McCanns campaign under scrutiny at last

At last, an element of the mainstream media has broken ranks and actually started posing reasonable questions about the implications of the McCann campaign for the return of their daughter and the media coverage of it.
Newsnight is asking for comments here.
I do hope this kick starts a proper debate and does not get hijacked by those who cannot separate out their sympathy for the McCanns from the wider debate their case raises.

Big Brother blues

With perfect timing, the day after the outrage over a Dutch 'reality' show offering contestants the chance to win a kidney, Big Brother 28 (it may not be that many, it might just seem like it) starts. While the kidney programme has prompted plenty of (justifiable) outrage the start of another BB hasn't. Alright, so it might not be making entertainment out of the desparation of transplant patients but it does take a whole bunch of people ill-prepared for but desparate to have the public spotlight and exploits them ruthlessly before spitting them out at the other end to become tabloid fodder. I know, no-one forces anyone to take part etc and I'm normally the kind of person who says people like Jade Goody get what they deserve but every year BB becomes a slightly more grotesque spectacle and i think that's just a bit sad. And its crap telly.

Update: Hurrah, i'm not alone. There is a like-minded soul at the Speccy.

The worst press release ever

Is this the most tedious press release ever issued? (Thanks to the source who provided it).

Make mine a tuna and cucumber - Midland Mainline employees reveal their favourite sandwich
To celebrate the sandwich, train company Midland Mainline, which is part of the National Express Group, has launched momentum Munch, a sandwich design contest for schools in Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield. The humble sandwich can be either dressed up with cucumber and no crusts, or down as a bacon butty. From palaces to picnics and from the school packed lunch to the chi chi deli they've been the best thing since sliced bread.
Designed as part of Midland Mainline’s education initiative momentum, the competition is searching for a budding entrepreneur to design a new sandwich to sell on Midland Mainline trains this summer.
A survey carried out for the British Sandwich Association to find out the nation’s favourite sandwich filling revealed that cheese was the most popular choice. And during the launch of momentum Munch, Midland Mainline carried out its own survey asking staff to vote for their favourite sandwich.
Tuna and cucumber on white bread reigned supreme as the most popular choice amongst Midland Mainline employees, whilst cheese Ploughman’s and ham and egg jostled for a place in the top three.
When momentum Champion and a member of the competition judging panel, Adrian Allen, Midland Mainline’s Catering Product Manager was asked what his favourite sandwich was, he said: “If I was choosing from our on train range it has to be the chicken and bacon club because the chicken breast and sweetcure smoked bacon form a great flavour combination… if I was making one at home it would be; Yorkshire ham and crumbled mature Cheddar cheese with mixed leaves, creamy mayonnaise and apple chutney; preferably on thick sliced Malted bread lightly spread with butter.” Yum!
With momentum Munch now in full swing kids have until 11th June to get their thinking caps on and create a sandwich with a name set for the tracks. momentum is a bespoke Citizenship and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) programme that consists of teaching resources, practical activities and visual aids. Sponsored by Midland Mainline and written by educational specialists and teachers, momentum focuses on five key areas of concern and interest not only to students, but to the general public and Midland Mainline itself: Food & Nutrition, Enterprise, Green Transport, Disability and Waste Management.

Rubbish

It's hard to pick out the most depressing aspect of this story from The Herald. New teams of litter officers are going to patrol the streets of Glasgow telling people to pick up their rubbish or giving them £50 fines. It's sad enough that we are now such a nation of slobs that tax revenue has to be spent employing people to tell us to tidy up but this story has an extra twist. The litter patrol people are going to be wearing stab vests to protect them from knife attack. How have we got to the point where litter patrols need stab vests?

Time to end the farewell tour

Cameron is apparently making a speech today calling for an end to the Blair farewell tour. The unopposed election/appointment of Brown to the Labour leadership has left Blair's position untenable. In Cameron's own words:
“What is the point in Tony Blair holding meetings and discussing long-term policy - or even short-term problems - with Cabinet ministers who may not keep their jobs in a few weeks time? What is the point of Tony Blair attending international summits in June when everyone there will know that he is leaving office in just a few days time?"
He's right. This is a farce and Labour should call time on it now.

Grammar schools gaff

Nick Robinson thinks that the row started by David Willetts over grammar schools, or more precisely, academic selection, yesterday was a deliberate effort by the Tories to capitalise on thr sense of "change" being felt in political circles as Gordon Brown finally gets a firm grip on the top job.
It would be nice for those on the Right to think so. But the ham-fisted way Willetts's speech was handled by the Tories which meant his message ended up being "We're ditching selection and following Blair" when the reality was far more interesting rather points against the Robinson theory.
Whenever these questions come up, VFTN is always inclined to believe cock-up rather than conspiracy.

