Category: Politics

  • The News of the World

    I’ve been following this week’s events with dropped jaw horror, as finally, after two years of solid reporting from Nick Davies and The Guardian, it all came home to roost for News International and the News of the World. I hate to see people lose their jobs. We keep hearing about how 200 fine men…

  • Taking Your Twitter Followers With You

    A few weeks ago, Matt Deegan wrote an excellent piece about radio and usage of, and infatuation with Twitter. He argued cogently on many aspects of stations’ use of Twitter. But towards the end of his piece he raised a question that I’m sure many stations think about depending on how their presenters are using…

  • All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

    I am very excited about this: It starts on Monday 23rd May at 9pm on BBC2.

  • WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy

    Here’s a timely book. I received my copy of this book on Friday – 4th February. The introduction, penned by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, is dated 1st February! I know publishing speeds have moved on quite a lot, but it’s still pretty remarkable. The Guardian was serialising parts of this book last week. Whoever is…

  • Has The Mail on Sunday Lost England The World Cup?

    It’s the question that isn’t really be asked – at least in the media. But did the Mail on Sunday’s scoop last weekend fatally damage England’s chances of hosting the World Cup in 2018? Lord Triesman’s words were certainly ill-advised, and, without any proof, completely unfounded. He was foolish to confide such beliefs with anyone…

  • Election Night Live

    Well not really live. But expect this particular entry to be updated as the night goes on. It’ll be in reverse order. 11:40 “Haven’t you got a city to run? Well go away and do it. Goodbye!” Paxman to Boris. 11:36 I’ve just realised that I missed the news that my own local MP who…

  • Election Coverage Tonight

    Channel 4’s obviously not voting Green. They were advertising their alternative election special this evening with a helicopter dangling this ad at lunchtime over Soho. That follows a very expensively produced booklet that fell out of one of my newspapers at the weekend. The thing is, even though I really like the people involved (Charlie…

  • Polling Day

    Up early to vote. It’s easier in the morning as there’s less queuing.

  • Local Politics

    My local MP is Labour member of Parliament, Joan Ryan. Not only does she have a second home close to Westminster despite living in a London Borough with tens of thousands of commuters who have journeys of equal of greater distance into work every day, but she also “flipped” her home. The Telegraph piece on…

  • Newswipe on the Iraq Inquiry

    I love Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. It’s simply one of the best things on TV anywhere. Anyway – this week they covered the ongoing Iraq Inquiry, and in particular coverage of Blair’s appearance at the Inquiry. Except, the programme couldn’t show any of the the Inquiry. This is because television programmes can’t show clips of Parliamentary…

  • I’m A Photographer – Not A Terrorist

    At midday today, I went to Trafalgar Square along with what must have been a couple of thousand of other photographers to protest that “I’m A Photographer, Not A Terrorist!” This is an event that will surely have hundreds of photos coming out of it. There were no speeches per se, but lots of group…

  • Photographers Not Terrorists

    Last night I was out trying to take photos of the Geminid meteor shower. It was a bit cloudy as you can see from the above photo which shows precisely no meteors. But as I set out on foot to a nearby field a bit away from the city lights, wrapped up warm with a…

  • BBC, Ofcom and James Murdoch

    The Edinburgh TV Festival is all very depressing isn’t it. The stories coming out, during a recession that’s probably hit TV today to a greater extent than ever before, all seem to be about shutting things down, and leaving well alone. James Murdoch has come out swinging with his McTaggart lecture and it’s depressing stuff.…