The last speck of credibility

Did Gordon Brown have any credibility? It is a huge question, but it seems everything he does puts another dent in his credibility. The latest disaster is his video talking directly to voters telling them he was about to reform MP's expenses. But evidence is he just had not thought it through. The day rate was criticised as being similar to the European Parliament 'clock in and bugger off' payment system. There would still be a lack of transparency, there may still be systemic problems and the public would still be subject to a range of sleaze allegations. But more embarrassing directly for the prime minister is that he has been forced to retract a promise made directly to voters and broadcast online and across every news organisation. Is this his last grain of credibility that he threw away, or did he lose that months ago?

Are traditional news outlets becoming redundant?

There is a fire in the Breams Building, Chancery Lane in London, I have a picture, which is more than is available on the BBC apart from a long distance shot. I got these on Twitter and the news came through an hour ago, on the BBC it was only 18 minutes ago - it is a question of how we are, in the future going to receive news! More importantly, what are the implications for every organisation attempting to manage news and issues and information.

Clever news management

David Cameron's speech and accompanying evidence of Brown's 'Government by Gimmick' could have been very damaging. Governments need to appear proactive and finding solutions to social problems, but due perhaps to the news cycle they are compelled to quickly grab the headlines prior to checking if they can deliver. the fact that delivery is often hard to ensure for any individual and the media quickly lose interest means the spotlight soon shifts and things fall off the agenda. To focus on the only controversial point, that trips to Auschwitz are a gimmick, is a clever move. While the evening news programmes carried the story, the focus was on the demands for Cameron to apologise and it was his reputation that was damaged. Not a wise move by him in wording the 'gimmick' in the way he did, but a good move by Labour's news management team in taking the heat out of the story.