Residents who have received their copy of this week’s Salford Advertiser will have noticed Labour Salford MP Hazel Blears has a new monthly column. I agree with Conservative Councillor Iain Lindley and Lib Dem Group Leader Councillor Norman Owen’s views that the timing of this column sets alarm bells ringing.
Why now – as Iain Lindley writes - after 12 years as an MP, has she decided to suddenly write a regular column for the Advertiser. Is it perhaps because a general election that Labour will most likely get slaughtered in, is no more than 6 months away?
I now learn that Worsley MP Barbara Keeley will soon be writing her own column in the Advertiser and I can only assume that Eccles MP Ian Stewart will follow soon after.
This is a blatant political shift for MEN Media – completely unbalancing the precarious political coverage, which up to now has allowed all sides a fair and even chance to have their viewpoints published.
The editor of the Salford Advertiser, Simon Keegan, further confirms that once the general election has been called, the MPs and leader’s columns will be removed from publication until after the result.
What this means for you, the ordinary reader, is that from now until the election you will be subjected to Labour spin x 4 (three Labour MPs writing consecutively plus the Labour leader’s column) with a Liberal Democrat and Tory leader’s column only printed once in every 3 weeks.
By my calculation, that makes the Advertiser biased towards Labour in the run up to both the local and general elections on 2010.
If MEN Media plans to support Labour in the run up to the next election, it should be up front and honest with it’s readers right now – many tabloid daily papers declare their allegiances (and sometimes shift them). The Advertiser’s editorial staff should set the record straight NOW and let us, the readers, know where they stand.
So this week Barbara Keeley’s column appeared in The Advertiser. I have to say I was not impressed. The column read like it had been thrown together in about two minutes and was nothing more than a party political ‘broadcast’ on behalf of The Labour Party. I thought it a little surprising for the photo caption to say “Barbara Keeley reports on the latest developments in Westminster” when there was no mention of youth MPs who made history by debating in the house of commons last week. It was carried on BBC Parliament, with John Bercow (the speaker of the house) presiding.
Many MPs joined the chamber to listen to the debate and they were introduced by the speaker periodically. I neither saw nor heard mention of Hazel Blears, Barbara Keeley or Ian Stewart.
If the Salford Labour MPs want to be taking seriously, they should start by telling the truth about their Advertiser columns. They are not “to report on the latest developments in Westminster” as we have been led to believe. They are party political propaganda on behalf of The Labour Party and The Advertiser should pull them immediately.
Well I was eager to read what Barbara Keeley had to say in this week’s Advertiser column, but there isn’t one. Perhaps the editor of the Advertiser wasn’t clear when he said it would be Keeley next – I assumed he meant next week, but perhaps it’s a monthly column with each MP taking their turn?
Either that or Barbara Keeley actually has nothing useful to say to her constituents (or potential new constituents).
It is good to see that my hard working MP Barbara Keeley can keep her constituents up to date with all the work she is doing on their behalf.
Since 2005 Barbara has put her constituency on the Political Map.
I hope that Hazel can also show her constituents that she is doing the same.I feel sure that both Salford and Worsley voters will put pen to paper if they feel something is wrong and use the advertiser’s excellent letters page to air their views.