This is not a transaction.... I blogged the other week about The Lichfield Blog’s print debut in the Birmingham Mail with an article I wrote about Fuse Festival. It sparked a nice few comments and I thought they warranted a second blog post to clear one thing up. The printing of that article was not one side of a transaction,...

I asked the Prime Minister about account... I have mixed feelings about the Big Society. I’m all for devolution and more decision making power for communities, but I worry that the coalition’s plans will see local accountability suffer as more and more public services are provided by charities,  private companies and social enterprises...

The day my hyperlocal blog post was publ... Plenty of people will be skeptical about this bit of news but boy am I excited. I’d love to hear if this has happened before or not, but so far it’s the first time that I’m aware of, and I’m chuffed it’s me. If you pick up a copy of the Birmingham Mail today you will see,...

Two men spent 24 hours taking over 2,000... Every year in Lichfield there is an event in Beacon Park called Fuse Festival. It’s an arts festival, with three tents hosting a various mix of music, performance and workshops. 2010 was it’s 10th year in Beacon Park and just like we did last year, Nick and I went down to cover it for The...

More House of Commons exposure for The L... Whilst discussing his vision for local TV during a House of Commons debate on the future of local media [& video], Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries Ed Vaizey mentioned The Lichfield Blog and it’s efforts in the local media landscape. In response to...

Stop bashing the BBC!... Hooper: there’s a cloud over the BBC: has been too successful in too many areas, perhaps damaging local media industries #frontlineclub via twitter.com That’s a tweet from Heather Christie who was live-blogging the #frontlineclub last night. I wanted to point it out because I think Hooper...

Content creators are the ones moving jou... A while ago I spoke at the news:rewired conference organised by Journalism.co.uk about The Lichfield Blog and hyperlocal in general. The panel I was on got around to the whole ‘citizen journalist’ debate and who is or isn’t a journalist. I made the point (one I feel strongly about)...

How to protect your data: don’t gi... This won’t be popular, I know, but the election did show me very well how we can all have very differing opinions and get along like a house on fire at the same time. So here goes… I won’t regurgitate the details, if you’re reading this you probably know what it’s about....

The best route for Clegg is to get tough... What Nick Clegg needs to do now is be tough with the Conservatives. They are on the back foot and desperate to get into power but Clegg holds the keys. Let’s face it, they’ll be no LibLab coalition – they just don’t have the electoral mandate. They’d need too much support...

Why I’ll be voting Liberal Democra... This time tomorrow I will have marked my ballot paper with a big solid X alongside the Liberal Democrat candidate for Lichfield, Ian Jackson. Let’s put this vote in context first of all. In Lichfield, we’ve had Michael Fabricant as our MP since the constituency was re-established in 1997...