Category: News

The BBC have recently launched their Newswatch website, established in response to the Neil report following the Hutton affair. As well as a website, Ray Snoddy is presenting a weekly ten minute programme which is available to stream. The first edition of this asked about the need for all the Live two-ways that we see.…

The weekend saw a tragic accident on a level crossing near Reading with a car on the line causing it. It seems likely at this point that it was a deliberate act for the driver to go on to the line. A selfish way to commit suicide by any account. I’ve just watched a Newsnight…

I see that the BBC News website has introduced a “From Other News Sites” box on some of their stories. According to the explanation, this facility is supplied to them by Moreover, and I’ve got to say it is a useful tool for discovering more about a story you’re interested in. I guess the big…

While the most of the world has been coming to grips with the horific consequences of the Russian tragedy, America was wrestling with a hurricane. Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow puts the US coverage like this in today’s Snowmail: I see we have allocated 30 seconds for the hurricane in Florida… weekending in America it…

The Today Programme had a short item on the failure of the UK’s E-University this morning. The piece was all a bit too short considering that the scheme had £60m spent on it. And many concerned all received bonuses despite the project’s abject failure. All round a scandalous waste of money. Online learning can work,…

The BBC have today published the Neil Report, which is effectively the BBC’s response to the findings of the Hutton inquiry. I’m not a journalist, and I don’t particularly work with journalists, but good and accurate journalism is a fundamental principle of a democracy. And the BBC is probably the world’s greatest news gathering organisation,…

Thanks to Rob for pointing out in my comments that John Gibson, Fox News’ commentator, is at it again, speaking out over his disdain for Ofcom’s ruling. And should you really not be able to complain if you think the company you work for is being unfairly maligned by others? Gibson seems to think so.…

Oil prices are rising again, and over the weekend I read a couple of good pieces about where we’re going with oil. First there was this piece in The Observer (the online version of which is sadly lacking the longterm oil prices graph). It actually accompanied another fascinating article about Shell’s recent travails. Then I…

It seems that maybe I should have two charts in my hysteria meter: Rhetorical threat, and Actual threat. That way, every so often in a presidential election year when things aren’t going too well and Americans need to be scared to their senses, I can reflect that, while at the same time show the true…

A must read article.

I’m pretty sure that my email didn’t push them over the edge, but it’s good to see that 4x4s are to be banned from The Ridgeway. Campaigning and does do some good!

It’s not often that I pay Janet Street-Porter all that much attention, but in today’s Independent (no direct link since at time of writing I couldn’t get onto the site, and in any case, the article is bound to be for subscibers/payees only) she makes an excellent case for responding to the government’s consultation on…

Ha. I’m glad everyone’s caught on to this story, and I really wish I’d mentioned it at the time I saw it. Basically Coke’s new Dasani water is “purified” tap water. My top tip for any bottled water is to look carefully at what it says on the label. If it doesn’t say “bottled at…