Ellee Seymour

I had a phone call from my MEP Robert Sturdy in Lisbon this afternoon telling me he had walked out of the EU-African summit because of Robert Mugabe’s unwelcome presence.

Quite right too, and this is the press release we issued:

ROBERT STURDY BOYCOTTS EU-AFRICAN SUMMIT

Euro-MP Robert Sturdy has today walked out of the controversial EU-African summit in Portugal following the arrival of Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe, because of his appalling record on human rights.

Mr Sturdy was hoping to participate in the talks due to his high profile work on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) aimed at improving trade links with poorer countries, including several African nations, and as an International Trade spokesman.

However, he felt it was untenable to remain, and is disappointed that he has missed out on talks which he felt would have been helpful.

“Everybody is missing out because of Mugabe’s presence, while at the same time wanting to support Africa. As the main speaker on EPAs, and the co-chair of the WTO steering panel, I obviously wanted to participate, but I was not going to be seen to be involved in any way with Mugabe. “

*I didn’t realise that according to the World Health Organization, Zimbabwe has the world’s shortest life expectancy—37 years for men and 34 for women. It also has the greatest percentage of orphans (about 25%, says UNICEF) and the worst annual inflation rate (1,281% at time of publication).

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I was asked a few weeks ago whether I would object to my blog being monitored by PR Voices, which identifies the top 15 public relations stories and blogs of the day.

I naturally agreed, and had the nicest shock of my life when they emailed me this week with an update which showed that yours truly was ranked at No 8. They are currently tracking over 205,688 blogs and in the last week alone, analyzed over 283,880 new stories.

It is a great honour to be ranked in the top ten alongside some of the best in the business, including Hugh McLeod’s Gapingvoid, (sorry I am missing out your geek dinner with Robert Scoble this evening); Jeff Jarvis’ Buzz Machine; and Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion. I have no idea how I managed this, particularly as I write about so many varied topics, but I shall just carry on as I am.

What impressed me from the PR Voice list of hot blogs was the Southwest Airlines blog ranked at No 6. Called Nuts about Southwest, it is all about their employees, customers, airplanes, and airports and is fun and informative, as well as personalised.

"We really are Nuts about Southwest and we hope that our readers will share that passion by posting their own comments."

It’s an excellent example of best practice for other organisations, and particularly British Airways to follow, which has limped from bad news story and PR disaster to another, the latest being its £270 million fine for airline price fixing. Their posts are written by staff from all fields, including their structural mechanic, flight attendants, customers service supervisor, as well as their manager of customer communication and corporate editor.

And while you can win some, but also lose some golden PR opportunities (see pic), it looks like the Southwest Airlines blog can proudly hold its nose up high!

*For clarification, the woman in Richard Branson’s arms was one of Southwest Airlines’ bad PR days and is referred to in my link in the last paragraph. Her outfit was deemed to be too provocative and she was not allowed to fly with them. Virgin, however, welcomed her with open eyes, as you can see…

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