Blogger journalists

Should journalists blog? I'm not sure. In my previous blog, I mentioned Nick Robinson, who in today's blog says that he caused "quite a stir", and led to at least 52 MP's signing an early day motion against his blog yesterday.

Should he even be blogging though? We generally look to journalists for facts and analysis, not their opinion - surely that's for columnists and more generally, none-journalists to comment on the news. This blurs the boundary between fact and opinion, and is dangerous. How do we know what Nick says on the news tonight is factual, and not him just spouting some theories and his opinion? It will be interesting to see whether the BBC stop him blogging, seeing as many MPs view his blog and he has a considerable amount of sway given his public image.

Preston news map

Super-fun map of Preston news
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Martin circles the drain

Michael Martin, speaker of the Commons, says that he hasn't harmed Parliament. Damning evidence has been presented without a denial in sight. No spin, no twists, nothing. Just a denial. No bones to gnaw on for the press, yet. Not many politicians criticising the speaker, notes Nick Robinson. No jumping ship and firing at the Scot, just Martin's assistant blaming someone else, which has been the Labour blanket response to modern crises: "Wasn't my fault. Blame him".

Can't be long before the knives are out though, the only other political news of the day was Brown dithering on runways at Heathrow. Green stuff. Great. Anybody else suffering from green fatigue? I think Martin's just suffering from fatigue.

Obama obliterates obsolete opponents, obviously

Check these screegrabs. PrObama or what? Now I can understand The Times and The Guardian plugging Obama (main readership in England - English people can't vote in the US elections), but the Beeb have a world renown reputation for truth and fairness (although not of late) and I presume has a much larger American readership than the two newspapers, so shouldn't they be more equal? It would be nice to see anyway.

But I think the content of the coverage has been good on the whole, mostly taking the perspective of the American people rather than what Obama/Hillary/McCain will mean for UK politics. Having said that, there is a video on The Times' pages showing a little vox-pop of people around The Times HQ and how much they are "into" the elections. Not sure why. I'm sure nearer the time we'll see a much more "yes, but what does this mean for us" type agenda, but for the moment, its decent coverage, however biased it is.

In party disagreements

For an article I wrote for Pluto, I spoke to Councillor John Swindells about ID cards for students. He's the Labour councillor for the University ward of Preston. Here's the full statement he gave me.

"I have no real problem with ID cards as such.

If the technology is proven then we could have a useful tool to prevent Identity theft and ensure that loans, benefits etc get to the correct people. However my real concern with the card which will use similar technology as passports and driving licence is the proposed cost of the card. As a dad to 2 sons who have both recently achieved degrees from Nottingham & UCLan University's and a daughter who is a 2nd year student at UCLan I am really concern about adding any extra financial burden on to students.The loan is a real disincentive for poorer students being able to attend University.

Any ID card to access a student loan would in my view be unjustified and an ID card to get a loan should be free and come with the loan.

There will be a need to charge for the ID card to the general public only if is a similar price as other documents people use on a daily basis. The ID card should be phased in as driving licences and passports are renewed as you currently pay for those documents. "

I think it's great to see a councillor speaking honestly, and with some actual experience and authority, without spin, and unafraid of going against his party's wishes. Granted, he isn't exactly a minister, and he knew that he was talking to a student newspaper reporter, but still, it's good to hear some honesty without spin. Ain't democracy great?

Family help

Barack Obama's grandmother came out to support her grandson in his bid to win the US primaries yesterday. With her chicken.

Source

Why don't we see this in England? With Gordon Brown being made to blame for the faltering economy at the moment, why don't we see his mum or aunt saying: "Ah he's alright really".

Maybe we will some day. As the saying goes: "when America sneezes, Europe catches a cold", we might see old grandma Clegg or Cameron giving a glowing endorsement for their relatives, before spitting on a tissue and wiping their cherubs' cheeks.

Today, Brown pushed the idea for using phone tap evidence in court. Interesting timing, this, after MP Sadiq Khan was bugged. Bit of a panicked response maybe? Cameron doesn't need to be bugged or have his phones tapped, 'cos he's just Dave yeah? And he's got his whole life on WebCameron, whose site is so pink and curvy, if they're trying to appeal to any other demographic than middle class/aged women (Blair territory) they're doing it wrong.

Anyhoo, it's now the end of Super Wednesday, and it's nearly Super Thursday. Super.