Liverpool Daily Post: Editor's Blog

Wirral dining delights in the Liverpool Daily Post

2011-05-17T05:00:00Z

IT'S MENU Tuesday in your Daily Post today, a day I look forward to every month with, no pun intended, great relish. As one who remembers the days when fine dining in Liverpool was almost unheard of, the range of culinary attractions in our city region is a sauce (all right, source) of constant delight. This month there is a definite Wirral twist to MENU, as we focus on Aiden Byrne's Collingwood, West Kirby, and the new deli being launched by the family who brought you the wonderful Da Piero Italian in Irby. We also catch up on Liverpool Masterchef winner Claire Lara as she plans to launch her new La Mouette restaurant in Hoylake. Elsewhere in the newspaper, we bring you exciting developments alongsideWirral Waters. We exclusively revealed a few weeks ago Peel's plans for a 'global trading centre' on the Wirral waterfront. News of a £25m Chinese deal for the centre brings it a step closer to exciting reality.

Introducing '24 Hours' in the Liverpool Daily Post

2011-05-16T05:15:13Z

In today's Liverpool Daily Post newspaper, we have launched '24 hours', a new daily digest of all the best of the day's stories from the worlds of news, business, sport and the arts. We all lead such busy lives these days that I often hear people grumble that they have hardly had a minute to read their newspaper all day. Whether you like to read your paper over breakfast, on your way to work, or at morning coffee break, there are days when all of us find our routine overtaken by events. Just because you are busy, doesn't mean you don't need to know what is going on. So 24 hours is designed to be your two minute, at a glance window on the world. By the time you have read our front page and this one, you will have a snapshot of all the key events of the day. Of course, we all hope readers will then find the time to sit back, relax and enjoy our comprehensive daily coverage. I hope you will find 24 hours useful. One of the great thinks about our readers is that they are never shy about sharing their views. Do please drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

2010-09-12T08:01:05Z

What is it about people in public life that makes them find it so hard to say they are sorry when they are responsible for inconveniencing people? Yesterday's fiasco in which permanent secretary for tax David Hartnett said he had nothing to apologise for over the mistakes which led to millions of people paying the wrong amount of tax was all too typical. At least he then did a U-turn and ultimately did apologise, albeit apparently under pressure from an "incandescent" chancellor George Osborne. It brought to mind the current Mersey Tunnels nonsense. Readers of the Liverpool Daily Post will know that we took them to task recently for failing to make provision to remove the weekend contraflow from the Mersey Tunnels when Liverpool or Everton are playing at home. Thousands of Wirral-based fans have been inconvenienced, being caught up in massive tailbacks on the tunnel approaches and, as a result, missing the start of matches at Anfield and Goodison. The reasons the tunnels management have given have been fully reported by us, but we remain critical of an organisation that seems constantly careless of the convenience of its hugely overcharged captive audience of motoring customers. I won't go over those arguments again, but I have to say I was shocked to discover that, in all their explanations, the simple words: "We realise that this has caused major inconvenience to many of our customers, and for that we apologise", have been completely absent. An apology wouldn't compensate people for the anger and frustration that they have put them through, but it does at least make the motorist think that there is some degree of empathy and understanding from those who run the tunnels. Instead we get the blinkered arrogance of the bureaucrats, so beautifully illustrated once again by Mr Hartnett yesterday. But at least he didn't have the cheek to suggest that the media should apologise to the Inland Revenue. The tunnels chief actually wrote to our letters page once again defending their actions, but also calling on US to apologise to their staff for our criticism of their performance. We work very hard to get things right, but when we do get it wrong, we are not afraid to say we are sorry. It is the right thing to do. But did we say sorry this time? Nope, because we aren't. And they definitely should be.

Why Sir Terry Leahy should head up the Liverpool LEP

2010-09-07T13:46:41Z

The bid by Liverpool City Region to be allowed to set up a Local Enterprise Partnership is now with the government. As we reported today, the distinguished group of business leaders whose names have been put forward to sit on the LEP includes Sir Terry Leahy. There has been no announcement yet as to who would chair the LEP, but we do know that the government has stipulated that the successful boards should be led by a high profile representative of the local business community. It's hard to imagine a candidate who better fits that profile than Sir Terry, and given his pending retirement from the Tesco empire he built, the timing could be propitious. All this assumes, of course, that he would be prepared to take on such a commitment, but personally, I really hope he gets the nod. If the bid is successful, the new LEP will have a fraction of the government funds at its disposal that the NWDA was able to invest in the region. It will live or die on its ability to engage the private sector and make sure it extricates maximum value from every penny it can prise from the ever-tightening public purse. That will take entrepreneurship, drive, imagination, and courage. I'm sure there are others who can bring those qualities to the table, but for my money, Sir Terry has a track record that nobody can match.

