LABOUR leadership contender Ed Miliband sent me a text message on Saturday.

“Hi it’s Ed Miliband,” it read. “Hope you don’t mind me contacting you about the leadership election. Can I count on your support? Reply Y or N. To opt-out text stop to 86888.”

I didn’t reply, immediately. But i did immediately give Miliband 10 out of 10 for using new technology effectively in a political campaign.

There are parallels with Obama’s scintillating campaign in the States two long years ago, of course. Texts were used to notify supporters of Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as running mate as he continually set the pace for digital communications throughout.

Miliband claims that he has recruited 1,300 potential new recruits as a result of the SMS stunt.

That’s not a bad result for an afternoon’s work – beats leafletting any day of the week.

But Miliband has done more than that. With one well-executed idea, he has shown a) mastery of a new communications medium b) the willingness to engage in a two-way conversation with his electorate.

No doubt other candidates will follow his lead in the run-up to the election at the end of September.

But Miliband has stolen a valuable march on them.

The challenge for the successful candidate in future, will be to embed such communications firmly at the centre of political campaigning.

And to do it with some style.

THE oldest person on Twitter, Ivy Bean, died this week at the age of 104.

The great-grandmother from Bradford had first hit the headlines when she got ‘bored’ with one social network – Facebook – and switched to Twitter.

She ‘tweeted’ about her love of fish and chips, her online friendship with celebrity Peter Andre and her fondness for TV’s ‘Deal, or No Deal’.

Ivy chalked up a mind-boggling 56,000 followers on Twitter, who kept in touch with her via regular updates of just 14o characters.

Ivy’s inspirational story was a real boost to those who celebrate the power of the internet as a force for good and a liberating influence.

It certainly seems to have given Ivy a new lease of life and enabled her to make connections with people she would never have dreamt possible just five years ago.

She said: “Before I signed up to Twitter all I used to do was sit all day and fall asleep. I’d be miserable if I didn’t do it.”

The posts made by followers following the announcement of her death were touching, respectful and emotional.

Ivy’s touching story further underlined how social networks, such as Twitter, are rapidly changing the way people connect with each other in the 21st century.

It is a powerful reminder of the way the internet can help the human spirit to triumph.

And that its never too late to learn.

THE new Coalition Government’s plans for a radical shake-up of the NHS pose real challenges for social enterprises, such as Sound Communication.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley claims the Con/Dem changes  are aimed at giving GPs more power and control over the funding of patient care.

His clear intention is to dismantle the health authorities and Primary Care Trusts which largely administer the £80 billion which the NHS spends.

In their place?

Lansley argues that GPs will fulfill the role of the thousands of managers and administrators who currently decide how money is spent.

GPs will get together in large consortia and decide for themselves what is in the public’s best interest.

So who will fill the gap in providing the services of professional managers and admin staff to make the changes work?

The thousands of newly redundant ‘bureaucrats’ who will be expected to suddenly develop entrepreneurial flair? Or a new wave of US-style management companies who see the chance to make a killing?

Lansley says: “”Our ambition is to create the largest and most vibrant social enterprise sector in the world.”

If we take Lansley at his word, the commissioning function will therefore be taken over by organisations for whom making fat profits for faceless shareholders is not the predominant motive.

But it’s not that simple.

The Guardian today glibly describes social enterprises as ‘private companies’ and examines their varying nature and structures.

It is true that most social enterprises seek to make a profit. It’s what they do with the profits that distinguishes them from run-of-the-mill firms.

Some social enterprises are independently-regulated Community Interest Companies, like Sound Communication, whose profits go back into the business or the community they serve.

Others have a less formal structure. With some of these, who may well have strong social or environmental purposes, its not at all clear what they do with any profits they make.

If Andrew Lansley gets his way, the bottom line seems to be that, one way or another, profit will be introduced into our National Health Service.

Of course, profit is already involved in the NHS – look at the drug companies, the outsourced services, the providers of equipment, the management consultants.

But Lansley is going one step further and embedding profit’ into the fundamental fabric of our health service.

And there’s the rub.

How all this eventually shakes down remains to be seen. Perhaps we can trust GPs to have the time and expertise to run an ethical rule over organisations bidding to help them manage health and care services?

Perhaps not.

For the moment, what is vital is that there is open-ness and transparency at every level about how the Coalition Government’s reforms are implemented.

And there must be full and genuine democratic control and accountability.

The NHS does not belong to Andrew Lansley, or the Con/Dem coalition, or GPs, or management consultants, or social enterprises.

It belongs to the public – the patients who depend on the NHS and pay for the service with their taxes and National Insurance.

