Thoughts of Nigel

Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:51:00 +0000

I recently took part in Manchester Open City afternoon.

The project involved photographers walking around Manchester capturing images that give the feel and look of the city.

The group I was with was given the theme of shopping and instead of trying to take photographs of shops,I decided to try and capture the downside of shopping which for me is the boredom as you drag yourself around the shops.

Out photographer guide Mark Page gave me a good tip,just shoot and see what you come up with.You can read Mark's write up of the event here

But for the moment here are some of my efforts

Israel's unprovoked attack

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:23:00 +0000

It is difficult to understand the motivation behind Israel's attack on the aid flotilla this morning.

For those that haven't heard the news,the Israelis decided that it would be a good idea to board the lead ship in the "peace flotilla which has been heading for Gaza carrying essential supplies from Cyprus.

The Israelis claim that they were shot at first,but the action has resulted in at least 15 deaths.

Israel has been villified over the attack with many countries calling their ambassadors in and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in Canada, having cancelled a scheduled visit to Washington on Tuesday to return to Israel.

Israel's deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon,accused the convoy of a "premeditated and outrageous provocation", describing the flotilla as an "armada of hate".

Here in Britain,William Hague has put out the following statement”I deplore the loss of life during the interception of the Gaza Flotilla. Our Embassy is in urgent contact with the Israeli Government. We are asking for more information and urgent access to any UK nationals involved.

Meanwhile hundreds of activists blocked Whitehall shouting "Free Palestine" and carrying flags and banners with slogans such as "Stop Israel's War Crimes in Gaza" and "End the Criminal Siege of Gaza".

In Istanbul, 10,000 protesters gathered outside the Israeli consulate chanting "Murderous Israel you will drown in the blood you shed!"

French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned what he described as a “disproportionate use of force.”

“All light must be shed on the circumstances of this tragedy, which underlines the urgency of resuming peace talks,” Sarkozy said in a statement.

A wind down for the moment

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:15:00 +0000

This blog started back in the autumn of 2006.It was really a way of keeping up with the media news and gossip as I began my journalism degree at Uclan.

Well three and a half years later,it has produced a lot of contacts,led to opportunities and introduced me to many friends and concepts.

But now it will be taking a back seat as I concentrate on my two new journalistic concepts.

North West Scenes began last summer and has been on the back burner for some time but things are gearing up for it.Secondly as I wrote on this blog a couple of weeks ago,InsidetheM60 will be launching soon providing news and information for the Manchester community.

The blog will continue but not with such great frequency and will talk more about the issues of setting up two hyperlocal sites,aimed at two distinct markets.

It will be an interesting adventure and I do hope you will keep following.

Don't forget you can always find me on twitter

@nigelbarlow

@northwestscenes

@insidetheM60

The downside of Linkedin

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:46:00 +0000

One of the concerns of Linkedin must surely be the easy collection of data and contacts for someone to steal.

As the register reports

An ex-employee of recruitment firm Hays has been ordered to disclose details of his profile at social networking site LinkedIn. Mark Ions set up a rival agency and is accused of using LinkedIn to steal clients. He says Hays encouraged his use of the site.

As the report continues

Hays alleges that while still an employee Ions copied and retained confidential information about clients and contacts of Hays. The firm says that Ions used that information for his own venture and that he breached his contract of employment. Hays went to the High Court in London to seek pre-action disclosure from Ions and his firm, i.e. an order to disclose information that Hays could use as the basis of a subsequent lawsuit.

Hyperlocal in Poland

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:39:00 +0000

Now here is a heartening news story about regional titles going hyperlocal.

It comes from Poland courtesy of Editors weblog and the village of Jano,an 850-person village in north eastern Poland.

a dozen people - mostly teenagers or over 40s - were gathering in a multi-activity meeting hall. They were listening to Igor Hrywna, a journalist at Gazeta Olsztynska, the dominant newspaper in this "Warmia-Mazury voivodship" (Varmia-Masuria). That day he left his base in the regional capital of Olsztyn to meet this group for the third time in one month. With his assistance, they are learning how to contribute to the recently launched hyperlocal website janowo.wm.pl, covering the 3,000 people "gmina" (commune) centered on Janowo, one of the smallest of the region.

Could this model work in the UK? well

Edytor is already managing 35 such hyperlocal websites, as a way to get closer also to small advertisers. In the villages, the biggest companies are often the bakery which employs only eight persons, or the hairdresser with a staff of four. "We want to reach the places where print is not profitable, asking our advertising salespersons to monetize potential markets which have been ignored until now

Grim reading for Pew's state of the media report

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:23:00 +0000

Pew's annual state of the media report was released yesterday and once again for followers of media statistics it doesn't make particularly good reading.

