Tales from a House of Commons lobby journalist

By Jonathan Walker on Feb 27, 08 10:03 AM in Politics

The lobby is in the unenviable position of being famous in its own right - always a bad thing for journalists.

When Tony Blair called the media a "feral beast", he meant the lobby. Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, set out to destroy it - and failed.

As you probably know, the lobby is the name given to political editors and senior reporters based in the House of Commons.

They are entitled to hang out in a room in the Commons known as Member's Lobby, which is off limits to anyone except MPs and lobby members, even other journalists.

What is perhaps less well known is the fact that the lobby is not limited to the national newspapers and broadcasters.

A few of us represent the regional and local press. I'm the lobby correspondent for the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail, placing me in the odd position of writing for both a morning and an evening newspaper.

In this blog I'll try to give a little bit of flavour of what it's like to work in the House of Commons, and talk a little about the big events of the day.

If there's anything you want to know about life as a feral beast, let me know.

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