The EDP and my name

As a friend of mine texted me this evening "Why can't Archant (publishers of the EDP) get your name right ?"

Yes, it might seem odd to some people for me to shorten my name to Nich with an "h", but I've never seen the point in shortening my name and then adding a letter "k" that isn't part of my name.

You'd imagine that after all the letters I have had printed in the EDP over the years, all time they reported on things I was doing when on North Norfolk District Council, they'd be able to get my name right by now.

Iain Dale boosts Lib Dem hopes in Norwich North

Lib Dems in Norwich North were given a welcome boost today after hearing that former North Norfolk Tory candidate and political blogger Iain Dale was back campaigning in Norfolk after his humiliating defeat in North Norfolk in 2005.

Iain said "I hope to bring to Norwich North everything that I brought to North Norfolk." Lib Dem commentator and former North Norfolk Councillor Nich Starling said "Iain contacted me to say he was in my area of Norwich North canvassing this morning. Last time Iain campaigned in the area I live in he managed to increased the number of Lib Dem vote by several thousand so I am hopeful he will be able to repeat again".

(Note - Iain and the Tory team were canvassing in Taverham today - I was going to meet up with Iain to say hello but family commitments come first. I am sure Iain will see the joke, especially after his anti Lib Dem rant in his EDP column today, which further shows how Tory biased the EDP has become that they should allow this sort of thing during an election campaign).

At least it proves that someone's spelling is worse than mine

It looks to me as if the Eastern Daily Press' website needs a sub editor.

One Lib Dem MP is worth one and a half Labour MPs

There was a nice little story in the Eastern Daily Press yesterday which highlighted how much more people think of Lib Dem MPs than Labour ones.

A charity function that the journalist attended had as auction items tea on the terrace with three different MPs. Norwich South MP Charles Clarke's offer raised a respectable £100. Regular Labour rebel Ian Gibson (Norwich North) saw his offer of tea on the House of Commons terrace raise £120, but Norman Lamb, Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk saw his similar invitation receive the highest bid of the lot, raising £170 for charity.

As the EDP commented, it seems Norman lamb is a provider of "darn good tea".

Pull the other one

A boy in Norfolk will not be allowed to keep £44,000 in cash he was sent in a Playstation 2 box he bought off ebay. The police ahve returned it to the Pakistani businessman concerned.

The businessman gives his excuse in THIS story on the Eastern Daily Press website.

Can you smell something ?

It's the silly season and some journalists can be lazy

Surely this is the most pointless and silly story that any newspaper could possibly run during the silly season ?

A car company have paid someone to conduct the most pointless piece of research ever in order to enable them to issue a press release and at least one journalist fell for it.

Did the Apprentice candidate Katie Hopkins really strike a blow for "decent values" ?

This is the text of a letter I have sent to the Eastern Daily Press today in response to one of their journalists(Sharon Griffiths) claiming The Apprentice candidate, Katie Hopkins, had struck a blow for decent values.

I am struggling to understand how Sharon Griffiths (7th June 2007) describes the actions of the BBC’s Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins as a blow for “mothers, children and decent values”.

My understanding of The Apprentice is that contestants enter knowing that should they win, they will have to move to London to work with for Alan Sugar’s Amstrad company. So why, after being away from her children for eleven weeks, would a contestant suddenly at the last minute withdraw, saying they aren’t sure they could move their family ? Is this a blow for family values or a cynical attempt to court publicity when you have already been away from your family, that same family that is prized so highly, for the best part of three months ?

As for it being a blow for decent values, I am assuming that Sharon Griffiths missed the previous 10 weeks of episodes in which Ms Hopkins denigrated people from the regions (particularly Northerners), lager drinkers, people who watch daytime TV, people who struggle with their weight, indeed just about every stereotypical group she came across or could have a go at, Ms Griffiths did so in an extremely distasteful and unpleasant way. On top of that, the shameless bitching from Ms Hopkins about her fellow contestants, the snide, the downright rude and personal about others to camera, but out of the other earshot, was as bad as anything in Big Brother. But Sharon Griffiths assumes that this is a blow for decent values ?

The very fact that top comedy writer and the man behind Live 8 and Comic relief, Richard Curtis, chose to spend part of his speech when winning a BAFTA, talking about the awfulness of Ms Hopkins surely tells us something ?

I wonder what Sharon Griffiths would have said about her if far from being a Sloane Ranger with a posh suit and a plumy accent, Katie Hopkins had instead been brought up on a council estate, had an Essex accent and criticised people with different colour skin instead of people from up North. Now imagine her name was Jade and she was on Big Brother not “The Apprentice”.

It smacks of people being judged on accents, not on actions. Does Sharon still feel Ms Hopkins behaviour was a blow for “decent values” ?

Eastern Daily Press' stinging criticism of John Reid

In an article quite unlike any I have recently seen in a regional Daily Newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press have printed a stinging piece that articulates just how John Reid is not "fit for purpose" and how Labour have broken their election pledges.

Read the article yourself HERE.