Who could have guessed that, beyond touching a nerve, Michael Gove's cack-handed statement last year should continue to weigh heavily on our minds?

According to Anand Menon, Gove was actually trying to say: "I think the people of this country have had enough of experts with organisations from acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong’". The key point here then seems to be: why should people believe you are an expert without proof?

It seems more pertinent than ever then to own our expertise, and demonstrate it responsibly amidst the noise. Show, don't tell, as the common poetry advice goes (see also James Barclay on the topic).

Speaking of poetry, the words of Sasha Dugdale's editorial to Modern Poetry in Translation have been haunting me these past few days. She writes, on the rise of Trump and irrationalism:

"Radiating out from him, leaders of countries, makers of laws and morals, writers, poets, readers and citizens must all decide in our various ways whether we repudiate him and his like, and are cast from his system – or whether we make deep moral compromises in order to influence even a little for the good. Whether we give up our peaceful lives to be activists, or whether we protest by asserting our right to peaceful lives. Whether our civic duty is to listen to the news, to share it and to debate it, or whether the relentless bad news saps our ability to do good in other ways. Whether the mask of anger or the mask of compassion fits. We make these decisions over and over again as we contemplate each shift downwards." 

I will be fascinated to hear what the panel we've assembled with PRCA will have to say on the topic next month. With experts from Buzzfeed, leading PR agencies and our own Connor Kinnear, they will be debating authenticity and trust in digital communications. You can book your free tickets here.