A key line in the movie Apollo13 is ‘What do we have on the spacecraft that’s good?’ That referred to the ailing, damaged spacecraft soon after an explosion imperilled the lives of the three NASA astronauts on board and turned their mission to land on the moon into one for survival and a return to earth.
We previously wrote to this theme on 13 June 2023; 24 May 2020 and 28 March 2020. Frankly, we haven’t felt terribly optimistic in the two and a half years since we last did so. On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom ceased to be part of the European Union, a step with profound consequences and one which to this day has caused economic damage to the country.
On 30 January 2023, a little before our second post (according to Wikipedia), the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, and assessed it as having become a pandemic on 11 March. The WHO declared the public health emergency caused by COVID-19 had ended in May 2023.
In early 2023, Russia invaded Ukraine, furthering an earlier annexation of Crimea, and the conflict continues at time of writing.
It could also be argued, and I do, that the second election of Donald Trump in the US in 2025 precipitated a fracturing of international norms and alliances, impaired the preservation of human rights, and has led to an almost daily series of disturbing news headlines. One of these is the loss of the already hesitant momentum in moves to prevent and mitigate Global Warming.
Humanity has clearly learned little since the ‘World To End All Wars’ – World War 1, which ended over 100 years ago. Wars are still happening. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Conquest, War, Famine, and Death – continue to be all too busy. With a new Horseman called Global Warming taking a new stall in the overheating cosmic stable.
Perhaps the rise of machine learning, or Artificial Intelligence (AI), is a positive? That jury is out, especially with the amount of money, water and energy being poured into that rather than, as mentioned earlier, combatting Global Warming and (with it) Climate Change.
The world is changing faster and more unpredictably than at any time since the Second World War and the times feel, and clearly are, dangerous.
To return to the original intention of these posts and the mission of our business as PR’s, and cheer people up! For the second time, ‘What do we have on the spacecraft that’s good, as 2026 begins?’
- Positive media (we have mentioned some above) and the ability to make your own. At a local level, we created the ‘relentlessly positive’ (quote, Gareth Bacon MP) Bromley Buzz podcast. The tools exist to create new, bold media at all levels. Take them and use them. Many writers, such as Anna van Praagh of London’s Standard, can be directly subscribed to on Substack now, for example.
- Politics is messy. Step into that mess, take your values with you, and make a difference. Vote. Listening to The Rest Is Politics podcast today, I gather a new centre-right political movement is under way. Where you might find or create your political tribe is up to you, but there are new opportunities to take amidst political change. I do not believe Britain is broken and that hatred, xenophobia and selfishness are solutions.
- Optimism. Positive News magazine, coincidentally, carries an article online in which novelist Ian McEwan argues ‘We just have to stop doing bad things and do good things… “We know what to do,” he continues, for example, “It’s not very difficult to transition to an electric economy and stop burning fossil fuels. Our future is very open.” So, too, are the next 7 ‘good things’ on the spacecraft. I will canvass these from people I know and by asking online. Watch this space [craft].
- ..
- ..
- ..
- ..
- ..
- ..
- ..
One thing that we do intend to be good: us. This is not a time where sitting on the fence or blindly following money are sensible options, including for PR ‘s.
Darren Weale, Founder, In Tune PR, 31 January 2026
Recent Comments