For the economics of the media industry 2009 has once again seen some quite astounding figures

1.In newspapers, ad revenue (for print and online combined) fell 26 per cent a rate of decline that was more than 50 per cent steeper than a year earlier.

and more worryingly

2.Online, advertising during the year declined for the first time since 2002, according to data from eMarketer. The firm’s updated August projections called for online ad spending to fall 4.6 per cent to $22.4 billion.

As for paywalls

The findings suggest there is a difficult hill to climb in putting content behind a pay wall. Most people graze the Web for news rather than rely on primary sources. Only about a third (35%) can even identify a favorite news website. And of those that do, only 19%3 said they would continue to visit if that site put up a pay wall.

and for those in the industry

Newspaper staffs continued to shrink in 2009. We estimate that by year’s end 5,900 more full-time newsroom jobs were lost,

As the report says,the worry now is two fold.How much of the lost revenues can be clawed back as the economy starts to recover from the recession and secondly what are the prospects for the alternative journalism projects that are springing up?

She's back

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:07:00 +0000

Quite unbelievable that the Daily Express has reverted to having a Diana story on its front pages.

Quoting the results of a new book,the paper reports that

chauffeur Henri Paul was not drunk when their car crashed in a Paris tunnel.
Blood samples used to verify the amount of alcohol he had consumed were taken from another corpse,

What Monday's papers are saying

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:31:00 +0000

According to an exclusive in the Times this morning,Labour wants to promise five guarantees in its manifesto aimed at winning over a sceptical electorate in the post-expenses world.

The party hopes to tackle voter mistrust with new legally binding rights on public services, jobs and Britain’s deficit. This is part of a “personal offer” designed to rebuild confidence with the electorate and accountability in government.

Politics on the front of the Telegraph as well as it reveals that Lord Adonis has become the first Cabinet Minister to speak out against the trade union behind the British Airways strike,a subject that also makes the front of the Guardian which reveals that

Gordon Brown has intervened personally in the British Airways industrial dispute in an attempt to avert a walkout by 12,000 cabin crew next weekend.

The Independent reports on the far-reaching conclusions on how to tackle the crime of rape which finds failures to investigate and prosecute effectively and recommends that Forensic and medical evidence should be gathered by the NHS,and not police.

The Mail reports on what is calls the betrayal of 20,000 cancer patients who says the paper have died needlessly early after being denied cancer drugs on the NHS.

What really happened on Bloody Sunday asks the Independent.

More exclusives this time in the Guardian which reveals that the income of thousands of the most senior British academics has soared over the past decade, far outstripping growth in average lecturers' pay,
Twelve years ago Lord Saville began his inquiry into one of the darkest chapters in the history of Northern Ireland. Now, £200m later, he will finally deliver his report

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland resisted calls for his resignation yesterday reports the Times,despite admitting that he took part in meetings where the victims of a paedophile priest were forced to take a vow of silence.

There is much coverage from the Lib Dems spring conference.

Nick Clegg was forced to quell dissent from within his own ranks and fight off attempts by Labour and the Tories to woo his party yesterday,reports the Independent whilst the Guardian says that

Speaking over the heads of the party faithful, the leader encouraged wavering voters to vote "with your heart" and not dismiss the Lib Dems because the electoral maths where they lived suggested the party would not win a seat outright.

Whilst the Telegraph reports that The Liberal Democrats would be the ‘guarantor’ of the economy if the general election results in a hung Parliament,

Most of the papers report that David Beckham's world cup is over.

The former England captain wept after rupturing his Achilles tendon while playing for AC Milan last night, and told a doctor: "It's broken, it's broken."reports the Sun

According to the Mirror,Jon Venables has been transferred to a new jail to keep him safe from other prisoners.

He's now being kept in an isolation unit and guarded by a hand-picked team of 20 prison officers who are sworn to secrecy. A source said: It was getting harder to guarantee his safety where he was. No one can get at him where he is now.

Meanwhile the Mail says that pressure to sack an official who dismissed the James Bulger murder as 'unpleasant' was mounting last night.

