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Conservative Cock Up?

The Conservatives have put their foot in it today, after a briefing note for a David Cameron speech was criticised. In the note, one of the points was criticising trips for sixth formers to Auschwitz as "a gimmick". The party's main point appears to have been the fact that Labour promised free trips to the former concentration camp, yet failed to deliver, making schools fork out £100 for each trip per pupil. It is among a list of "gimmicks" the Conservatives accused Gordon Brown of, and on the surface seems to be simple party politics.

However, due to the touchy subject matter, a great deal of offence is likely to be caused to the Jewish community. Many blogs are seeing this as a terrible misjudgement.

Guido Faulkes Blog thinks that:

Whatever the substance of the matter, somebody is going to get a bollocking for the original press release...

However, some see it as a another move to slice down the Conservatives by Labour. "The Red Box"'s Sam Coates updated his blog throughout the day, gauging the comebacks from both Labour and Conservative sides. At the end of the day, he saw it as:

The charge of Tory flipancy and judgement error certainly still stands, but perhaps Labour - suddenly emboldened by recent polls - charged in too hard and have done enough politicking with the issue to muddy the waters and lessen the impact.

To back this up, Adam Boulton's Sky News blog makes a valid point about the release:

But he did not single out the notorious death camp. Reference to it came in the Conservative Campaign Headquarters blurb that accompanied the speech.

There is no doubting that calling trips to Auschwitz a "gimmick" was a mistake and is likely to offend a great many people. A few people in my History A level class went there and for them, it was a very valuable experience and there is no denying what went on there was a tragedy and should never happen again. But maybe this is all being blown a bit out of proportion?

The Conservative's point seemed to have been more about Brown failing to deliver, not the fact that the trip is a waste of time.

Slideshow

We were asked to produce a short slideshow about walking from Avenham Park to UCLan's Foster Building, to publish on our blog. This is to demonstrate we'd got the grasp of Flickr and Windows Movie maker, both vital in publishing multimedia items on your blog. Here is my effort, using pictures from Flickr and a rather nice instrumental from viking metal band Tyr.

Mosquito Annoyance

The "mosquito box", a £550 unit that emits a sound only people under 25 can hear has come under immense criticism from human rights and children's campaigners. The boxes have been installed by councils across the UK to disperse youths to combat anti social behaviour.

Here in Preston, the council initially brought in the boxes in 2006, but in May last year, a council meeting ended in confusion, reported the LEP:

At the end of the debate, Jim Carr, the council's chief executive, told baffled councillors: "The council now does not have a position statement on Mosquito devices."

Labour councillors who described the boxes as "like something out of Doctor Who" did not get their way and as far as I know, boxes are still installed around Preston, not that i've noticed.

It's all well and good for councils to do something about a real problem such as this, but they seem to be taking it a step too far. The boxes can't choose who they emit a sound to and it affects EVERYONE under the age of 25, making standing in a place which is perfectly legal unbearable.

I think it is right that new criticism is being brought against the boxes and I see the units as a sloppy attempt to combat anti social behaviour. Maybe filling boxes with real mosquitos, dispersing them at groups of kids and only giving the repellant to those not causing trouble would work. Or not.

Attacks on MP's

Over the past week, I've noticed that the House of Commons has come under scrutiny from a number of sources; from journalists and critics, to the very MPs that sit in it.

On Monday, ePolitix.com reported a Liberal Democrat whip's outburst on fellow MPs:

You look around the House of Commons and see some Members who have been there for 15, 20, 25 years and who are frankly doing nothing, particularly the ones with large majorities. It is not part of my plan to be hanging around the chamber waiting for death.

Paul Keetch's comments to House Magazine probably sum up the feelings of many politically-disillusioned members of the public. Those who feel that their possibly rather old and past it MP's have little effect on their community, will only see comments such as these as reinforcing their dim view of British politics.

Other attacks on the Commons have come over costs to the British public. BBC News online reported the case of a Labour MP urging Whitehall's sleaze watchdog to hold an independent inquiry into MPs expenses. The row erupted over claims that MP's were putting down trivial items such as:

plasma screen televisions, fish tanks and iPods.

The cost of MPs to the taxpayer also came under attack after a Labour MP called for all MPs to receive free Blackberry devices, reports the BBC. A row was also caused over the cost of a new parliamentary visitors centre, expected to cost £12.5 million to the tax payer.

But it's not just in this country; MLA's in Northern Ireland's assembly are being rewarded with a pay rise, something Sinn Fein's Cheif Whip Caral Ni Chuilin believes is:

Out of line with both the low rate of inflation and the pay settlements other workers are being asked to accept.

It seems that MPs as a whole have been having a tough time in the eye of the public recently. Personally, I think some of these are harsh criticisms and non-stories - but as the BBC's Nick Robinson explains in his blog;

Only the House of Commons can break that circle - by reforming themselves.

Only reform can change our age old system and bring the majority of the public back on the side of their MPs - and not continue to see them as money grabbing, useless old gits.

For starters..

I thought a good way to kick off this politics-based blog would be to look at the U.S elections. Now obviously, these events have a massive effect on the world, as America's choice of president could determine the global economic forecast or whether or not the human race will be wiped out in a nuclear holocaust.

But questions have been raised recently in Britain about how much coverage is being given in the media to the race, in comparison to our own politics. For example, an article I read on the Badger Herald's website (The University of Wisconin-Madison's student newspaper), portrayed just how little attention we pay to our own politics.

One of the student writers, Laura Brennan, on a trip to London, was stunned at how much British students knew about the U.S race:

I asked another British student about the American elections. “I really like Obama,” he told me. Really? He continued, “I just wish he would elaborate more on his policies and actually tell us what he wants to change. I think he’s got some real potential, but I think I’d go for Hilary instead.” I know Mr. Brown is part of the Labour Party, but I couldn’t even begin to elaborate on his policies.

And she was also suprised at how little we knew about our own politics:

When I commented on Tony Blair’s recent conversion to Catholicism — a big story in the United Kingdom, which is predominantly Anglican — his eyes popped. “You know about that?” He laughed, sipping a rather large mug of lager. “My best friend didn’t even know! How would a bloody American know that? I’m impressed!”

Certain sections of the media, for example, Guardian Unlimited, have set up a whole series of blogs on the U.S presidential race. And this coverage, as the Britain and America blog explains, is being hyped to such an extent because sites such as BBC News online and Guardian Unlimited receive so much U.S traffic. The advantage for us is that we gain a detailed knowledge of the race, but is this a detriment to the reporting of our own, perhaps more relevant, politics?

There's no solid evidence that it is, but I think part of the reason why the race is being hyped so much is because, to put it simply, it sells. For the first time, there is a real prospect that we could have either a female or a black president. It's attractive and it's exciting, a lot of the time, a far cry from the often dull British political landscape. As long as the British media doesn't neglect it's own nation's politics (and it's already fighting past entertainment and sport), there should be little loss of empowerment for the British public.

An introduction...

Hello, and welcome to "Enter The Digital Newsroom", a corny name for this blog, which I've set up as part of the Digital Newsroom module on the second year of my BA Journalism course, at the University of Central Lancashire.

As part of the task, we've been split into groups and each member of the group has been asked to cover a different subject, mine being politics. If i'm honest, I've never been entirely on the ball with the subject, but I would say I have a decent enough grasp to be able to make stinging judgements. As well as said judgements, part of the task is to focus on what other blogs and news sites are analysing and how they are doing it.

I hope you find the blog at least mildly interesting and hopefully take something away from it. Don't forget you can leave a comment if you find anything outrageously good or bad.

Thanks,
Paul