Editor's Blog: All news is local - as the election and the volcano prove
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It’s a good time to be a journalist. We all
like to be busy and that’s certainly the case at the moment. There
is a saying that all news is local and if you think about the two
big stories of the day, the volcanic ash cloud and the general
election, you couldn't have two issues which are more relevant to
the lives of local people.
Across the county we are hearing of stories of
people stuck out in the four corners of the globe. In Maidstone our
very own Edwin Boorman has told of the trials of getting back from
Malta then having to queue for hours simply to get through passport
control at Portsmouth before police were called to relax the
checking procedures to avoid a riot. Nothing like a jobsworth when
you need one.
Our sister paper the Medway Messenger has
discovered that one school is sending out worksheets to pupils
stuck on a trip in Hong Kong. I couldn’t quite understand the logic
of Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy on Radio 4 this morning when he
pointed out that his customers were abroad and not spending even
more money in his shops. Surely for every person who’s trapped
abroad there’s some poor soul rooted at home when they were
planning to jet off to sunnier climes, such as former KM Group
journalist David Jones who is ‘stuck in Sheppey’ having seen his
holiday plans to Jordan wrecked by the cloud.
The election is in full swing and locally we
have, as stated before, an interesting tussle to succeed Ann
Widdecombe. The two main candidates are in overdrive and are almost
omnipresent on the streets (and in our inboxes). Both Helen Grant
(Con) and Peter Carroll (Lib Dem) are oddly fighting over the
loyalties of our Nepalese residents. Peter sent out a release
informing us that Gurkhas were helping him distribute election
material while Helen has since responded with a statement of
support from Maidstone’s Nepalese community.
I have been to the Priestfield Stadium twice
in the past week to see the Gills pick up four valuable points in
their fight to avoid relegation. They are certainly making a decent
fist of it, particularly on Saturday when they turned over
promotion-chasing/Man Utd-conquering Leeds. One curious point that
struck me, in these days of all-seater stadia it's interesting that
the away fans never sit down as part of, presumably, some tribal
ritual. And why is it that home fans sit down during the game and
stand up during half-time? Funny lot, footie fans.
Tuesday, April 20 2010
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