Finally reports the Telegraph

Millions of Georgians wrongly thought their country was being invaded after a spoof prime time news broadcast showed Russian tanks heading towards the capital Tbilisi and said the president, Mikheil Saakashvili, had been killed.

adds the Guardian

For the next half an hour there were scenes of absolute panic, as the mobile network collapsed, Georgians spilled on to the streets, and friends and relatives desperately tried to reach each other and seek out information.

"Student journalists are sidelined to being like ancillary press officers"

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:47:00 +0000

I,ve met Joseph Stashko a couple of times now.

He is a student at Uclan who along with his colleague Andy Halls is working on a new hyperlocal news site for Preston.

I wish them luck with that but on this blog post he looks at a couple of issues regarding student journalism and subjectivity but I particually liked his take on writing for the student paper

I saw time and time again editors hand out stories, almost ready made for print, just needing a few rewrites and possibly quotes. Student journalists are sidelined to being like ancillary press officers, simply reduced to moving phrases around and adding a few minor embellishments.

The distinction between the private and the professional has largely broken down online

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:10:00 +0000

Reuter's new handbook warns journalists not to be over reliant on social media for news gathering purposes.

Its latest guidelines warn that

Internet reporting is nothing more than applying the principles of sound journalism to the sometimes unusual situations thrown up in the virtual world. The same standards of sourcing, identification and verification apply. Apply the same precautions online that you would use in other forms of news gathering and do not use anything from the Internet that is not sourced in such a way that you can verify where it came from.

But perhaps it is this comment that is the most pertinent

The distinction between the private and the professional has largely broken down online and you should assume that your professional and personal social media activity will be treated as one no matter how hard you try to keep them separate.

Tories promise most "tech friendly government in the developed world"

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:57:00 +0000

The big digital news of the day is the launch of the Conservative manifesto on technology which aims to make the British government the most technology-friendly in the world to create new jobs and kickstart the recovery.

At its centre is a pledge to create the fastest high speed broadband network in Europe, helping to create 600,000 additional jobs.

Britain will become the first country in Europe to extend superfast 100 mbps broadband across most of the population. That pledge is up to 50 times faster than Labour's planned broadband network.

But the document also promises to open up government data and spending information whch according to the Tories will cut wasteful spending and also create an estimated £6 billion in additional value for the UK.

Amongst the pledges on that

1.to publish online every item of central government and Quango spending over £25,000 — including every contract in full.

2.all government tender documents for contracts worth over £10,000 via the existing Supply2Gov website. and

3.every item of local government spending over £500 — including every contract in full.

RTL writes down value of Channel 5

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:13:00 +0000

RTL may be satisfied with its results but the news that it has halfed the value of Channel 5 television in its blance sheet will raise worries about the state of the UK independent TV market.

The Group announced that its revenue in 2009 was down 6.3 per cent to €5,410 million with profits down 17 per cent which included restructuring costs in the UK, Germany and Greece totaling €34 million, and a significant programme write-down at Five amounting to €22 million.

According to Media Guardian,

after several years of growing its share of the UK TV ad market Channel Five's share dropped from 9.6% to 8.4%.

S4C officially recorded zero viewers on 196 of its 890 programmes.

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:59:00 +0000

This morning's Daily Express takes a pot shot at the Welsh broadcaster S4C.

A WELSH language television channel funded with £100million of public money showed nearly 200 programmes in the last month which were watched by no one, it was revealed yesterday

.reports the paper.adding that

A soccer show called Sgorio scored a zero with viewers when it screened highlights of European football.
Sgorio – Welsh for score – turned into a no-score draw on the night despite regularly pulling in tens of thousands of viewers on other nights.

A silver lining for Johnston Press

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:44:00 +0000

The latest results are out this morning for Johnston Press.

The regional newspaper publisher has reported that operating profit fell to £71.8m for the 53 weeks ended 2 January 2010 from £128.4m the year before. Revenue fell to £428m from £531.9m.

However a little bit of a silver lining as advertising revenues appear to be reversing their falling trend,as the rate of decline reduced throughout the period with the first quarter down 33.9 per cent and the final quarter was down 11.2 per cent.

According to their chief executive

The year ended with the group in a much stronger position than it began: advertising is more stable; circulation trends have improved; digital revenues are growing; our cost base has reduced significantly and we have renegotiated finance facilities for 3 years."

The compnay also confirmed that debt reduction was its biggest priority.In accordance with the provisions of its revised financing arrangements, no dividend is proposed for the year.

What Thursday's papers are saying

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:21:00 +0000

Many of the papers report on the case of how a father was allowed to continually rape and abuse two of his daughters over a 35-year period.

