Dan Corry looks at whether trying to make people talk about the things you want really works, but concludes that eventually, you have to just sort out the issues that matter

Sometimes the public insists on being interested in stuff you don’t really want them to be. If you are a politician, at local level or national level, that can be annoying – or even push against you achieving what you want.

You are trying to make your borough have a smaller carbon footprint to help tackle the climate crisis; but all they want to talk about are the potholes that litter the roads and – of course – the bins. Or, you are trying to reform and improve the services you provide for looked-after children. But all they want to focus on are library opening hours – which are far less bad than if you had not saved money by cutting your back office numbers to the bone.