Look East: I'm not one to complain ...

I am not the kind of guy who whinges about the media - as they say, like a sailor moaning about the sea - but tonight's headlines on Look East are quite remarkable.

Home Secretary told she's living in cloud cuckoo land over impact of police cuts
and
The VAT Rise: How will this impact upon our region's industries?

Fair and balanced? Hardly; how about ...

Government brings country back from brink of bankruptcy
and
Stability returned to region as Labour's massive deficit is finally tackled

I await tomorrow's fair and balanced bulletin with interest ...

Why the BBC might not be the people to talk to if you are embarrassed and upset...

There's a very interesting story on today's BBC website about a Mum and child who were thrown off a bus because of the 2 year olds behaviour (click here). This is undoubtably every parents nightmare situation, and as somebody who has tried to keep kids silent in restaurants, shops, cafes, Tory rallies and on public transport I know it isn't always easy and you think everyone is tut-tutting at you. You really do feel like the worst parent in the world. So I sympathise with the lady in question.

However what struck me is the quote that she gave to the Beeb: "I felt very embarrassed and upset"

Well, how did this story get into the news in the first place? I am assuming they rang the BBC to shame the bus company. But if you are really embarrassed and upset why would you put this tale of woe into the public domain where people around the world know the situation you are in. Maybe if she was that embarrassed and upset, they should have known that there are somethings that are best not shared.

Campaign Diary - Day Eighteen (the day Newsnight rolled into the City)

Well, today was eventful and have just finished watching myself on Newsnight and that 30 second clip sort of dominated the day.

It began with a Group Leaders meeting at City Hall, a sharp reminder that life goes on outside of the election and I still have an important job to do representing the people of Bowthorpe and Earlham and also the Conservatives in Norwich.

By 10.30 we were all at the Age UK / Age Concern Hustings held at the Vauxhall Centre. It was a great meeting and the Labour, LD, Green & UKIP candidates were there. Funnily enough the questions weren't all about older people's issues (which you might have expected). It kicked off with Britain's member of the EU but soon covered immigration, skills, the Lisbon Treaty & the funding of the voluntary sector. I was told by two of the audience that they felt I had "won" but I am not clear what that means in terms of these local debates where there is more agreement (yes, even between Tories and Greens) than you might imagine.

In the afternoon I did a quick interview for Heart Radio about the election campaign and then the whirlwind that is Michael Crick came to town. It was quick but fairly intensive. He just throws questions at you, plus the camera is always on. He made the critical error of thinking Mike Gillepsie - my agent, and somebody whom the party ought to employe PDQ after the election - was my brother and then went on to criticise the spelling of my name (no "h", you see) so that set us off well! He was stunned to note I was wearing a rosette - no idea why, I wear it pretty much all the time so people know who I am and can come up and chat if they want to. We then had a persistent Green heckler, although he soon got bored. Crick just raised an eyebrow. I think that said everything. Interestingly his questions focused on the campaign and the debate last night and yet the clip they used was my attack on Charles Clarke and his attempts to re-package himself as a Labour rebel rather than take responsibility for the last 13 years of government. Crick asked questions about my current career and if I had declared it on leaflets; the answer is yes and I am proud of being a teacher and proud of my school. Apparently some candidates don't tell people what they do for a living and don't put it on leaflets. Others - like Green Adrian Ramsay and LibDem Simon Wright - are "career politicans", which means they don't have jobs. Crick also asked where we recieved our funding from and seemed a little stunned to note we had raised the spending limit from small local donations. He then probed every bit of election material we put out - including our 2 latest leaflets for this week - and found nothing to raise. I am not moaning about this, I thought Mr Crick was very, very thorough in what he did and it was impressive to see what happens close up. The report itself was very fair and balanced, clearly stating the 4-way marginality of the seat and included clips of supporters of each parties. I think Newsnight did the job well, and Crick's scrutiny was detailed (I wonder if the other candidates got this??). The funny bit was the mess up with the name tags - they called Adrian "Simon", then corrected themselves but still spelt his name wrong!

After the fun and games we sorted ourselves out and started to deliver our letters to people who have Postal Votes, with several teams across the City. I joined our Eaton group to help and we ended up doorknocking as well. The feeling was good and we felt people moving over to the Conservatives. Two people mentioned Cameron's debate as their reason for switching to us, but yet more voters turned off by the negative LibDem campaign. I also met the owner of a significant local business who had decided to vote Conservative this time on the issue of wanting to pay down the debt quicker. I think the issues and debates are getting through.

Got home to find 2 different LibDem tabloid newspapers delivered - why together, unless they were struggling to get material out. Perhaps they don't have enough activists? Hmmm, I also wonder how close they are to the election spending limit?

Tonight Cameron faced Paxman and I thought he was calm and detailed in his answers. Cameron is looking more and more Prime Ministerial in the way in which he conducts himself -I thought it was impressive and certainly Paxman didn't get a knock out blow. People have picked up on the cuts for the North East and NI, but I would assume that all regions would share in the painful decisions to come - after all, "we're all in this together".