The executive summary into the case described how the family had been in contact with 28 different agencies between 1973 and 2008, and that they had been seen by more than 100 professionals including social workers, police and housing officials.says the Guardian

Slammed social services chiefs issued a grovelling apology yesterday - for letting an incest monster rape his terrified daughters for a hellish 25 years.says the Sun

whilst the Times adds

Agencies involved with the family failed to confront the man even though they strongly suspected for many years that he was the father of the girls’ seven babies, some of them born with severe genetic defects.

Both the Mail and the Express choose to lead on what they call death taxes.The former reports that

Millions of middle income families are facing a 10 per cent 'death tax' levy to pay for social care of the elderly.

The levy would be charged on all estates up to the current inheritance tax threshold of £325,000.says the Express

According to the Times,Britain’s leading criminal judges are warning that a shake-up of sentencing guidelines could push prison overcrowding to crisis levels.

To politics and the Telegraph leads with news that a fifth Labour MP is being investigated by police over his expenses,

The Metropolitan Police has begun a criminal inquiry into Harry Cohen after he claimed more than £70,000 for a “second home” while renting out his main property.

says the paper

The Independent features Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg who in an interview with the paper

will this weekend announce the four "tests" he would set for Labour and the Conservatives in return for the support of the Liberal Democrats if neither main party wins an overall majority at the general election.

The row over defence spending continues.Lord Guthrie, the first chief of the defence staff under New Labour

last night said plans to replace the Trident nuclear missile system and build two large aircraft carriers should be abandoned and the money saved spent on alternatives more relevant to future conflicts, including a bigger army.

reports the Guardian

As the row continued in the Commons the Telegraph reports that

Gordon Brown has hit back at former military chiefs who accused him of starving the armed forces of funds when he was Chancellor, describing the criticism as "wrong" and inappropriate.

The number of billionaires has soared in the past year, and dozens of people who lost that elite status in the credit crisis have won it back as stock markets and commodities prices have rebounded.reports the Independent

The Devil is lurking in the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church reports the Telegraph.

The Vatican's chief exorcist claimed yesterday that

the assault on Pope Benedict XVI on Christmas Eve by a mentally unstable woman and the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the Anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See.

Finally a shock for those escaping to the Med as the Mail reports that

A rare blizzard has struck the Spanish coast and Balearic Islands in some of the worst weather seen in 50 years.
The snow storm swept in on the holiday island of Majorca after causing havoc in Barcelona, the Costa Brava and parts of the French Mediterranean coast.

Newspapers have never made money from news

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:23:00 +0000

“Newspapers could save a lot of money if the primary access to news was via the internet."

That's the opionion of Google's chief economist Hal Varian speaking to a workshop on the changing economics of the newspaper industry. (via Techcrunch)

He continues by saying that

“The fact of the matter is that newspapers have never made much money from news, They make money from “special interest sections on topics such as Automotive, Travel, Home & Garden, Food & Drink,, and so on.” The problem is that on the Web, other niche sites which cater to those categories are a click away, leaving the newspapers with sections which are harder to sell ads against, such as sports, news, and local.

Facebook under attack

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0000

The fallout from the Ashleigh Hall murder case is continuing this morning.As mentioned in the previous article,the Mail leads with the story that Facebook is putting children at risk' by snubbing the paedophile panic button.

Meanwhile the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is calling for social networks to adopt an online abuse reporting button.

The button was launched back in 2006 and it allows young people to report online abuse and danger straight to the police from social networks and websites.

According to the Mail,human rights laws are stopping the Government from implementing powers to force sex offenders to disclose their online identities.

There is an interesting piece on his very subject in the Independent this morning.Rhodri Marsden writes that

While websites such as Facebook usually play a passive, benign role in crimes that headlines might suggest are entirely attributable to them, this is one case where the death of a young woman was indeed caused by the ease of constructing a false Facebook identity, coupled with a tragic ignorance of the signs we should all look for, and the rules we should all follow.

The debate fuelled by the tragic consequences of the death Of Ashleigh will rumble on.

What Wednesday's papers are saying

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:32:00 +0000

Facebook is getting a fair amount of crititism led by the Daily Mail this morning which reports that

Facebook was accused last night of putting children at risk by snubbing the official paedophile 'panic button'.

adding that

Both the Home Secretary and the mother of murdered schoolgirl Ashleigh Hall condemned the website for refusing to implement the system.
Alan Johnson said he could not see 'any good reason' why - unlike other social networking sites - Facebook will not sign up to it.

