Well, hello there, media fans. I am back with another sideways glance at a week in the world of PR land. What a week it has been. Whilst Mandelson was outed by Starmer for his fibbing, the rest of the UK, dare I say, is looking more upbeat.

Andrew Bloch speaks and the service sector listens

PR land appears to be on the up so far in 2026. I had just finished watching our industry’s lord and commander, Andrew Bloch, talking to PRmoment founder Ben Smith on TikTok about the green shoots of recovery hitting PR land, when a Reuters article said exactly the same.

S&P’s Purchasing Managers’ index rose in January and clarity after the Autumn Budget was cited as giving business owners more confidence. It does feel like our industry is having a stronger Q1 than the preceding two years, and long may it continue. Service buying has increased at its second-fastest pace since 2024.

Well done and Good PR to all the PR agency new business development teams for giving the industry a much-needed boost.

Something fishy going on with salmon farming in Scotland

When it comes to crisis communications, you can either take it on the chin, hide behind a legal technicality or come out fighting. When the Scottish Government went in on Loch Duart Salmon for its fish having a sea lice issue, the company was faced with the aforementioned response options. It chose violence and has put the whole Scottish salmon industry in the sights of the Scottish Government.

Loch Duart Salmon did not accept the accusation and instead claimed that the rest of the Scottish salmon brigade was under-reporting its own sea lice numbers. Industry campaigners are now highlighting the flaws in companies being allowed to self-report, and the usual fish-hippies are up in arms about the situation.

The Government department involved in all of this is miffed at Loch Duart for not giving more context (meaning snitching) in its public statements and is now faced with a potentially very costly investigation.

I am giving Loch Duart Salmon good PR for coming out so aggressively and turning the focus elsewhere!

Unexpected item found in the baggage area

The tabloids had a field day with the next story. A guy in France rocked up to his local A&E with a sore bottom. It is alleged that he declined to say what had caused it, but after an initial investigation, it was decided by Le Doctor that an operation was needed.

After a bit of digging and poking, a WW1 unexploded artillery shell was discovered to be the cause of the issue. The French surgeon resisted the urge to immediately surrender and instead opted to call the bomb squad. They arrived, the shell was removed and no one was hurt, other than, I imagine, the French guy’s pride. To make matters worse for him, he now faces prosecution for breaching France’s laws on weapons and munitions.

Bad PR for deviants.

Royal Opera head saves the day

You may be surprised to hear that I know very little about opera, dear reader. So, if the following happened at a performance that I was watching, I would not have noticed, let alone complained.

The Royal Opera House was home to a performance of Turandot when the main tenor fell ill halfway through. Proving the thespians' favourite saying, “the show must go on”, to be true, a unique solution was found.

The head of the Royal Opera House, Richard Hetherington, stepped in to fill the role. Sadly, he didn’t have the costume or choreography knowledge, so he stood in the wings, belting out the majority of the songs, whilst another cast member danced along in the main character's role.

The main number in this opera is Nessan Dorma (offa the World Cup innit) and Hetherington didn’t fancy his chances on some of the notes in that song, so he skipped it. This is what led to it hitting the headlines. Some of the upper-class audience were miffed about this, and it went from a social media moan to a mainstream media pile-in.

I am not having that, though. Great PR for the Royal Opera House and a special positive mention for Richard Hetherington.

Tesco gets its language and locations mixed up again

Last year, I gave Tesco a Bad PR gong for putting an England women’s World Cup promo front and centre in one of its prime footfall stores in Wales. The Welsh were not so pleased.

They have had another language hiccough. They accidentally sent their Welsh language instore signposting to a Tesco in Cornwall, and the store, rather bizarrely, still used it. I am starting to think this is a harmless rage-baiting PR exercise. You wait until they do something promoting England in Scotland, though, I predict a riot, as the Kaiser Chiefs are fond of saying.

Harmless, funny and yet still bad PR, for Tesco.