Tomorrow is a big day with plenty of letters to deliver and doors to knock on as Postal Votes hit the mats in Norwich South!

Campaign Diary - Day Sixteen

Today was mad and I found myself criss-crossing the City. This morning I spent time writing personal letters to all those people who had written, especially for policy information. I am keen to write my own views to local people and not just a standard template response so this always takes some time to do. In addition I wanted to carry on my phone calls to party members to thank them for their support. This afternoon it was back to the classroom, and then onto the South Park area of the City where a big team of Tory canvassers took to the streets. There was a good response and people seemed keen on talking about issues.

Then tonight all the main candidates were at the UEA for a debate hosted by the BMA - there were some very detailed questions but again we found ourselves, except perhaps the Greens, in agreement about the fundamentals of the NHS if not the specifics of policy! The audience was small but lively!

And now I'm just watching the complete demolishion of Vince Cable by the BBCs Stephanie Flanders and Andrew Neill; good to see Ken Clarke back in the frontline taking the lead in warning against a Hung Parliament.

Come On Media, Make Up Your Mind!

A curious set of coincidencies today - I went from the car where a news report was attacking the Tory decision to launch a personal attack on the Prime Minister to the house where ITN were doing the same. Then I clicked on iPlayer to watch Cameron's very impressive performace on the BBC Politics show, only for the questions to be about class, background and being a toff.

Either the media want to talk about personalities or they want to talk about policy. They can't have it both ways!

Or it is a case of when the Tories do it about Labour, it's wrong - but when the media do it about the Tories, it's fine?

(By the way - call that a personal attack? I don't think so! Each posters had a policy message - negative, yes, personal, no.)

Gaffes come and Gaffes go

I have been amused by the media going bananas over the gaffe in which Tory Home Affairs Spokesman Chris Grayling got the wrong end of the stick over Gen Dannatt. It was on the same day that a certain leading BBC journo called David Cameron the "Prime Minister" and a SKY equivalent said George Osbourne was the "chancellor". These things happen, and everyone gets over them - even Political reporters!

The BBC don't know their AV from their SV; and therein lies the problem...

One of the biggest arguements against any form of PR - aside from it being used as a fig leaf from a decaying government of course - is that it is complicated for the public to understand and PR system lead to higher numbers of accidently spoilt ballot papers.

So the BBC goes to prove the point when today it said on its website:

ALTERNATIVE VOTE
Voters choose their first and second preference and a candidate can only be elected in the first round if they get 50% of the vote
If no-one achieves this in the first round, all but the top two candidates are eliminated and their second preferences redistributed
The candidate with the most votes is then elected

As any AS Politics student can tell you, that isn't true. AV involves the elimination of the bottom place candidate and the votes get redistributed in rounds. The system being described by the BBC is SV, that which is used for the election of the Mayor of London.

Why does this matter? Because LibDems hate SV because it usually traps them out of contention. Let's say the result was:
Con 36, Lab 30, LibDem 28, Green 6
Under SV both the LibDem and the Green would be eliminated and the Labour candidate would probably win.
Under AV, the Green is eliminated which may put the LibDem above Labour; Labour is then eliminated and the LibDem might just win.

But if the BBC cannot get this right, what chance the political class or the public?

This proves the point perfectly.

It's freezing cold and raining ... let's go out leafleting!

The planning stage was a nightmare, actually doing the delivery seemed like a sort of bizarre punishment but the end result did make us all feel good - yesterday and today, teams have been out delivering across the City in Thorpe Hamlet, Lakenham, Bowthorpe, Earlham, Eaton, Wensum, Mancroft and Nelson. Amazing level of activity in the constituency at the moment and I really do have to thank all those who are really making politics interesting in Norwich South at the moment. The thing that distinguishes this campaign from the last is the sheer number of people getting involved - without them, politics and the democratic process wouldn't work. I extend this thanks to all those across the political divide who give up cold weekends for political activity.

Today we also found time to go Christmas shopping to Norwich where the crowds seemingly failed to be. In the closing down sales - particularly in The Pier outside Chaplefield - it was pretty busy but the rest of the City was seemingly quite slow. After that it was off to see Santa at Notcutts - but only to fnd he was very busy! Well, it is that time of year ... we've said we'll take the girls to see him when there isn't a 90 minute queue (yes, ninety - our girls are good at standing in line, but not that good!).

I suppose I should mention reality TV too; X-Factor finally after many years got the right result - Alexandra Burke is amazing and talent-wise in a different league from the others. I am slightly disappointed in the choice of debut single but I am sure she'll have an amazing career. So too will JLS but I have this feeling Eoghan will die off into cable TV obscurity. The one thing ITV does very well is X-Factor finals.

Shame the same thing cannot be said for the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing last night - not my cup of tea but Louise and the girls like it. I did however watch the results show and if I had of voted last night (which I didn't) then I would have been mightly annoyed with the decision to put all 3 couples through; the BBC should have thought twice about that.

Anyway, I have a couple more blog posts to publish then I'm off out again in the cold ... all for democracy.