The social networking site also make the front of the Daily Star which says that a man has spoken of his terror after he was falsely accused of being James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables on the social networking site.

27-year-old David’s Calvert's torment has been going on for five years after neighbours mistook him for the murderer because they are the same age

Meanwhile the controversy over Venables continues.The Times reports that apsychiatric report that paved the way for his release concluded that he posed a “trivial” risk to the public,

The Independent reports that the failure to rehabilitate tens of thousands of serial criminals is costing the country up to £10 billion a year,according to a report by the National Audit office

On the medical theme,the Telegraph leads with the story that doctors’ leaders have warned that Patients’ confidential medical records are being placed on a controversial NHS database without their knowledge.

doctors have accused the Government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object.

reports the paper

The Independent leads with the story that

A legal firm that had campaigned alongside the actress Joanna Lumley has been dragged into an investigation into charges levied on Gurkha veterans seeking to settle in Britain.

For the Guardian the top story is Afghnaistan and a speech to be delivered in the US by the foreign secretary, David Miliband,in which he will

urge the Afghan government to put more effort into the pursuit of peace talks amid fears that the war could be prolonged

Meanwhile many of the papers report the verdict of a coroners court which found that Special forces troops were sent to Afghanistan in unsuitable vehicles and without sufficient training and bomb-detecting kit,

Wiltshire Coroner David Masters said he would write to the Ministry of Defence to raise concerns about "theatre-wide" equipment shortages and gaps in training which led to the deaths reports the Telegraph

According to the Independent,A former head of MI5,Baroness Manningham-Buller, has accused intelligence services in the US of deliberately hiding the mistreatment of terror suspects from their British allies.

The Sun leads with the story of Macmillan nurse Sara Dale who cared for cancer-stricken wives then bedded their husbands after they died.

The attractive divorcee, 39, has been fired by hospital bosses over allegations she had three such romances.

reports the paper

According to the Telegraph,Millions of householders will have to wait until 4pm to receive their mail under a controversial new contract for postmen.

Meanwhile the Independent reports that

The threat of a national rail strike at Easter came closer yesterday as Network Rail revealed it had drawn up contingency plans to deal with a walk-out by thousands of workers.

The Mail reports on the speed camera trap on the M6 that's racing towards record £3m haul in fines.

An astonishing 5,569 motorists have been caught breaking the 50mph speed limit by the fixed cameras at roadworks at a junction of the M6 near Carlisle.

Finally the Telegraph reports that rumours that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy are both having affairs are gaining momentum in France.

The suggestion that the couple were both committing adultery first emerged on Twitter, the microblogging website. It was followed by a report in the Sunday newspaper le Journal du Dimanche.

Murdoch tells Abu Dhabi to ride the creative wind

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:53:00 +0000

Rupert Murdoch's attention has now turned int seems to the Middle East as today he launched an attack on the unliberal attitudes of the media.

Speaking at the the inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit which opened today,the News International chairman told the conferenece that censorship is counterproductive and that the region's citizens should be free to unleash their creative talents.

the Arab world can adhere to traditions and values, while also investing in a thriving creative industry and avoiding over-regulation and hurdles that keep out foreign players.

and added

"As I speak, there is a powerful creative wind blowing through this region," he said, according to a copy of his speech. "Ride this wind and you will raise from these desert sands something extraordinary: a capital of creativity that is modern...that is global...and that is fully Arab."

The event will represents an opportunity to showcase its existing media infrastructure and outline its future plans and Murdoch's remarks make clear that the region must embrace the free market.

Scottish council's transparency on FOI requests

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:48:00 +0000

A local authority in the north-east of Scotland has become the first local authority in Scotland to publicise details of who is making Freedom of Information requests from it - with an estimated 40 per cent coming from the media.reports Allmedia Scotland

The authority,Moray Council has put the information for requests on its website along with its responses and performance rate which it says is currently 97 per cent.

The Council currently receives more than 500 FOI requests each year.

Liverpool's MP's given a platform

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:37:00 +0000

News of a great new initiative from the Liverpool Daily Post in the run up to the general election.

It has launched Liverpool Party Central tasked with the role of getting the city's candidates blogging.

According to How do media

MPs have been given direct access to the site via a content management system, so the blogs aren’t moderated editorially by Echo or Post staff

Now isn't that a good idea

Visiter helps out Southports Library

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:54:00 +0000

Praise indeed for the Southport Visiter which has stepped in to provide a temporary home for the town's Library.

