Liam Plays It Smart
One story I haven't written this week is the intervention by Birmingham MP Liam Byrne into the debate about Labour's future.
Mr Byrne is the most high-profile in Birmingham, as a Minister in both the Treasury and the Home Office as well as the Minister for the West Midlands.
He is also part of the Miliband-Purnell gang, which means anything he has to say should provide rich copy.
But his article for The Spectator about Labour's future path - championing "fraternity", apparently - carefully avoided controversy.
He did namecheck a Miliband, but it was brother Ed rather than the troublesome David, the Foreign Secretary who did journalists a favour in the silly-season by appearing to set out his stall for the Labour leadership.
Of course, we do report on serious debates as well as mischief, but this particular article just wasn't newsworthy. I don't think he'll mind me saying that. I suspect that, in the current circumstances, he'll be pleased.
But hopefully, Mr Byrne's upcoming pamphlet for think-tank Demos will provide more ammunition for people hoping to stir up trouble (political reporters).
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I'm puzzled. It was an 'intervention' which 'just wasn't newsworthy'. So why blog about it? Are you on a quota?
To readers who are not part of the Westminster Village (I don't think Birmingham has one) this sort of stuff ('I suspect that, in the current circumstances, he'll be pleased') is meaningless and a waste of bandwidth.
Hi, thank you for your comments. To answer your questions:
I blogged about it because I thought it was interesting.
No, I am not on a quota.
Do you have any views on what's happening in the Labour Party?
Yes I do but I don't think a regional newspaper blog is the place to air them.
Now - if you were to blog about Bore and the feebleness of Labour in Birmingham…
clifford,
You raise an interesting question. How parochial do we expect our local paper to be?
From the sounds of it you're not interested in anything that happens out side of Birmingham's city limits.
These posts have been rather bland in the last few weeks. When is Roshan Doug back to annoy and entertain us? Wasn't he supposed to write something nowish...Come back Mr Doug - all is forgiven!!