Kelly quits the government

The sight of outgoing Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly pleading innocence about her decision to quit the government was, frankly, bizarre. Yet another New Labour stooge suddenly discovers that their family is very important and resigns before the total project implodes. However she spins it, there is no way this wasn't a direct attack on the Prime Minister.

Kelly was apparently outed by a leak from No.10 to the BBC. If I were Brown, I'd be looking to my own personal staff to see who is plotting. But she could have deferred making a statement. She hijacked the news agenda, just hours after Brown had made a reasonable speech and did so to move the story straight back to splits.

Kelly, who represents the marginal seat of Bolton West, has been quite out of step with government for some time. This may be to do with religion - who knows, except her - but she is quite well known for straying from the Brown leadership.

When you add all these things together, you cannot help but conclude that this is a woman who knew what she was doing. Brown's back on the rocks. I hope he enjoyed his few hours of political safety.

Note to the BBC

When I blogged that people would flock to the Davis banner of freedom, it was against the backdrop of 69% support for 42 days, a victorious Labour Party emerging from a parliamentary win and a media convinced that DD was bonkers.

Now, a few days later the commentators are changing their minds, the polls (especially within Davis' own constituency) are showing public backing for the resignation and even the Murdoch empire is backing off.

Note to BBC et al; check with the public before deciding what you think they think.

Look East couldn't get it more wrong

"The Greens are the largest opposition party at City Hall with more than 20 Councillors."

Spot the errors. The Greens are not the largest opposition party and they have exactly 10 Councillors. Indeed having 20 would anyone the majority party with an overall majority. So who could have spouted this nonsense? An A Level politics student? No, step forward BBC's Look East.

Edwards goes on a split hunt

The Tory tax proposals got very good coverage from both the BBC and ITN tonight with only Newsnight being typically stubborn about admitting how good the plans really are. What was interesting though was not the Beeb's analysis of the figures but their desire to create a "split" story at the conference. Denied the bloodletting and public fury that Labour and the media wanted, poor old Huw Edwards was sent out amongst the delegates at the Tory conference to find a rebel. Could he use a shadow cabinet minister? Maybe then a frontbencher? No? Well, try the normal barking brigade of the parliamentary party? No rent-a-quote backbenchers? OK, well hit on a drunken association chairman then. Ah, they may be drunk but they're still backing Cameron. So, finally Edwards finds the rebel - a rather dotty looking Tory shire councillor dragged up from God knows where, truly gaining her 15 seconds of fame on the News saying she hadn't heard what she wanted yet from Cameron.

Is this is the best that the might of Aunty can produce then you know the Tories are having a great week in Blackpool.

BBC Poll UpDate: Constitution & Facebook

The BBC loves its little polls on the side of news stories but does anybody actually look at the results? Having just trawled through the news, I voted on two polls. The first, on the EU Constituion Referendum (I voted for having one), was a massive 79% for to 20% against. The second asked if workers should have access to Facebook during the working day (I voted against this). The result, as of just now, was an even 49-49 split, but with the anti's just ahead by a fraction.

Given the way that Facebook has taken over my life and the amount of time I give to it during the evenings alone I strongly predict that if the TUC get their way and workers can get access to it then the entire British economy would collapse within an hour and a half. If I could read and reply on Facebook in school, I'd never do any work ... during my free periods and probably during class too. For my sanity, if nothing else, don't do it! Vote by clicking here.

Stupid, but not serious

The BBC has worked its way into a political lather over an error on a Conservative campaign document that claimed a hospital was under threat when it wasn't. Oh well, some idiot at CCHQ didn't check you might think. Alternatively you may recall that Norman Lamb, darling of the LibDems, did a similar thing when he slammed the hygenic state of the Norfolk & Norwich only to have to apologise a day later - so it happens to the best of us. You may also remember a certain LibDem by-election candidate claiming a hospital was to shut when it wasn't. These thing happen in the heat of battle - they shouldn't but they do. I always think you should say sorry, move on, learn something and get it right next time.

However, the BBC has gone at this like a corporation possessed. The rolling News 24 coverage is way out of proportion to what is going on, especially compared to slightly more interesting and important news items at the moment - like Britain's woeful cancer recovery rates. So, what is going on with the BBC? They should really know better having had to apologise to the Conservatives twice in a week after bias reporting on the Tory tax proposals and having to admit a Labour mole in the Blue Peter camp (no, really, it's true - one of the presenters openly backed Red Ken at a rally). Does this have anything to do with the threat of an autumn election I wonder...

The Weather

I know that it is stereo-typically British to talk about the weather but there was something glorious about walking out of Blackfriars Hall into the snow.

But what is odd is that the BBC predict fine weather with some sun whilst the Met Office has a sever weather warning. Looking out the window I know who I believe.

Is Martin Amis the stupidest person in Britain?

Novelist Martin Amis has made himself look absolutely ridiculous on several occasions during tonight's Question Time on the BBC. If you don't understand politics, or life, Martin then don't appear on TV pretending you do. You seem to be a rather sad re-tred of life during the socialist soviet era and I had rather assumed that we had moved on. The worst thing is that he has made Ruth Kelly look measured and sensible.