the video of him starring in the LibDem choir at their 2016 conference gate-crashing into my consciousness. And what I take from that video more any other single thing - apart from "LibDem" - is his love of attention. He's an actor.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 6h

"The Meloni government's equal opportunities minister has criticized school trips to Auschwitz, which she says unfairly equate anti-Semitism with the far right. This has reignited the heated debate on this notion in Italy's political landscape."

Matsu Basho 🏳️‍🌈 🇪🇺 @matsubasho.bsky.social · 8h

« La ministre [italienne] de l’égalité des chances du gouvernement Meloni a critiqué les voyages scolaires à Auschwitz, qui, selon elle, associent injustement l’antisémitisme à l’extrême droite. »

www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

En Italie, vive polémique autour de la mémoire de la Shoah

La ministre de l’égalité des chances du gouvernement Meloni a critiqué les voyages scolaires à Auschwitz, qui, selon elle, associent injustement l’antisémitisme à l’extrême droite. De quoi relancer le...

www.lemonde.fr

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 7h

Final thing. It's not about "the comms". It's never about "the comms". But if you're so bad at comms that things blow up at the initial announcement stage then you are never going to be able to deliver the policy that *will* make a difference.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 7h

There was a time when the Chicago Police Department would simply not have put up with something like this...

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 8h

Wow. Trump's masked federal agents tear-gassed a crowd in Chicago and ended up gassing a bunch of local Chicago cops who were there to *deescalate tensions.* One local cop was captured on film washing out his eyes with a hose:

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 7h

Reactive press mode has been devalued, I think. Gone are the press officers who spend hours arguing the toss on the phone with a journalist. None of them even use the phone any more. Too scared of saying the wrong thing.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

Similarly, scars on his back and all that, but ditto foundation hospitals and academies?

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

Of course - the *key* thing is that ministers themselves are willing to make arguments. But even if they were - and many, it seems, are not - I'm not sure the machine could carry and deliver them.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

Yes. As a senior civil service comms bod still in Whitehall just messaged me to say: "I don't think ministers are actually keen on making arguments either."

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Reposted by Gabriel Milland

Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 8h

Following the announcement of YourParty, support for 'Others' in opinion polls increased from 3.7% to 6.0%. It has since dropped back to 3.7%, with the Greens seemingly gaining, reaching a peak of 10.7%.

electionmaps.uk/polling/vi

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

I think that might be part of it. Ministers need to expect and demand more from their comms teams.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

That would be precisely the wrong thing to. The *best* use of focus groups is not to gauge opinion but to work out how those opinions are formed, and - most crucially of all - what it takes to change opinion.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

I think that's absolutely correct. This is the wider crisis in political rhetoric.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

That's not really true. It might seem to some in Labour that a Tory government is playing on easy setting when it comes to the press. But that's certainly not what it felt like inside that government.

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Reposted by Gabriel Milland

Matt Peterson @mattpeterson.bsky.social · 8h

China is deliberately goading Trump into measures that tank the stock market, knowing that his fixation on the market will drive him to capitulate, WSJ reports www.wsj.com/world/china/...

In its trade standoff with Washington, Beijing thinks it has found America's Achilles' heel:
President Trump's fixation on the stock market.
China's leader, Xi Jinping, is betting that the U.S. economy can't absorb a prolonged trade conflict with the world's second-largest economy, according to people close to Beijing's decision-making. China is holding a firm line because of its conviction, the people said, that an escalating trade war will tank markets, as it did in April after Trump announced his so-called Liberation Day tariffs, prompting Beijing to hit back.
China expects that the prospect of another market meltdown ultimately will force Trump to negotiate at an expected summit with Xi late this month, the people said.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

Changing opinion needs to be something they are willing to engage in, rather than resile from. That will take a culture change.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

This is perhaps part of a wider crisis in political rhetoric and trust in government. But it's not going to be fixed simply by doing short videos. Civil service communicators - whose responsibility this indeed is - need to raise their game and become more small-p political.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

Too much stress was, I think, put on behaviour change and other sorts of comms campaigns. Not enough attention has been paid to engaging in areas which are *contested*.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 8h

Interesting piece. But it's not just about channels, it's about a larger crisis in government comms - and in society - which is not a new thing and goes back perhaps 15 years. Put simply, the Whitehall comms machine has lost the ability to win arguments.

Adam Payne @adampayne26.bsky.social · 8h

The AI minister says the digital ID announcement is an e.g of where gov must up its online comms game:

“To be able to make sure that when a significant thing is happening, like an announcement on digital ID, we're winning the battle of ideas and arguments…” he tells @zoecrowther.bsky.social

Government Must Do 'A Lot More' To Sell Its Policies Online, Says AI Minister

The minister for artificial intelligence has said the government needs to do “a lot more to win the battle of content online”.

www.politicshome.com

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Reposted by Gabriel Milland

Ariel Zellman @arielzellman.bsky.social · 9h

Remarkably, as with every previous ceasefire in this war, Hamas is working hard via continued blatant violations, to encourage Israel to "break" its side of the agreement. 3/3

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 10h

It's still pretty poor in comparison to Seumas Milne - who also did PPE at Balliol. The Economist records: "As an undergraduate he was so committed to the Palestinian cause that he spoke with a Palestinian accent and called himself Shams, Arabic for sun."

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 11h

Marchesini. Decent choice. But not easy to find in supermarkets.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 11h

I bet Samuel tells everyone at Oxford he's from South London.

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 11h

If it wasn't so vomit-inducing it would be a potential sitcom

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Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 11h

"Workshopping". I do love the idea of the most middle class people in the world commandeering the college boathouse or whatever to come up with slightly twee demands for a death cult to commit mass murder.

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