Unspun

The certainty of chance

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:19:00 GMT

How clean do we really need to be? For some time now we've had alcohol rub in the toilets at work, the kind of stuff you get in hospitals and is supposed to be rubbed into every crevice at every opportunity to prevent you catching C. difficile / MRSA / swine flu / plague. It's probably overkill, though its helpful to avoid having to queue for the ultra-trendy Dyson hand dryer when things get busy. But I hope that the equivalent used in the NHS is a little more reliable. The dispenser reads in...(read more)

Omnibus edition

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:49:00 GMT

I'm considering a dramatic lifestyle change. For the first time in more than a decade, I might be ditching my car. I'd love to say that this is the result of a conscious desire to go green, to do my bit for the world and halt global warming. But it's really because my car has died. It is a dead more. It is deceased. It is no more. At least at the moment. After a sunny weekend spent trying to get it start - most of which I spent sat in the driver's seat pressing and lifting the clutch while my...(read more)

Will someone rid me of this turbulent caravanner?

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:23:00 GMT

As MPs gather to vote in a new speaker, can they really be considering handing the job to Margaret Beckett? Have they learnt nothing from the expenses scandal? I've never taken to her - her style seems patronising and weasly - and was amazed when she was raised from the political dead by Gordon Brown to be housing minister (despite spending much of her time in caravans). When she was jettisoned yet again, I thought we'd be safe. Despite being one of the most mired in the expenses scandal...(read more)

A tax on free speech

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:16:00 GMT

What would you spend 50p a month on, given the chance? Would it be providing a minimum standard of broadband across the UK? Thought not. But that's exactly what most people are going to have to cough up, under plans announced by the Government today. As part of the Digital Britain report, everyone with a fixed-line telephone will have to pay out £6 a year towards ensuring ultra-fast broadband speeds across the country. (Mobile phone users are already fleeced enough apparently, and the networks have...(read more)

Published and be, er, wikied

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:40:00 GMT

What is it that people want from a modern news service? Is it speed of delivery, is it the chance to interact, is it just anything at all as long as it's free? This post started off as a reply to a blog post that was arguing, roughly, that news sites should be open for readers to edit. But is that what readers want? We've got lots of tools that help stories to evolve, from leaving comments to sending in pictures and videos, to polls and forums, and the methods that...(read more)

Go, while you've got a hope of dignity

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:03:00 GMT

Gordon Brown has written a lot about courage. James Purnell has shown it. Purnell's decision to quit the Cabinet and publicly call for Brown to go is a shocking one. No one was too surprised by Hazel Blears departure, or even much the timing of it on the eve of today's county and European elections. She's a horrible little chipmunk whose fixed grin is even less sincere-looking than the prime ministers, whether on You Tube or no. While Brown was undoubtedly unbalanced in his criticism...(read more)

So much for progress

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:43:00 GMT

We've been to the moon, unravelled the complex strands of DNA and put the world's knowledge at our fingertips. And what do people care about? Susan bloody Boyle. When the Prime Minister should be sorting out the quagmire of MPs expenses, making sure the implosion of GM cars in America doesn't ripple too damagingly across the Atlantic and trying to stop North Korea destroying us all, he goes on GMTV to tell us that he spent the evening having frenzied phone calls with Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan...(read more)

A reminder why the Fourth Estate still matters

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:42:00 GMT

Of all the elements of the MP expenses scandal, about the only one that delights me is that it has been a proper old-fashioned newspaper scoop. For years the media industry has been told by doomsayers both within and without that newspapers are dying, if not dead. That the future is for the blogosphere. Well it's not, and all credit to the Telegraph. This story wasn't broken by an online news site written by some lone gunman sitting at home, but by a team of 25 professional journalists pouring...(read more)

Heartbroken - or just broke?

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:29:00 GMT

The MP that claimed for a mortgage that didn't exist is apparently "heartbroken and distraught" - but is that because he made a mistake or because he was caught out? Elliot Morley took around £16,000 of taxpayers' cash towards a mortgage that had already been paid off, claiming £800 a month for a year and a half. He said he made a mistake and has apologised. But frankly that's not good enough. We've heard a lot about absent minded MPs over the last few days. Lembit Opik 'mistakenly' got £40...(read more)

Cryptic markings

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:28:00 GMT

There's something fishy going on. There are hieroglyphics all over the place - I fear there's voodoo work afoot. All over the pavements around my house someone has spray-painted strange acronyms and diagrams. They're in yellow. They're in white. They're all over the place. What's going on?...(read more)

Ask the right questions, of the right people

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:03:00 GMT

That's pretty much all journalism is. The art of government consultation is much the same - but with a slightly different agenda. The Home Office have just announced the results of a consultation on copyright and other "intellectual property", and in particular whether fines should be increased for people that infringe copyright. Unsurprisingly, the response was overwhelmingly in favour of massively ramped up fines - up from £5k to £50k. It's pretty clear that without widespread publicity...(read more)

The boy who cried flu

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:04:00 GMT

Don't panic! You're more likely to die from hysteria than swine flu. While much of the world's media is getting its knickers in a twist over this latest influenza outbreak, it's worth getting some perspective. Every year I spend days on end groggy, under the weather and spread my ills to others. On a number of those I have flu. On the Department of Health's most conservative figures, normal, everyday flu kills around 4000 people in the UK every single year - in a really bad year that tops...(read more)

Play for today

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:13:00 GMT

For a schizophrenic ink-loving digital hack like me, there are some confusing lines in one of this week's new movie releases, State of Play. Based on a BBC mini-series from a few years back, the film follows an investigative reporter who links drugs-related murders to a high political scandal, events which at the same time criss-cross his own life. It's a cracking yarn packed with twists, and still works transplanted from Westminister to DC (though I would have preferred the original...(read more)

Go on, go on, go on, go on...

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:29:00 GMT

I've never quite understood the desire to rebrand - but if you're going to do it, why not do it quickly? Virgin Megastores became Zavvi almost overnight (and promptly tanked - although they're back now in an online only form) and it took hardly anytime for the Post Office to become Consignia - and then switch straight back again. But Norwich Union are really making a meal of changing their name to Aviva. The name has been kicking about since 2002 - I remember pieces in the Eastern Daily Press about...(read more)

He's not the messiah....

james.goffin@archant.co.uk — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:32:00 GMT

I thought it was a bit over the top when Jon Snow nearly wetted himself gazing at a misty view of a plane landing at Stansted. I knew it was ridiculous when BBC breakfast spent several minutes broadcasting footage of plane sat on a runway. Why is TV so obsessed with Obama? The G20 is an important event and deserves to be covered, but the 24-hour video stalking of the US President is of the sort normally reserved for celebrities being chased by the police. It's not even that this is Obama's...(read more)