Fireworks on the ECHO Wheel - caught on video

2010-03-26T17:39:10Z

I've seen fireworks before. I've been on a big wheel before. But watching fireworks from a big wheel? Now that's an experience. On Thursday night I was lucky enough to be one of the guests at the launch of the ECHO Big Wheel outside the Arena and Convention Centre on the Liverpool waterfront. ]]>

Why you should enter the LDP Regional Business Awards, 2010

2010-03-11T18:46:02Z

On Thursday May 24, 2010, the business elite of Merseyside will gather at the Liverpool Cathedral for what promises to be a truly memorable evening. It is of course the 18th annual LDP Regional Business Awards in association with KPMG and DLA Piper and this is your opportunity to be involved. www.regionalbusinessawards.co.uk where there is a nomination form that you can download, save and return by email to Events@Liverpool.com Alternatively, for more information and to receive a printed nomination form call 0151 472 2507. This is a exceptional opportunity to make your business stand out and to celebrate the hard work and determination that is helping the region's business community emerge from recession so positively. We look forward to receiving your nomination and the best of luck. ]]>

We have right to know why James Bulger killer is back behind bars

2010-03-03T09:07:07Z

The most worrying aspect of the way the authorities are dealing with the latest disturbing developments in the James Bulger case isn't what they are telling us, but what they are keeping secret. As the author of the definitive book on the murder, working as I did in close cooperation both with James's family and the police murder squad, I can probably claim with some justification to know as much as any journalist about the case itself. Yet even I have not been able to follow developments in the adult lives of the two killers, such were the draconian restrictions imposed by the courts on coverage of their lives. Those legal restrictions make it impossible for a journalist or any other citizen to report on the current lives or whereabouts of Jon Venables or Robert Thompson. Worse, under the terms of the injunction it is technically an offence even to make enquiries about their current lives and circumstances. When the pair were released in 2001, they were given new identities, and the legal protection to ensure that we could not follow their future lives or development. I was not one of those who felt that they should have spent their entire lives in prison, unbelievably wicked though their crime had been. They were ten when they killed James, and any civilised society should allow for the possibility of their rehabilitation and return to society at some stage in the future. I did feel, however, that their release came far too soon to satisfy society's requirement for an adequate punishment for their crimes, and that they should have served at least a few years in an adult prison. The reasons for the secrecy were to a large extent understandable. Given the scale of public feeling, and the maelstrom of media interest, the two young men could have found themselves at considerable personal risk, and the chance of them being able to integrate themselves into society would have been minimal. However, when the state imposes such secrecy, it carries with it a huge weight of responsibility. There was an enormous level of public interest in this case, which is still seen as one of those landmark crimes that put the whole fabric of modern society in Britain under the spotlight. If the public is being denied the right to know about the offenders, than it should at least have the right to know it will be kept fully informed of any significant change in their circumstances. Like any convicted murderer in Britain, Thompson and Venables were released on life licence. That means that they can be returned to carry on serving their sentence at any time in their lives if they breach the conditions of their parole. Today we know that Venables has breached those conditions. The authorities have decided, however, that we do not need to know the nature of that breach. For me, that is an unforgiveable decision. Anyone with real knowledge of this case will tell you that of the two killers Thompson was the sly, manipulative one. Venables was stupid and easily led. They were both kids with major problems. It was the combination of their two very particular personalities and circumstances that led them to commit together a crime that it is still hard for us to believe any child could commit. If I had been asked to have a wager on which of them might get into further trouble in their adult lives, my money would have been on Thompson for that reason. The fact that it is Venables suggests to me that the breach of his probation terms may well relate to some act of stupidity or random violence rather than an act of real evil. But I don't know, and you don't know, because those in authority who make these decisions have decided that we don't need to know. That represents a level of official arrogance that is deeply disturbing. Indeed the strong suspicion persists that we only know what we do because a news organisation had found out for itself and the story was about to get out in any case. If that is right, it suggests that we might never have been told anything about Venables's return to jail if the authorities had had their way. That, in my opinion, represents a betrayal of the trust we have little choice but to put in those authorities when they decide that it is not in the public interest for us to know.