And whatever new structures are imposed on an NHS already suffering from systemic change-fatigue, it is the quality of the services it provides to patients – and what happens to the public’s money – that really counts

A SPOOF story about the fugitive Raoul Moat has been reproduced as reality by the previously ‘respected’ AolNews website.

Liverpool-based Robin Brown penned the article ‘”Nation ‘can’t wait’ for Moat shoot-out” for the satirical news web site The News Grind.

Brown waxed lyrical about how 800 schools nationwide had closed in readiness for a bloody shoot-out, while the CBI confirmed that many companies would stop work to watch a potential bloodbath live on their TV screens.

The article also quoted a fictional media analyst about the role of the broadcast media and a fictional local resident Elsie White, aged 71, about the poilice siege of the village of Rothbury in Northumberland.

Elsie was quoted as saying: ” I can hardly wait for the climax. We haven’t had a live event like this to enjoy for quite some time and there’s only old Doctors episodes on at this time of day.”

But the spoof was apparently swallowed hook, line and sinker by Aol News contributor Carl Franzen, who quoted extensively from the spoof for his front page article: Britain Breathlessly Awaits Bloody Shoot-Out Between Raoul Moat, Police

Mr Franzen, who is presumably now in hiding somewhere, is described as a web journalist who has written articles and designed pages for Meredith Corporation, MSN UK and The Atlantic Wire. You can follow him on Twitter.

Quite how this blunder happened is a puzzle, since even the most brain dead contributor ought to have spotted the satirical overtones of The News Grind.

Draw your own conclusions about the state of modern  journalism and the reliability of web-based news.

Meanwhile congratulations to Robin Brown who has spread the news on Twitter and written his own take on the extraordinary state of affairs: Is the media beyond parody? Aol reports spoof as news

And remember:

Read the latest breaking news stories from around the world on AOL News. From UK business news to the latest political and international news, we …

THE Daily Mail has struck yet another blow for jingoism and anti-Europe sentiment with its latest ‘exclusive’.

The ‘EU is to ban selling a dozen eggs from our shops’, its headlines screamed at the weekend, starting a firestorm of protest all over the internet.

The Food Standards Agency, the Federation of Bakers, the British Retail Consortium, “one major food supplier”, another ‘industry source” and The Grocer trade magazine were all enlisted by the Mail in the campaign to “save” a dozen eggs for Britain.

The wonderfully-named Metric Martyrs Defence Fund also weighed in, along with our new Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman.

Britain needed to stand up to the crazed Brussels Eurocrats who had ordered that eggs should be sold by weight instead of number – and by their metric weight into the bargain!

Outrageous.

Except, as it turns out today, therere is no such plan. The weight of food must be labelled, but the number of eggs, (or bread rolls, or fish fingers come to that), can still be included.

So, as the Daily Telegraph described it: “Eggs by the dozen will be allowed, says EU”.

That’s alright then.

Still, more than 1,000 Daily Mail readers were sufficiently motivated by its ‘exclusive’ to post comments on the paper’s web site.

And the social networks were a-twitter with pun-filled point-scoring against the EU.

No doubt, the Mail were glad to be stirring up more anti-European sentiment amongst the great British public.

But perhaps, of even greater value, this diverting story has distracted attention from the very real and damaging cuts which the current Government is making in public services, upon which most people rely.

• Editor’s Note: We have deliberately resisted the temptation to indulge in any egg puns.

Bad news ahead could be good news for Begbies

Begbies Traynor, the Manchester-based insolvency and recovery specialist, has released its interim results for the six months to 31 October 2009. Profit before tax rose by 69 per cent from £2.1m to £3.6m as revenue climbed from £28.3m to £34.2m. Executive chairman Ric Traynor warned that temporary economic support measures taken by the government would slow insolvencies, meaning full-year results are expected to be “slightly below current consensus market expectations”. But he added: “We expect to make considerable further progress as a result of anticipated rises in the level of insolvencies in the second half of the calendar year, consistent with patterns experienced over the last three recessions.”

After recovering our voices, we could only marvel at the middle sentence which is a classic of its kind and worth re-iterating….”temporary economic support measures would slow insolvencies….full year results…slightly below…expectations.”

In other words, “sorry chaps, but we haven’t made nearly as much money as we hoped in this recession, cos the Govt have stepped in to stop companies shutting down and throwing people on the dole.”

But all is not lost, according to Mr Traynor, (pictured)  who looks forward to a rise in the number of insolvencies later this year. “We expect to make considerable further progress,” he opines, loftily.

We find the use of the word “progress” particularly enchanting.

So, that’s alright then. We can expect more companies closing, more jobs going, more families paying the price for a recession caused in City boardrooms not dissimilar to those of Begbies Traynor.

