Up on the roof...

No, not The Drifters, but protestors against the expansion of Heathrow airport. Up on the roof? Why, the House of Commons of course.

Yesterday, campaigners from Plane Stupid took on the Commons security (not much of a task, it appears) to mount a protest at Westminster, lasting three hours.

It's the airport's plans to build a third runway by 2020 and increasing the amount of flights by 60,000 in 2015 which have provoked the action and the activists unfurled a banner stating as much.

They were given blanket coverage by the 24-hour news channels - which surely only further encouraged them to extend their roof-top sit in? After e-mails from viewers, the channels ended coverage and the publicity eager Plane Stupid group.

Show me the money!

Guido Fawkes makes a good point when he asks the BBC's political reporter Nick Robinson to detail his expenses, as the debate on parliamentary spending rumbles on.

Today's papers detail the lost battle of MPs to block the Freedom of Information Act, which they had tried to block in attempt to avoid the disclosure of their spending related to second homes.

The Speaker, Michael Martin, and Tory MP Derek Conway have both come under attack in recent weeks. It was revealed that Martin's wife had racked up bills going into thousands travelling around London spending her money in expensive London fashion boutiques while Conway had employed his sons, at considerable expense, to do - it turned out - very little.

Campaigner and author Heather Brooke, said: "This ruling will wrest control from the old boys' club and put it back it where it belongs - with the constituents."

I'm not so sure, whether MPs spending will be reined under control is yet to be seen. But I for one, would relish the chance to enjoy Mr Robinson's expense budget. The Ivy for tea, anyone?

Preston news map

A Google 'news' map, created as part of the work in my Digital Newsroom workshop with Alan Rawlinson utilizing content from the Lancashire Evening Post's website lep.co.uk


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Wikileaks?

Haven't really taken to this blogging malarkey, have I? Oops.

Read an interesting article in The Guardian on Saturday about Wikileaks where whistleblowers are able to leak official documents while retaining their anonymity.

When Northern Rock went under last year - the press were gagged. Wikileaks had the entire sales prospectus viewable to the public as well as a couple of very interesting letters from British lawyers, Schillings.

However, a recent injunction against the site - or more specifically the company used to register it's domain name has seen the wikileaks.org page fall. The site can still be found via a search engine and still has a vast collection of official documents available for perusal - including a briefing forTony Blair's famous 2002 meeting about NHS IT funding. The site could cause considerable impact on my politics patch if it continues.

Thinking with regards to our presentation in a couple of weeks, it's digital technology like this that is making the newsroom a totally different place. Using Wikileaks as a source for stories may on the face of it, sound somewhat shady - but as journalism develops reporters must cast their net much further in an attempt to catch a good scoop.