LiveRead, the Liverpool Daily Post online literary festival

2010-02-26T11:38:18Z

Have you checked out the plans for our exciting new online literary festival LiveRead yet? See my video introduction to it, here.

New-look Liverpool Daily Post launches on Monday

2010-02-05T15:43:15Z

Busy times in the newsroom today, as we put the finishing touches to the new-look Liverpool Daily Post, which launches on Monday. We are changing the masthead, giving our pages a stylish makeover, building the prominence of some key elements of the newspaper and introducing some exciting new writers. It is the culmination of a major project behind the scenes in our editorial department, and we are now waiting anxiously to find out what our readers make of it all when we share it with them on Monday. The newspaper was given a very contemporary new look when we relaunched it in 2004, but five years on it was time to freshen things up, and the changes our Head of Design Gary Bainbridge has come up with will really keep us at the cutting edge of stylish newspaper design. Looking good is half the battle, but providing the right mix of good writing and robust and stimulating journalism is absolutely vital. We have recently increased the amount of national and international news in our pages, and this has been very well received by our readers, so it is something we are planning to build on. Business is a very important element of the Daily Post's coverage, both online and in print. Nobody covers the Merseyside business scene with the depth, insight, knowledge and excellent network of contacts that our award-winning six-strong business team delivers. From now on business will be much more prominent in the newspaper, with our business section starting on page 7. The general news will concentrate as ever on the key issues that matter to our audience, setting the agenda on issues like regeneration, politics, health, and education, backed as ever by strong human interest stories. We will continue to cover football in great depth, as you would expect in a soccer-obsessed city region like ours, but we are also expanding and developing our Rugby Union and golf coverage. Arts and culture are an absolute cornerstone, and we are lucky to have an arts editor as industrious and prolific as Laura Davis to spearhead our coverage. Our new writers include former LDP Editor and successful popular novelist Jane Costello, writer and broadcaster Will Batchelor, and internet entrepreneur Ben Hatton. We are also welcoming back our popular and controversial Brocklebank column. They are all strong additions to a terrific stable of columnists writing for the LDP. They include Jim Hancock, Rob Merrick and David Higgerson on politics, ex-Anfield legend and TV pundit Mark Lawrenson on football, cultural guru Phil Redmond, and our own fashionista Emma Johnson. It promises to be an interesting week. Try to tear yourselves away from our award-winning LDP website long enough to pick up a copy. I would love to hear your views.

