Thursday 26th March 2009

I'm always being told that the internet is the future of journalism and events this week have provided strong evidence to support this. Conservative Member of European Parliament Daniel Hannan launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, pinning blame on him for the current economic troubles. The three minute Strasbourg speech, in which Brown was present, was initially not reported by the BBC, ITV or Sky, but became a massive hit on YouTube within hours. It just goes to show how the internet has changed news.

The speech itself was interesting. Of course its going to be critical as Hannan is a Conservative, but he really goes all out in attacking Brown and his government and this is definately a news worthy story. The last line ,"you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government" may have been taken from John Smith's attack against John Major in 1992, but perhaps it is suited to the current situation and while everyone may not agree with Hannan's views his public speaking skills can't be criticised. Daniel Hannan represents the South-East in the European Parliament and this will definately influence the very few voters, myself included, who will turn out for in the European elections in June.

My local MP in Newbury Richard Benyon recently raised a very good point in his blog regarding the RBS business going on at the moment.
"I am cynical enough to see the dead hand of spin doctors in this. Sir Fred’s behaviour gave the press a classic hate figure for the country to vilify while with less coverage, the Government announced another £25 billion of support for his erstwhile employers."
Sir Fred Goodwin has certainly been on the recieving end of much hatred in recent weeks and its clear to see now that the government welcome the change in direction of hatred and blame. "Fred the Shred" has taken Gordon Brown's place as scapegoat for now, but I wonder how long it will be before this changes.

Thats all from me for now, I shall try to update over the weekend.