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EDITOR'S PICK
Good morning from the Editor-in-Chief, William Cash
ONLY CONNECT
Sinking ship. LinkedIn is awash with news of the latest moves of the 100 or so crew that went down with the sinking of Global Counsel following the Epstein files torpedo hit on founders Peter Mandelson and Ben Wegg-Prosser. Every few days, a new “talent” recruitment post pops up, and our digital editor Oliver Dean is doing his best to keep track of all the goings-on.
Bridging the gap. What’s intriguing about these posts is firstly, how LinkedIn has now become the notice-board (or notice-me) of the strategic comms industry; and second, how any time at Global Counsel has been ruthlessly erased from the CVs, as if the Epstein fallout has turned this super successful corporate advisory and risk-monitoring giant – which turned in a record performance in 2025 – instantly toxic.
Get connected. An example? The “Welcome new Flint Partner” post on LinkedIn to announce that Alex Dawson had joined as a partner in Political and Policy Analysis. “Alex brings deep consulting experience… Before joining Flint, Alex served as a senior advisor to Prime Minister Theresa May in both the Home Office and No 10 and was part of David Cameron’s senior team during the 2015 election.” No mention of his seven years at Global Counsel, latterly as Country Director.
In fact, the American professional networking and thought leadership platform – boasting more than 1.2 billion members from over 200 countries and sold to Microsoft for $26.2 billion a decade ago – is now the official platform for the corporate advisory and strategic comms industry.
Why is this ? Indeed, many public affairs individuals and firms are now shunning X to only use LinkedIn. At lunch yesterday, the CEO of a top strategic comms agency, who is a previous winner of PR Week's Public Affairs Professional of the Year award, neatly summed up the appeal: 'The beauty of LinkedIn is that you can beat your corporate or agency breast and talk up your wonderful firm and your great team. But it's also a license to big up yourself."
LET'S DO LUNCH
Linking up. I bring all this up because I’m delighted to announce that The Mace is launching its 2026 Westminster events calendar with a public affairs and business leaders’ VIP lunch on Wednesday 10 June at a SW1 private members’ club, with special guest speakers Jann Schwarz, Senior Director of Thought Leadership and Strategy at LinkedIn, and his UK-based colleague Mimi Turner, Head of Marketplace Innovation, well known in policy circles. Jann attended Harvard Business School and is flying in from New York for our event at which he will speak on “The corporate value of corporate reputation in an AI age”, as well as telling the story of how LinkedIn has transformed the world of corporate communication and networking.
Book now. Invitations for the three-course lunch, including wine, are extended to all Mace subscribers and corporate members. At £125 per head, seats will fly. Please email wendy.coumantaros@macemagazine.com for an invitation.
Thinking ahead. If Schwarz’s own posts are to go by, it will be a fascinating lunch. I got to know Jann recently at a dinner in London – which I found myself at entirely by accident – after I showed up at a club at 8pm for dinner on a Wednesday, oblivious that LinkedIn’s Head of Thought Leadership had booked the entire club for a private event. He then kindly invited me, my Mace colleague Wendy and former No 10 trade adviser Allie Renison – now with SEC Newgate – to join his party. From such divine serendipity are friendships and new networks born.
Keep your promise. I won’t spoil the lunch by revealing too much, but for strategic comms leaders and their teams to win pitches and create successful campaigns, the “simple way to win”, says Schwarz, is to frame your value to the customer in the form of a promise. “If your promise is memorable, valuable and deliverable, people will buy from you rather than the competition.”
Maybe we should invite senior members of government and the leader of the opposition. With an electoral blood bath expected on 7 May, they may learn something about keeping manifesto promises.
J'A-QUEUES
Commons sense. Last Wednesday afternoon, I found myself gliding effortlessly through House of Commons security for a parliamentary reception to celebrate English Tourism Week, hosted by Eddy Leviten, Executive Director of the Tourism Alliance. This is an umbrella body of some 70 leading tourism-related trade bodies and associations, ranging from ABTA to Airbnb, whose Public Affairs Lead, Luke Impett, gave an excellent speech.
Line of duty. There was no queue by the Cromwell Green entrance and it took no more than 10 minutes from waving my invitation to a police officer to being handed a glass of champagne inside the Churchill Room. This is in stark contrast to the wretched parliamentary wait-in-line experience that The Mace’s 100 or so guests were subjected to on a freezing stormy night on 1 December for our fifth anniversary party, also in the Churchill Room.
Storm brewing. That night the queue was so bad that after waiting for an hour in the sleeting rain, around 40 per cent of our guests – including ambassadors, CEOs and heads of public affairs at FTSE 100 companies – abandoned the line, their evening ruined thanks to what seemed to be a go-slow by parliamentary security staff on a busy Monday night with other events going on inside – including at the Speaker’s House, whose guests were fast-tracked. That there seemed to be a deliberate attempt to ruin the 'guest experience' at Parliament was confirmed by a whistleblower on the staff who emailed me anonymously to say it was a deliberate ploy to extort more money for pay.
