Don’t you just love the Evening Standard?
Apparently I’m in today’s Londoner’s Diary in the Evening Standard. Terrible website, so here’s the screenshot.
And up close:
I love the logic - “David Milliband is a blogger. David Milliband is Labour. Antonia Bance is a blogger. Antonia Bance is Labour. There must be a crony angle here somewhere…” As if bloggers formed a secret society! I’ve never met David Milliband, though I think I once heard him speak at a party conference fringe meeting. Oh, and I’m not a Londoner - Oxford city councillor, anyone?
Of course, you’ve already spotted it cos you know how to use your Vacher’s or even Google, but of course, David Milliband’s been at DEFRA for three months and DCLG was called ODPM when he was there. Glad to see OxStu fact-checking has carried over into the real world.
Yes - an odd piece. It seems to give the impression that you are ungrateful for the chance to update your communication skills. Something a lot of local politicians are in a desperate need of.
And when you consider the massive amounts of money this government (or indeed any government) wastes on plenty of different things, a few pounds to send some bloggers to Hungary seems like a fine plan to me!
for years, when I drove back into Wales, in the last few miles thnere used to be one of those Evening Standard signs that you see outside newsagents.
Inserted into this was something that said “Horse Manure Available Free”
I always intended to stop and take a picture, but never had a camera, and they’ve now replaced the sign. somehow it always seemed to be fitting.
it’s a disgracefull waste hope you lose your seat and your allowance,
rigger
Very typical of the Evening Standard and a typical poorly researched article. They should welcome the fact that these conferences contribute to councillor devlopment and was money well spent.
As far as I can see it’s pretty simple: Antonia is a newly elected councillor. She needs to communicate with the population she represents, to express her views and inform the public. Blogging is great way to do this. She knows this and wanted to learn more.
So she went to a conference to learn how to do this more effectively. (Where that conference was held is irrelevant, as is what Antonia chose to do with herself after work was through.)
If Antonia learned stuff, then I believe this is a positive investment in the future and contributes to a transparency of activity which can surely only ever be A Good Thing.
Oh and why has the Evening Standard, which I thought was a London paper, chosen to manufacture a ’story’ about an Oxford councillor? Haven’t they got London things to write about?
They do, but anything that can be twisted to show people in the Labour Party in a bad light (Given the newspapers political allegances) is a side hobby of theirs, so where Antonia lives is of no concern to them so long as she is a potential up and coming Labour politician
Well, Antonia’s in the Oxford Mail today about this as well. Accompanied by a particularly bilious quote from the Lib Dem Leader of the Council. I think they called him before his morning cup of coffee or something…
Good-tempered and amusing by the old boy’s standards. If you’d been in his own group, he’d have been far less pleasant. Still, his mood will improve still further when the near-tripled allowance hits the bank account.
Crickey, it’s a big compliment being scouted to go on something like this, and characteristically sour of some people to talk down something which should have got Oxford City Council in the news for the right reasons, for once.
Your arrogant middle class posting about putting back the wine at the expense of the tax payer shows how far Labour has moved from its roots and is on course for defeat.
If I was a constituent I would be outraged.
You are an egotist, it shows through the way you relish every bit of the article about you in the press, you wallow it and drool over every mention of your name.
You think it is amusing that you had a freebie on the backs of ordinary working class (you would not know much about the working class with champagne socialism) and their taxes.
Readers may wish to know that “Jay” and “Mark” were posting from the same IP address. Bit of a coincidence, eh?
Harsh on the Oxstu! In my day the Stu was staffed by an army of dedicated students committed to the causes of truth and dissemination of information; every fact was checked and double checked, and the greatest care was taken to ensure the veracity of every sentence of every paragraph.
The Cherwell, of course, is worse.