Aiken PR

I wonder what Benjamin Franklin, one of the great societal contributors in US history would make of civic leadership in our world today?

Many have credited Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny as the only politician with the will–power to lead Ireland through the financial crisis of 2008; he was however always going to struggle to make the transition from “safe pair of hands” to “dynamic new light.”

The great British economist John Maynard Keynes said, ‘The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones’.

‘More mush from the Wimp’. From a different era and a very different world, this was the damning headline stamped upon Jimmy Carter’s US Presidency by the Boston Globe following another banal and vapid economic speech in 1980.

Driving back from Dublin a couple of weeks ago I was listening to BBC Radio 4 where the host and a panel were talking about some of the world’s greatest cons.

So that was the year that was, 2016 the Chinese year of the monkey. Those spirited, hairy haplorhine primates that have blue and gold, the colours of the EU, as two of their favourites and love playing practical jokes. Sure what could possibly go wrong on their watch?

Previous cases and the reach of social media has brought more onus to ensure undue reputational damage is not inflicted on innocent people.

With exactly four weeks to the day to the US Presidential election and controversy reaching fever pitch, it seems like a distant memory back to 2008 with the positive message of change that resonated throughout that campaign.