Anne's Blog

IT may have slipped by largely unnoticed but last week MPs found time to debate a long-term trend that has been gathering momentum and deserves all of our attention - the death by a thousand cuts of the regional press.

THE tragic and untimely end to Marie Colvin's brilliant and courageous career has come as a powerful antidote to the tide of sleaze which seemed to seep out and stain the  reputation of all journalists in the wake of the Leveson inquiry. She believed passionately in uncovering the truth wherever she found it and the example she set now reminds us of the very highest standards that can be achieved in the profession. The role of the war...

When that old stirrer-in-chief John Humphreys hinted in a recent Today show that Ed Milliband might be too ugly to be Prime Minister millions of Radio Four listeners of all political persuasions understood immediately what he was getting at. After all, 21st century politics isn't so much about what you say as what you look like when you're saying it. But are we really only looking for leaders who are easiest on the eye? 

As soon as the London protestors found themselves unable to erect their canvas city at the stock exchange and so moved across to St Paul’s, they unwittingly landed the Church of England in a very unusual place - right at the heart of national debate. From there the CofE has wriggled, fudged and squirmed its way into what can only be described as a PR disaster. Anyone - PR expert or no- would surely have advised...

News that the iconic charity magazine Big Issue is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week by re-inventing itself with the help of some bold new ideas, may ring warning bells across editorial departments. The revelation that Big Issue founder John Bird plans to re-train some 100 Big Issue sellers as journalists could be seen either as a worrying trend for the future of journalism or alternatively as a brave and far-sighted move to modernise this ageing...