In 2019, the General Election was described as the first real test of the impact of social media as a way to influence voters, stir up discussion on the main topics and personalities, and spread key moments and mishaps to the digitally literate electorate.

The clock is ticking for Rishi Sunak to give his voters a reason to turn up; and for Sir Keir Starmer to seal the deal by persuading both Conservative waverers to join him and disaffected Tories to stay home.

In 2024, the impact of technology will continue to be felt across the media, both in terms of how people consume their news, but also the impact artificial intelligence could play in creating and checking content.

It feels cliché to say 2024 will be a turning point for the climate. We could say the same of every recent year - and many have. But when there is growing consensus that the planet is running out of time; when increasing extreme weather events have caused death and destruction; when COP28 outcomes were generally seen as not going far enough; and when we’re entering a year of elections and the largest global democratic exercise in decades, 2024 can’t help but feel crucial for the environment.

There are so many ways to describe being a candidate, which makes it hard to give a direct answer to the most asked question I’ve had all year: “What’s it like being a Parliamentary candidate?”. Needless to say, I still haven’t perfected an answer, but I’ll let you in on some of my insights. Being a candidate is amazing. It’s also daunting, weird, stressful, scary and unpredictable. But it’s also a privilege, an honour and one hell of a responsibility.

“To be, or not to be, that is the question”. It’s a question that is as relevant today as it was when Shakespeare wrote it over 420 years ago. After the next General Election, if Labour maintains its poll lead, it’s likely the Conservative Party will reflect on its own future: left, right, or unity?

It’s been a long time since traditional channels alone were enough to effectively reach corporate affairs audiences. The options to engage them and influence their views of companies and their issues have never been greater. Here is a look ahead to 2024.

As uncertainty looms over the timing of the upcoming General Election in 2024, one certainty is the occurrence of a number of local elections scheduled for May 2024.

At the start of 2023, 5654 said this about Keir Starmer’s year ahead:

“Starmer has a difficult balancing act to strike this year. He must set out a detailed policy platform, but not too early that the best ideas are stolen by the Government. He has to look and sound radical to regain lost support in the north of England and Scotland, but he can’t allow himself to be painted as just another big spending Labour politician. And he has to appear credible and competent, but not allow the label of “boring” to become a problem.”

The one thing for certain (other than death and taxes) is that 2024 will not be a year of meaningful growth - whatever politicians promise at the polls.

If elections make democracy, then 2024 will be the most democratic in world history. 70 countries and nearly half the population of the globe will go to the polls in 2024. But does that mean we are at peak-democracy? Hardly.

With growing global instability and a rapidly evolving earned media landscape, 5654 & Company has bolstered its support for clients by hiring former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and ex-City AM editor Christian May as Senior Counsel.

At exactly 10pm on General Election night 2019, the BBC, ITV and Sky published their shared Exit poll revealing that Boris Johnson had led the Conservatives to their largest majority since Margaret Thatcher in 1987. In contrast, Labour, under Jeremy Corbyn, had won their lowest number of seats since 1935.

With the national polls indicating a Labour resurgence, 5654 & Company wanted to understand the extent to which voters are switching allegiances, are wavering and remain undecided or will not vote for anyone.

They are the policy engine for the main parties. There is often a cross-transfer of people - policy strategists may leave think-tanks to work on a party campaign. After the election, expect new government advisers and SpAds be recruited from think tanks - and vice-versa.

It’s hardly a surprise - trust in business is down as the cost-of-living crisis continues to grip the UK. As households across the country feel the pinch, the public are looking more closely at the conduct and decisions of businesses.

Clubhouse, Mastodon, the Metaverse – all once hailed as potential game changers were quickly resigned to the dustbin of social media history. Threads, Meta’s new microblogging app which officially launched last week in over 100 countries already has more than 100m subscribers…

Each year we cast a wide net to better understand how people view the people and organisations who influence their day to day lives and the results this year are striking: trust in politicians has tumbled, presenting companies with an opportunity to lead.

A quick glance at the news each day often suggests there is little to feel hopeful about in spring 2023: continued conflict in Europe fuelling a cost-of-living crisis, public services overstretched and understaffed, ‘final warnings’ from scientists about the climate emergency, political…

Hope is a rare commodity in Britain this autumn. The Hope Index we published after the summer showed hope has dropped by 30% over the last year with concerns about the cost of living, energy security, and geopolitical insecurity being the…