This is the world that we live in….

The five were all employed by the Manchester-based MEN Media before their papers were either shut-down or centralised miles away from their readers, in the wave of cost-cutting prompted by the recession and growth of the internet.

Some doom and gloom merchants have already been quick to give their pessimistic verdict on the venture at the North West media web-site, How Do.

But all those with an interest in local journalism and vibrant, questioning local papers, will welcome the team’s initiative and bravery in setting up PIP Media.

Bosses at the mainstream media will, no doubt, be closely watching how their former employees fare as competitors. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

And there will be lots of questions about the business model for the venture – not least what the ‘on-line’ offer will be and how they aim to attract enough advertising revenue to succeed.

These are testing times for everyone involved in the media, but Sound Communication for one, wishes the first new paper, the Rochdale and Heywood Independent, every success.

We hope it is the first of many more such journalism-led ventures.

CONSUMER spending on “ethical” goods has almost tripled in the last decade, according to the Co-op Bank.

Their annual ethical consumerism report shows that ethical spending in Britain has grown from £13.5 billion in 1999 to £36 billion ten years later.

Fairtrade products lead the charge with just £22 million spent on them in 1999, compared to £635 million last year.

Spending on “green” products, such as light bulbs and rechargeable batteries, has increased by five times, from £1.4 billion in 1999 to £7 billion.

The controversial financial services market has also seen ethical banking and investments triple over the course of the decade.

Now, half of all adults say they have bought goods primarily on ethical grounds in the past year.

Average household spending on ethical food and drink has increased from £81 a year to £244 in the last decade.

But overall, the market for environmentally friendly goods, that are sustainable or support poor communities is still less than one per cent (more than £6 billion) of the £891billion spent by households last year.

WHAT next for local newspapers struggling to cope with the impact of the internet and the loss of advertising revenue due to the recession?

One answer comes from politicians in Wales who are calling for public funding for new community newspapers.

They believe, with some justification, that the widespread closures and redundancies amongst local newspapers have had a direct effect on the quality of information provided to local communities.

Their answer is to press for taxpayers to fund alternative sources of news, information and entertainment.

At one stage earlier this year, Manchester city council also seemed to be considering investing public money in local journalism, following repeated and prolonged cuts at the Guardian & Manchester Evening News Group.

That promising initiative seems to have disappeared – no doubt prompted by the looming spectre of public spending cuts.

Obviously, politicians would be on a sticky wicket in  justifying the investment in local newspapers, or community-based alternatives, when ‘front-line’ services are under threat.

But ask yourself what role, if any, your local council could play in helping provide unbiased, impartial local news coverage? Would municipal media represent the dead-hand of the state?

Would petty officialdom and their mountains of bureacracy always threaten to stifle controversy, the exposure of wrong-doing and the lively cut and thrust of debate about local matters, which is the lifeblood of the best local newspapers?

Does he who pays the piper always call the tune?

If not – and its a big ‘if’ – with the advent of the world wide web, can new mechanisms be constructed which guarantee both the independence of local journalism and its future sustainability?

Perhaps that is the real challenge for local newspaper journalism in the age of the internet and post recession.

Students at All Saints

STUDENTS from a Salford college came up with their own enterprising plans after being given a unique insight into social businesses.

They developed a range of new ideas for social businesses locally, based around the environment, youth and sports facilities after spending the day finding out about social enterprise.

More than 150 Year 10 students at All Hallows Business and Enterprise College in Weaste took part in the ‘Enterprise Day’ sessions.

Amongst the businesses who took part was the Salford-based health and social care enterprise, Unlimited Potential; The Big Life Company; Emerge, PeoplesVoiceMedia; Contour Housing and Sound Communication.

The students were involved in a range of workshops and activities designed to give them experience of the world of work and develop their own entrepreneurial skills.

They found out how profits from the social businesses did not go to anonymous shareholders, but were ploughed back into the communities they served and business development.

The session was organised by Salford Business Education Partnership and Form Teacher Yasmin Hussain as part of a programme to develop work-related learning.

As part of its contribution, Sound Communication ran half a dozen workshops with the students, designed to help them write a newsworthy press release about the event for the local media.

Director Matt Finnegan said: “The teenagers were very quick to learn and enthusiastic – they understood very quickly how social enterprises differ from private companies or public sector organisations.

“And they came up with some cracking ideas of their own for social businesses in the area – it will be interesting to see how their ideas develop further.”

Vicky Winstanley, Enterprise Cordinator for Salford BEP, added: “It was a very successful day – both the school and I were very pleased with the event. We are extremely grateful to all of the social enterprises involved for giving up their time for free to help spread the word.”

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