Brown offers McCanns help

Developments today kick on the debate started by Iain Dale on the way the Madeleine McCann story is developing. From the media convicting Robert Murat in the absence of any concrete evidence we know have our next Prime Minister getting involved with an offer of help to the family.
It is difficult to see exactly what help the Chancellor of the Exchequer in this country can offer in the hunt for a missing girl in Portugal. Assuming the best of intentions on the part of Mr Brown and this wasn't just a shameless stunt to promote his touchy feely side then this incident is a further example of the emotional tyranny there now is around these type of events.
The roots of this can be traced back to when Princess Di died. Few among the public actually knew her but heaven help anyone who admitted that while they were sympathetic in the same way they would be to any family who had lost a loved one they didn't feel any huge loss themselves.
The Madeleine McCann incident is taking on the same properties. There is now huge pressure on everyone, public figures in particular, to not only sympathise from afar but to become emotionally involved.
It is verging on mass hysteria and is a depressing reflection of modern Britain.

Murat mauling

Iain Dale is absolutely right to question the media coverage of the questioning of Robert Murat. The most worrying part of this is the sense that a growing part of the press pack are beginning to see themselves as the investigators rather than the police.
VFTN has seen comments carried today by at least one normally respectable news gatherer from a neighbour of Murat's estranged wife in Norfolk suggesting the missing girl and Murat's daughter look so alike they could be twins. The only purpose of publishing such comments is to encourage the reader to come to conclusions about Mr Murat which are unsupported by any evidence.
When Portuguese police came in for heavy criticism at the start of the investigation VFTN suspected that this was largely as a result of the police's refusal to feed the 24/7 media machine by holding daily press conferences rather than because of some clear evidence they were not doing their jobs properly.
Everyone wants this story to have a happy ending and if it does not for the people responsible to be brought to justice. What is happening at the moment is literally trial by media.

A lame effort from Lammy

Is David Lammy really trying to suggest that the Cultural Olympiad, the series of events held around the Olympic Games, will be enough to offset the damage caused by the diversion of £28m of lottery funding away from the arts every year to pay for the games? That's what he seems to be suggesting in his article for the New Statesmen. So what is Mr Lammy's vision for the Cultural Olympiad..... Big screens for people to watch the games and a bigger version of Proms in the Park.
With such a breathtaking artistic vision how can people suggest this Government is behaving like a bunch of cultural philistines?

Olympic lunacy

VFTN is pleased to see that the Olympics organisers have listed to the nationwide concerns about the spiralling cost and.... completely ignored them. Lord Coe has ruled out holding cycling events in Manchester where there is an existing world class velododrome based on a narrow interpretation of IOC rules on holding events outside the host city. Meanwhile millions of pounds are diverted away from the arts and grassroot sports to build a whole bunch of new venues which will get used for a few weeks in 2012.

Was Brown hiding?

I know Gordon Brown's campaign is supposed to be about stressing the importance of substance over presentation but this morning was ridiculous. Surely even Brown wants people to actually be able to see him when he speaks but most were struggling today because of some badly placed autocues. See here.
At least they distracted from his hideously stilted speech. Now, whatever happened to that bloke Labour had who could give a decent speech? Oh..........

The best blog entry ever

After a day watching News 24 padding out with hours and hours of Blair it was refreshing to read this post from Arsembly. Sometimes there just isn't anything to say. News 24 and Sky News would do well to take note.

Burying bad news

There is a remarkable amount of burying of bad news happening today, and not all on the part of the Government.
Having said that the opposition are right to try and highlight how details of the soaring cost of ID cards have been pushed out today.
But the Home Office is not alone in this shenanigans. Not to be outdone The Department for Work and Pensions chose today to announce the closure of three offices and the loss of 380 jobs.
I'm sure its purely a coincidence too that Barclays also decide that today would be good to announce the loss of more than 1,000 jobs in Britain.

Prepare to be dazzled

Word reaches VFTN from friends in the media that many newspapers are not going to wait for the formal announcement tomorrow and instead are going to subject their readers to acre upon acre of "Blair years" stuff with their cornflakes tomorrow. Let's hope for their sake that the speculation from Guido last week doesn't turn out to be true.

Angry northern Tories

VFTN understands there is a growing schism between Tory HQ and its northern activists. There is a sense that the creation of the Northern Board has done little to address the party's real difficulties in building momentum in the north of England. While Cameron has been telling anyone who will listen that the local elections saw a breakthrough in the North for the Conservatives the truth is on many northern urban councils their representation went backwards. Northern activists are beginning to wonder whether the party is either willing or even able to devote resources to winning in the north or whether the strategy is actually just to pick off seats where possible and hope it is enough for a majority.

Blair not the only one looking for a legacy

VFTN apologises for his long absence but is back with news of this pamphlet from David Blunkett and Unison trying to encourage people to put a new context on the New Labour record by encouraging people to remember how terrible life was before 1997.
The "analysis" in this pamphlet involves the collation of a bunch of negative headlines about public services before 1997 and then DB's analysis of how New Labour put them right.
It is hard to know what is more nauseating. The fact that Blunkett is still fighting the battles of a decade ago or that, despite its protestations, New Labour is still more interested in newspaper headlines than what real people actually think.