Crystal ball-gazing into an uncertain media future

2009-11-20T17:56:59Z

Many of you will be aware of the kind of challenges that are besetting the newspaper and broadcasting industries at the moment. The digital revolution has seen a large scale migration of a lot of the advertising revenue that would once have found its way into newspapers into new online platforms. Meanwhile reading patterns have changed, with less people, particularly among the young, finding the time or inclination to buy and read a paper. Add to that the economic crisis the world tumbled into last year, leading to drastic cut-backs in advertising revenues, and you had what was more or less a perfect storm. The result has been job losses and cut backs across the newspaper industry, a process from which our own business has sadly been far from immune. At the beginning of this week I spent a couple of days at the Society of Editors annual conference at Stansted Airport, at which some of the luminaries of the media world led a series of lively debates on the way forward, under the general heading "The fight back". The discussions were fascinating, but the only really consensus was that we need to do something to protect the future of journalism. As to what, there was little agreement, and much concern that time might be running out for the profession. The last session on Tuesday morning summed up beautifully the lack of cohesion within the industry about the best way forward. Geordie Greig, Editor of the Evening Standard, shared a platform with James Harding, Editor of The Times, and Matt Brittin, UK MD of Google. Geordie was speaking with great enthusiasm about the new, free distribution Evening Standard, which had tripled its circulation creating what he described as an incredibly powerful tool for advertising. James explained how The Times was withdrawing all free distribution from Spring 2010, and preparing to launch Rupert Murdoch's plan to put its website on a subscription footing, ending the practice of making its stories free online. Meanwhile Matt had to fend off general hostility from many in the room about how the beast that is Google rips off journalists' expensively crafted work and throws it open to the world at large. He pointed out that anyone can choose to "turn off" Google access to their websites, but most choose not to given the massive audiences it helps to deliver. Totally free newspaper distribution, or no free copies at all? Put all your stories online for free, or make readers pay for every sentence? Bewildering, isn't it? And then there was that other pantomime villain of the conference, the BBC. A concerted campaign by the newspaper industry last year halted the BBC in its tracks with its plans for a massive development of local video, using license-payers' money to directly compete with a key development area for commercial news businesses, the regional press amongst them. Now the debate has moved on to the question of "top slicing" the BBC's annual licence fee, with the objective of helping to support commercial TV news in the regions, something that is being all but choked out of existence at present by very similar economic pressures to those besetting newspapers. Pilot models are being developed, with local newspapers working alongside TV businesses to provide regional and local broadcast news, helping to maintain plurality. It's a complex picture, and a time of unprecedented turmoil and change. There are far more questions than answers. Add to the mix the controversy over local authorities who put out propaganda sheets disguised as newspapers to the communities they serve, and use them to fulfill their statutory duty of publishing their public notices. Apart from being pure spin disguised as honest journalism, the local councils who perpetrate these products are further denying revenue to legitimate commercial news organisations by not going to them with their public notice budgets. Industries change and evolve, and the media industry has gone through many changes in the past, but the pace of the current revolution is unprecedented, and the uncertainty about the best way forward deeply unsettling. I don't pretend to know the answers any more than any of the distinguished and very worried gathering of colleagues whose company I enjoyed at Stansted. You may wonder why you should care. So what if the old models like newspapers and commercial TV and radio that supported journalism go to the wall, and nothing is found to replace them? There's always the internet. Unfortunately, most of the reliable news and independent information available on the internet can be traced back to the skills of professional journalists. Citizen journalism has its place to play, as do official sources like council websites. But would you rather believe what the man next to you on the bus told you about the situation in Afghanistan, light on first hand knowledge and heavily salted with his own view of the world, the latest official statement served up by the MOD, or the report of a skilled and courageous war correspondent on the front line? Journalism, by observing and informing on the world we live in, has a vital role in preserving a free society. Those who sneer at the profession and decry its value would miss it as much as anyone if, God forbid, it should ever go. That's why this debate is important to all of us, and why I thought I would share a taste of it with you.

Penguins, Superlambananas - and a stunning setting

2009-07-06T18:14:48Z

To hear more from the artistic team behind it, check it out for yourself]]> It was a very enjoyable event, complete with live music, ice sculpture penguins, and a first glimpse of the penguins themselves, which schools and artists will be designing and painting in the next few months. The real treat though, was to have the excuse to walk down to the waterfront alongside the Three Graces for the first time in far too long, on a beautiful July evening. The event was staged in the new Mersey Ferry Terminal at the Pier Head, providing a sneak preview of a fantastic building with great views over the river. We also got the chance for an exclusive visit to the Beatles Story's new "4D" cinema, which opens later this month. I'm not going to give away too much, apart from saying It is a brilliant experience, and great fun. I suspect there will be long queues come the summer holidays. The new canal looked magnificent, and the new Museum of Liverpool building is simply breathtaking. I've lived and worked on Merseyside all my life, but this city still has the capacity to delight and surprise me, and take my breath away. I'm going home in a very good mood, tonight.

Death of Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T15:30:29Z

When the office rang me last night to break the news that Michael Jackson was being rushed to hospital, the first instinct, I'm afraid, was to suspect a publicity stunt. Within the hour, of course, it was clear that this was a very genuine, and terribly sad, story, and that one of the true icons of the pop music industry was dead. Having discussed our coverage with the office, I found myself hooked to the breaking story on TV and on Twitter, far later into the night than was entirely good for me. As my little group of Twitter followers will know, by complete coincidence one of our reporters had only been asking me earlier that day about what it was like to cover John Lennon's death. I was working in the Daily Post and Echo newsroom the morning that story broke, and later got to cover the start of his killer's trial in New York. I never saw Lennon play, to my eternal regret, but I did see Jacko, a story I covered when he performed at Aintree in 1988. It was a great performance, but perhaps almost too perfect - a polished show that you felt was being replicated in every detail in every venue he played. In Jackson and Lennon we are talking about two of the biggest global music stars of the 20th century. Yet the emotions I felt over the two events were so different. I remember vividly the shock, disbelief, and the sheer anger I felt when I heard that some nutcase had robbed us of John Lennon and - if I am honest - of the possibility of the Beatles ever getting together to perform again. They had broken up when I was 14 and too young to have ever seen them, and like millions of youngsters of my generation, the hope still burned that we might not have seen the last of this extraordinary band. That dream died with John on that pavement outside the Dakota Building. Last night, I knew I was watching a massive news story develop, and that is always fascinating. I realise too that his many real fans will be absolutely devastated by the news. However, the only emotion I could honestly muster, beyond the initial shock that he had died so young, was one of pity for a life that appears to have been blessed with so much talent, yet tortured by so much unhappiness. I feel sorry for his family, and in particular his children. But the searing, personal sense of grief that I felt when Lennon died just wasn't there. Maybe I am just older and more thick-skinned. But I think it is more that, for all his song-writing skill and devastating showmanship, Jackson's music never held any of the raw, honest, emotional power of Lennon at his best. I enjoyed much of his music, but I never felt truly moved by it.

