The political blogosphere was awash this week with comments about Hazel Blears' speech to the Hansard Society where she dared criticise leading political blogs and media commentators alike. (I doubt many bothered to get the whole speech though, because the cometary on it was dire!)

So here it is in full, and not just the edited version which appeared in The Guardian:

 

Instead of derision, the Tories have enjoyed deference. The Fourth Estate is in awe of the self-confident new political elite

Alastair Campbell's appearance on Newsnight last night (BBC2 September 4 2008) raised some interesting issues.

News that the Conservatives have removed three top Tory bloggers from their link list may be a signal that they are planning to emulate Labour's approach towards blogs as they complacently prepare for what they see as inevitable victory in 2010. Labour should do the opposite.

It seems like John McDonnell is gearing up as the stalking horse.

Does he need a John Major style 1995 leadership challenge to end speculation and regain control?

Crime is down yet again.

Lies, damn lies and statistics the right will say. That's not the reality for people, the papers will shriek.

Well, it is.

I'm being provocative I know - but I am interested in the function of blogs like this, how they differ from what the media do and whether they add anything to the quality of political debate...

The press is unsympathetic or downright hostile to Labour, yet Labour is full of newsmakers pumping out press releases every day. And with increasing numbers using the Internet to search for both local and national news, the positive Labour stories are still hard to find online.

Now a new site - Labour Matters - aims to help change that for the better...

Last month, the excellent London mayor Ken Livingstone was ousted, with a great deal of innuendo spread about him.

The big stories were about how Lee Jasper (who?) spent 0.0000000001% of the mayoral budget after e-mailing Kumar Murshid (who?).

Not once, did you, or I, hear screeching headlines on papers, that read something like this:

"Ken announces housing revolution"

It seems that Ken announced the biggest housing building programme for a generation, spending £4 bn on affordable housing. But the right-wing media would hate to have anyone believe that things can really, and have got better under a Labour government. They offer no intellectual arguments to rubbish some of this government's greatest achievements.

Housing, has been an area that has got worse continuously since Thatcher was elected. And Ken was doing his part to help housing for an area that holds 10% of the population.

Notice how not even the Mirror, or the Guardian, compared this excellent policy with Boris' plan to help affordable housing for those earning OVER £60,000. That isn't a misprint. In an age of extreme inequality, Boris was only going to help the top 20%.

Boris' populist plan over bendy buses similarly drowned out the bussing revolution launched by Ken. 2 million more people were on buses, after Ken reversed the disasterous effect deregulation of bus services had upon London.

This is just a small example, of how the media doesn't report the radical policies of governments, and so New Labour has had to resort to populist headline-grabbers, that don't effect anyone.

Today we are getting a strong committment from the party leadership to listen effectively.

Getting this right matters, and we need to work on ways of improving the listening process, right through from from the door knockers like myself to the inner circles of Government. 

Doing it right will give us the early warning systems we need to deal with problems quietly, rather than in the middle of a media frenzy.  

Iain Dale will be verbally duelling with me on Question Time Extra this Thursday (BBC News 24 11.35pm)

If you're watching QT anyway, please do email the show amusing questions that will give me the opportunity to remind Iain that Tories are evil!

The link to submit questions is here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/6994949.stm

In gratitude for your support, I shall organise a Karaoke night in April.

Thanks

Alex Hilton
07985 384 859
alexhilton@gmail.com

Gordon Brown has ruled out the possibility of his taking part in a US style televised debate with David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the run up to the next General Election.

Will Parbury calls for more openess and transparency in the media

I've always had my suspicions. With people like Melanie Philips (Daily Mail) believing climate change to be some sort of socialist conspiracy and the Sun describing environmentalists as 'green hippy lunatics' its easy to feel sceptical towards these papers when they talk about green issues. If one ever wanted proof though of the absurd lengths these papers will go to to stop action on climate change then go no further than this weeks private eye. It has an excellent story showing the amount of trash that came out of these papers preceding the heathrow protest. Read on and enjoy.

Quite out of the blue, I have been asked (as a prominent blogger!) to give oral evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications.

The committee is investigating media ownership and the news and I'd be grateful for your thoughts on the points below that have been sent to me.

Lord Puttnam, award winning film maker and president of Unicef UK, writes this weeks guest blog.  He talks about the importance of including digital technology in educational practice to make it more relevant to young people's lives.

This blog is posted on www.the2020vision.org.uk. To read it and leave your comments click here