An embarrassing situation earlier this week, when I attended a press conference - and was the only person to turn up.

There was a Cabinet Minister, a podium, coffee and about a dozen press officers and officials.

It was awkward because the event had been organised especially for regional political editors - and we frequently push the Government PR machine to pay more attention to the needs of local papers (in fairness, that doesn't mean they do a bad job already).

The Cabinet Minister, Harriet Harman, scarpered and left me to talk to a more junior minister, but I can't get too upset about that.

But I can also explain why nobody else went. The topic was the Government's new equality Bill - which had already been reported in great detail before the press conference even took place, due both to official announcements and "leaks" (stories placed with selected papers).

I still thought it was worth going, because the diversity of the West Midlands arguably makes equality laws even more important and because one of my papers, the Birmingham Post, has a business slant. The Bill is very relevant to employers.

But I can understand why other local journalists felt it was a waste of time.

So press officers, please remember that the local press do want to work with you, but we have the same criteria as the nationals - something has to be true, interesting and new to be considered a story.

And if you tip me off in advance of the official statement, I'm very discreet.

                   

He could do this because he saw the IP addresses of forum users, and this poster was using their office computer.

(If you know someone's IP address, you can go to a website like this one and possibly get some idea who they are. For domestic users, you'll probably just learn their ISP, such as Virgin, BT etc. If they are at work, and work for a large organisation, you might learn their employer).

Many forum posters protested that this was unfair, an abuse of mod powers etc. I agree, but the mod in question made a good point in reply - that you are always representing your employer. It may not be nice, but it's a good answer because it's true.

I was reminded of this when Birmingham MP Sion Simon made headlines today by making a joke about swine flu on Twitter. He doesn't hide his identity, so it's not an exact parallel. But the lesson is that he can never be just Sion, talking to his mates, on Twitter or any other part of the Internet.

He's always going to be MP Sion Simon (Lab Erdington). Which probably has a moral for us all, hidden there somewhere.

This is what he said (actually re-tweeting someone else)

I'm not saying Susan Boyle caused swine flu. I'm just saying that nobody had swine flu, she sang on TV, people got swine flu.

I did speak to one Tory MP to see if they wanted to be outraged, but they burst out laughing and insisted they didn't want to comment . . .

Here's my take on swine flu.

                   

William Perrin has written a very insightful piece on local newspapers and the future of local news on his newish website.

One point which caught my eye, although he only mentions it in passing, is his reference to "the curious complicity of the Lobby", which I suspect is inspired by the Damian McBride affair and Guido Fawkes' complaints about the Telegraph supposedly colluding with Downing Street.

Nobody should get too hung up on the lobby. It doesn't really exist in the way people imagine.

The Lobby is the name given to the journalists who report on politics at Westminster. That's basically it. It no more has strange working practices or a special hold over the way news is reported than the education correspondents or crime correspondents. The only difference with the Lobby is that it has a weird name, while there's no collective noun to describe the nation's transport correspondents, for example.

This was illustrated when Alastair Campbell hatched a plan to end the power of the Lobby by ending briefings for them in Downing Street and, instead, having the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman hold press conferences which any journalist could attend.

The result was that exactly the same UK journalists attended the press conferences as before, behaving in exactly the same way as before. Because the people who attended were simply the journalists hired by editors to report on politics.

The one thing that did change is that some foreign news organisations, who did not have full-time Westminster correspondents, sent their staff along to these briefings. But I don't think that lasted long. Frankly, Lobby briefings (or whatever they're being called) are rarely very interesting.

Some organisations like the Press Association may have staff at Westminster who are not considered to be Lobby correspondents, but this reflects the role given to them by PA. They are Parliamentary reporters who report strictly on what is said in the Chamber of the Commons.

It's perfectly true that the Lobby tends to collude, discussing story ideas and angles to take. So do other journalists - education reporters may well get together in a huddle after a press conference to discuss what they've just heard.

It's also true that they can, perhaps, get too close to the people they write about. But again, that can happen with any other reporter.

Damian McBride did not send poison text messages to "the Lobby". He sent them to trusted journalists he was close to. Or at least, so I am told. I never got one, despite being a member of the magic circle.

The criticisms made of political reporting may or may not be valid, but to blame them on the Lobby is missing the point. The Lobby is just a name.

                   

I also wrote my column, with a slightly sarcastic look at the hysteria surrounding the aporkalypse.

Tomorrow will be busier, as MPs vote on expenses reforms. . .

                   

Checking out the West Midlands feed - which provides links to press releases from our local government office - I was surprised it only has three followers, two of whom are Nick and I.

Government press releases aren't always fascinating reads, but they're definitely worth watching for local political anoraks and West Midlands journalists covering health, education, transport or just about any other area of public policy.