Tweeting from Shanghai

2009-05-29T15:17:59Z

Liverpool is one of only two UK cities, the other being London, to exhibit at the Shanghai Expo in 2010, which is expected to attract 70m visitors and could generate Â£50m for the city in the next 10 years. I'm currently in Shanghai on a fact-gathering trip ahead of the Expo and I'll be blogging in detail on what I've discovered when I return. In the meantime, you can follow the live blog below, which I will be tweeting to from the Far East as I'm able, along with Martyn Best from Paver Smith. You can find out more about the Expo here. Shanghai visit

Good luck to Everton in the FA Cup Final at Wembley

2009-05-28T20:01:42Z

Well, the great exodus of Evertonians to London for the FA Cup Final is starting. Between now and Saturday, tens of thousands of football fans will be heading for London to watch the big match at Wembley. I'm pleased to say I will be among those going to the game, and I am already very excited by the prospect. Everton go into this game as underdogs, against one of the established "big four" premiership clubs, but they have ended the regular season in tremendous form, and certainly won't be daunted by the prospect of facing Chelsea. The pressure here is all on the Londoners, in their capacity as favourites. Everton can go out and enjoy themselves, give it their best shot, and go for glory. If they miss out, it will still have been a memorable season. Win, and it really could take the club to the next level, just like the triumph over Watford back in 1984. I wish the club and all the supporters well on Saturday. What a great shame, though, that thousands of those true fans present will be there only by virtue of paying well over face value for their tickets to touts, after they have been allocated by the FA to the so-called "family of football". This argument was raging in the eighties, when Liverpool and Everton were going to Wembley so frequently and getting ripped off by the touts on a regular basis. It is depressing, bordering on the scandalous, that a quarter of a century later, and in a magnificent new Wembley stadium, the FA still haven't grasped the nettle, ended this iniquitous system and started playing fair by the true supporters of the clubs who get to the cup final. Anyway, off the soap box now. Don't miss our great live blog coverage on Saturday as all the colour and drama of the day unfold. And why not join in? It's easy and great fun. Come on You Blues!

Welcome to our brave new editorial world...

2009-02-24T16:00:59Z

I am sitting surrounded by a quite remarkable blur of activity, in our new-look newsroom, on day three of our new editorial structure. We have been producing the Liverpool Daily Post, our sister title the Liverpool Echo, and a host of weekly newspapers using a radical new system since Sunday. The days of reporters, news editors and sub-editors are behind us. From now on our reporters are multi-media journalists, and the people who brief them and those who lay out our pages have merged roles as multi-media deskers. It is nothing short of an industry revolution, and at the heart of it is ensuring that our digital outputs, our websites and mobile sites, bring our consumers up-to-the minute news, analysis, still and moving images and audio packages, 24 hours a day. The changes are radical, and they haven't been without risk. We know that the theory of our new production system works, but until we tried it we could not be absolutely sure that it works in practice. I don't want to tempt providence but, two editions of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo in and counting, it is working well. We are discovering lots of teething problems, and inventing work-arounds and solutions, very much on the hoof, all of which means that the newsroom at the moment is even more chaotic than usual. But the spirit is terrific, and the commitment, good-will and sheer hard work and professionalism of everyone involved is genuinely humbling to witness. If it keeps going like this, we will be fine, and with every day that passes, we should become a little more sure on our feet. Ultimately, we are still doing what we have always done. Whether we are doing it in a newspaper, in a website report, a blog, a video or an audio podcast, we are bringing you the stories that are part of the lifeblood of the communities we serve. Interactivity is a fundamental part of all this. Whether it is a note for our letters page, a comment for our online forums, or a picture or video (thanks LDP Flickr Group!) we want to hear from you. If we can do anything to improve our service to you, or you just want to pass comment on any of the stories we are bringing you, please, let us know.