This is my personal website where I intend to write, occasionally, about political journalism. It may not be updated as often as it should be, as I also have a blog on The Birmingham Post site.
Okay, it's a bit of a naughty headline. But they have increased the number of press officers employed by the civil service.
Sir Gus O'Donnell, cabinet secretary and head of the Home Civil Service, today defended an increase in the number of press officers in government and said the increase was a response to the 1,600 political bloggers in the UK.
Fun at the lobby briefing in Westminster this morning, as hacks sought an angle on the Prime Minister's visit to Birmingham.
The nationals had lots of questions about how much it all cost, clearly hoping to build up a story about an expensive PR junket at taxpayers' expense.
Whether this is how it will be reported tomorrow, I don't know.
A better angle has probably presented itself with David Miliband declaring that Brown will lead Labour into the next election and win it, perhaps putting paid to stories about the Foreign Secretary challenging for the leadership (and leading to future stories about Miliband botting it, I suspect).
I have been writing about West Midlands Minister Liam Byrne's presentation to the Cabinet today, and Mr Brown's comments about the region playing a role in the development of environmentally-friendly, energy-efficient technology. There'll be more from Paul Dale and Neil Elkes for the Post and Mail respectively.
The event has provided an opportunity for some multimedia reporting, with contributions using Flickr and SlideShare, as well as blogs by Joanna Geary and me.
Obama Girl was on the telly recently. She told Newsnight: "Doing that video sparked a lot of interest in him early on in his campaign. It definitely sparked the youth vote, so it definitely helped."
With her Spinal Tap -style lyrics, Amber Lee Ettinger may have shown how the interweb can change political campaigning, but is it a change for the better? Of course, she didn't write the lyrics, or even support Barack Obama when she was chosen to make the video.
It's great that young people have become enthused about politics, but I think we're still waiting for someone to find a way to enthuse them about, um, politics.
Downing Street has re-vamped its website and it looks pretty cool. Lots of YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and press releases which look like blog posts. I don't see Brown Girl popping up in the near future, and even Digital Dave might blanche at Cameron Girl (although David Davis gave it a shot when he stood for the party leadership with his "Double D" girls).
Maybe I'm just old fashioned. Sing along!
Universal healthcare reform It makes me warm You tell the truth unlike the right You can love but you can fight You can Barack me tonight
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Little known fact – just a couple of weeks ago, the Tory PR people were worried that the mood was changing in Gordon Brown’s favour. Not in the country at large necessarily, but among the press corps.
They believed they had detected the start of the anti-Gordon-backlash-backlash. A fashion for saying he’s not so bad after all, in other words. One example was a piece by Ben Brogan in the Daily Mail portraying him as a colossus on the world stage, and asking why he didn’t enjoy the same respect at home.
Glasgow East put paid to that, but if 150 SNP voters had stuck with Labour, perhaps the mood in the media would be very different today. Of course, David Miliband has since ensured that the leadership will be the story for the foreseeable future.
Politics
With her