No dignity. The queue was a farce and a national embarrassment. Lord Vaizey, former culture secretary and our sponsor for the party, joked in his speech to the “lucky few” who had braved the queue: “When I become prime minister, the first thing I will do is ensure that Parliament treats its guests with respect and courtesy.”
During the evening I was peppered with irate texts and calls from guests forced to wait in the freezing rain. Some, like veteran lobbyist Rory Chisholm – one of our Top 100 UK Lobbyists – even went so far as writing a sharply worded letter to The Speaker:
I am sorry not to have made your event this evening, but frankly, the current House of Commons visitor and security arrangements are a disgrace. After waiting outside in a barely moving queue in a near gale for 40 minutes I gave up. Others did so also. The present arrangements for the Cromwell Green entrance are hopeless and clearly inadequate.
Chisholm, a distinguished government affairs lobbyist and brother of Sir Alex Chisholm, former Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet, did not receive a reply from The Speaker or any parliamentary official.
Fixing a hole. We will now be taking the matter up with the Sergeant-at-Arms. It’s not only the decaying building of Parliament that is in need of repair – the estimated £40 billion costs are, as Jesse Norman MP articulated, another overpriced joke – but the whole approach of Parliament to its guests – even those called to select committees – has to be fixed.
As I told The Times, “Getting into Parliament should not be a worse experience than queuing for a 6am Ryanair flight at Stansted during half-term.”
TOURISM REBELLION
Raising awareness. Talking of the holiday season, English Tourism Week, which ran from 13-23 March, is also known as an “awareness week”. At a Downing Street reception for tourism leaders, junior minister Stephanie Peacock talked up the industry with the usual jargon about jobs and growth. On 10 February, the member for Barnsley South told the Commons that the government was clear that “tourism is not a peripheral issue. It is a powerful driver of growth across every nation and region of the UK.”
Well, that’s not the view of the various tourism trade association members who attended the Tourism Alliance event in the Commons last week. The trouble with the sheer number of these “awareness” days and weeks – including Plastic Free July, Veganuary and National Obesity Awareness Week – is that they’re often counter-productive. Lobby groups have now cottoned on that these awareness weeks are a good way to marshal campaign opposition on a legitimate media platform.
Anti-growth. Tourist trade bodies are one group that has turned up the volume. As I write in the Spectator, in a piece called “English Tourism Week won’t save the tourist industry”, the truth is that the UK’s tourism and hospitality sector – contributing £127 billion to the economy – is being damaged by serious anti-growth measures and regulations.
Hated levy. The very worst thing that could happen, at a time when UK tourism lobby bodies are calling for a reduction in VAT to 5% – to make the UK more competitive with Europe – is the introduction of the Edinburgh visitor levy in the summer, with other areas of the UK set to follow if the unpopular “tourism tax” is included in the King’s Speech in May.
We have written about how this loathed tourism tax was a major government spoiler for Tourism Week – most industry leaders believe the hated levy will be in the Kings Speech.
It will add a punitive 5% “overnight visitor levy” on paid accommodation in many areas of the UK. The tax will hit all hotels, pubs with accommodation, B&Bs, holiday lets and Airbnb locations in the devolved areas.
As I said in the Spectator: “To celebrate ‘Tourism Week’ while at the same time administering a punishment beating that hits accommodation in major cities, as well as self-catering Airbnb owners, is the equivalent of chartering a luxury bus to parade the England cricket team – during ‘Cricket Awareness Week’ – along Whitehall after their latest 5-0 Ashes whitewash.”
Static shock. What’s worse – as I only found this out at the Tourism Alliance’s reception when I spoke to Debbie Walker, Director-General of the Holiday and Residential Parks Association – even caravan owners will be charged the levy if they wish to enjoy a weekend parked up close to the Edinburgh Festival this August. The 5% tax comes in on 24 July – designed to cause maximum tourist pain.
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Editor's Note: You’re receiving this because you’ve appeared in, or been shortlisted for, one of our Westminster Indices – described by the Telegraph as ‘an influential Who’s Who’ of Westminster’; or written for us, come to an event of ours, have connected on social media, or else are on our radar as a Leading Individual working in politics, public affairs and strategic comms today. We did write to everybody and thanks for all the positive feedback.
Credits: copy editor Piers Martin, digital editor Oliver Dean, associate publisher Wendy Coumantaros, captain of IT Dan Colburn Smith, designer Cath Mackenzie, managing editor Emeila Wild and editorial assistant Madeline Dabbah.