Hold the front page reports that

Southport Library faced a lengthy closure as a result of a £15m refurbishment, sparking a furious reaction from residents and a 7,000-signature petition.

Latest survey shows online revenues to overtake print

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:49:00 +0000

This morning's FT carries news of one of the latest surveys of advertising spend from America which predicts that

US online advertising and marketing spending will overtake print this year as traditional media spending continues to decline,

According to the survey by Outsell

Online spending is forecast to rise 9.6 per cent to $119.6bn, while print spending will fall 3 per cent to $111.5bn, according to a survey of 1,000 advertisers by Outsell, a publishing research company.

and Chuck Richard,its Vice President and Lead Analyst was quoted as saying that

“Advertisers are directing dollars toward the channels which generate the most qualified leads and most effective branding. As they emerge from the recession, they need more accountability, and they’re spreading their spending over a widening set of options,

What Tuesday's papers are saying

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:20:00 +0000

Mothers betrayed says the headline in the Sun as it refers to the latest on the Jon Venables story and yesterday's news that a convicted rapist was given a 35-year sentence for killing girl he met on a social networking site.

As he began a 35-year jail term last night, it emerged Ashleigh was one of the 6,000 friends - ALL women - he was in contact with through TEN social networking sites.says the paper

Whilst the Mirror reports that Peter Chapman murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall after police failed to lock him up for an arson attack weeks earlier.

According to the Independent,

Police officers also raised the possibility that he was responsible for other, unsolved, sex crimes. But the revelation that he was on the sex offenders' register at the time of the offence – which happened in October 2009 – has raised questions about how, while supposedly being monitored by the police, he was able to use the internet to find a victim for an even more horrific attack.

Who's your child talking to on Facebook tonight? asks the Mail

But back to the Jon Venables story and the Sun claims that he came under suspicion of having child porn only after a member of the public realised who he was,

The person became angry and blew the 27-year-old's cover - forcing cops to pluck Venables to safety.

Meanwhile the Times reports that Jack Straw signalled a major inquiry into the supervision of Jon Venables last night as he rejected pleas to disclose why the child killer was back in custody.

It leads with its latest opinion poll which shows that Labour and the Conservatives are neck and neck in the marginal seats that will determine the outcome of the general election,

The poll shows that the switch of voters from Labour to the Tories is about 1.5 to 2 points higher in the battleground seats than nationally

The true scale of how violent crime has grown under Labour has been disclosed by Whitehall officials. reports the Telegraph.According to the paper

The study, by the independent House of Commons Library, shows violence against the person increased from 618,417 to 887,942 last year.

The Guardian leads with rather a political twist.It reports that

The former US president George Bush has made a direct plea to David Cameron to support the Northern Ireland peace process, amid widespread concern in the US about the Tories' new electoral pact with the Ulster Unionists.

The latest from the Chilcott inquiry and the Independent reports that

Sir Bill Jeffrey, head civil servant at the MoD since 2005, told the Iraq inquiry that problems persisted within the department because of the growing costs of operations overseas and as a result of spending restrictions placed on it by Mr Brown shortly after the March 2003 invasion.

According to the Telegraph,Royal Mail has been accused of buying off postal workers ahead of the general election by agreeing an inflation-busting pay deal which will see postmen working less for more money.

One of the results of the deal according to the Guardian will be the ending of the restrictions of delivering junk mail and the paper predicts a deluge.

The Express reports that owners of dogs will be forced to fork out up to £600 a year for insurance under new Labour plans to tackle so-called “devil dogs”.

The Independent reports from the high-rise flats where a Russian family jumped to their deaths which it says are, for many, the last stop before deportation.

According to the Mail

the family of three asylum seekers tied themselves together with rope before jumping 200ft to their deaths when their application to stay in Britain was rejected.

The Times reports that

Fabio Capello was dismayed to discover that England’s preparations for the World Cup finals had been undermined yet again last night after conversations involving players and coaching staff were secretly recorded.

Finally staying with football,the Guardian reveals that Britain is to give 42m condoms to South Africa in response to a request for an extra billion as part of an HIV prevention drive before the World Cup, the government will announce today.

Thompson too dominant says Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Barlow) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:06:00 +0000

More conjecture on what will happen to the BBC if the Tories win the next election comes from this mornings Indy.

Media editor Ian Burrell interviews shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt who tells the paper that Director General

Mr Thompson was too dominant within the corporation and suggested that the director general should face greater internal scrutiny on whether he was worth his annual remuneration package of £834,000.