All wrapped up for Christmas

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 3:11 PM | add or read comments (0)

Well that's just about it for the pre-Christmas rush..hope you've been enjoying the blog in 06. I'll be back at the star of 07 to tell you what's happening here at the Daily Post.

But as promised in a previous entry, I'll leave you with a few of my all time favourite headlines...

"Book lack in Ongar"
(from an Essex newspaper - a brilliant summary of stock shortages at the town's library)

"Above us only thighs"
(from the Liverpool Echo, reporting on how John Lennon's widow had created controversy by hanging pictures of naked women from lampost's across the city)

"That owl plaque magic has me in its spell"
(How the late lamented Chester Tonight newspaper told of a ceremony honouring its sponsorship of a bird at Chester Zoo)

"French push bottles up Germans rear"
(A wartime classic - but no one is sure if it ever appeared in a newspaper. If not it is the greatest ever headline never printed)

Nadolig Llawen! Merry Christmas

Baby blogs/Boxing Day

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 2:32 PM | add or read comments (0)

I've been joined in the blogosphere by Daily Post deputy news editor Rob Davies and his wife Kate who are keeping a record of the trials and tribulations of awaiting their first baby's arrival.
Please enjoy their blog at http://ourfirstbaby.welshblogs.co.uk
Our Llandudno Junction office is awash with a sea of coupons from the paper which readers have filled in and posted to us in support of our Save the Post Offices campaign. Another 500 or so arrived today to add to the 1,100 already in.
We are now in the process of organising petitions to go to post offices and other shops across North and mid Wales. These will be going out in the New Year. We are hoping to get some big banners on the office in Vale Road - and to have thousands of car stickers printed.
There's a heck of a lot of support and we want to put it to maximum good use - so please help us if you can to stop Alistair Darling's slash and burn mission.
We are now in that hectic pre-Christmas period when we are tying to plan what is going to go in papers over the holidays. You can't rely on breaking news to fill the paper so it puts our forward planning skills to the test.
This is one of those years when we don't publish for two days consecutively (Christmas Eve, which is on Sunday, and Chritsmas Day) but we'll be back in the shops on Boxing Day. And that means myself and a few colleagues will be working on the big day itself. If anyone buys me any really bad festive knitwear I promise to wear it to work.

Huge support for post office campaign

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 11:41 AM | add or read comments (0)

There's been a big response to our campaign to save North Wales post offices from the threat of closure.
Hundreds of you have already sent in the coupons in the paper backing the Daily Post fight - and lots of people have written letters explaining why their own local post office is important to them
A lot of politicians in the Assembly are getting concerned too - the Post Office may be out of the Assembly's remit but that doesn't mean our AMs cannot act as a lobbying group to persuade Westminster - and more specifically, trade secretary Alistair Darling - that they have got this wrong and that closing post offices in great numbers is a big vote loser.
Tomorrow our columnist David Banks joins the battle with a staunch defence of village post offices ...and look out in the new year for Daily Post petitions in shops and post offices calling on the Government to change its mass closure plan.
If you make enough noise they can't help but hear you in London!

Cup-a-soup

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 1:37 PM | add or read comments (1)

I went out for dinner last night with Mrs Editor to a recent arrival to the North Wales dining scene (I'll be no specific for now, to spare their blushes).
I started with a pint of bitter which tasted sour. After a reasonably long delay our first course arrived - the smallest bowl of mussels in history. Mind you, chef had put a little extra in my bowl - a nugget of broken crockery from the handle of a cup. And what did the waitress do when I showed it to her? She said "you're joking" grimaced and carried the offending article away. No apology, nothing.
Then, the main course arrrived.. rump steak a la powdery tasting peppercorn sauce avec champignons brulee (burnt mushrooms).
Rubbish food, rubbish service, night out ruined. A shameful waste of £50!
But everyone has a bad day so I'll be writing to them to advise that they are on a yellow card, that we will give them a few weeks to settle in and sort out teething troubles (without smashing my teeth on cup handles) and then one of the Daily Post's reviewers will be visiting to do a taste test.
They'd better buck their ideas up.
Let me know of crappy restaurants or pub dining you've experienced. It's time the slackers were named and shamed, North Wales's reputation for good food is at stake!
Anyway, tomorrow's edition - a major breaking story in North Wales after a man was found critically ill with massive injuries in the early hours of today in Llandudno.
In Monday's edition we are planning to have a special report on what North Wales police have done to help reduce the number of serious and fatal road accidents in our region - plus the latest on our campaign to save rural post offices and a report on the flooding crisis threatening the Conwy Valley.
Have a good weekend.

Save our post offices

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 6:43 PM | add or read comments (0)

The front page tomorrow is a call to arms.The Government intends to shut one-in-four post offices in north and mid-Wales. These offices are vital to the future health of rural Wales - not that Alistair Darling, the trade secretary, gives a stuff.
We CANNOT let this happen. But don't sit on your hands and hope someone else will make it better, join us in campaigning to save these post offices. There is a coupon in tomorrow's Daily Post (Friday). Fill it in and send it to me. We will gather these together along with petitions we have planned, and use them to bash some sense into the Government.
And if you think your voice and our voice don't count, then you'd be wrong. Just over a year ago, then Home Secretary Charles Clarke presented the merger of the four Welsh police forces as a done deal. We helped kick up such a stink that this stupid idea was abandoned.
So get involved now and help save our village post offices - write to me or post a message here.

Suffolk murders coverage

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 10:32 AM | add or read comments (0)

An early start today as I had to be at the BBC studios in Bangor for 6am to do the newspaper reviews on Good Morning Wales.
The tragic events from Suffolk dominated the London-based newspapers - and also made it on to the front of the Western Mail.
One of the presenters asked why we had not featured the discovery of two more bodies on the front of the Daily Post. My answer was that we are primarily a newspaper for North Wales, that this is what our readers expect and appreciate about our news coverage and also that they know we give prominent coverage on the major national and international issues of the day on our inside pages (as we did today with the story of the murders).
But if you think we should feature these sorts of stories on our front page I would be interested to hear your views.
One of the other stories that caught my eye was the reported bonuses at Goldman Sachs investment bank. The AVERAGE bonus for their thousands of staff is £330,000...the top bosses will get £50 MILLION apiece, and if they all clubbed their bonuses together they could afford to buy a Trident submarine.
I am sorry, but that just isn't right.

UPDATE at 2pm
The name of the Snowdonia summit cafe has been announced - Hafod Eryri. I simply cannot wait to hear how this is verbally butchered by tourists..."Ooh its lovely in Wales, there's Betsy co-head, gorgeous place, and Pooth-welly. And now we can go up the mountain to the Hayford Ayereereero...smashing"

Festive feast

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 10:12 AM | add or read comments (0)

I've come to work this morning a bit bleary-eyed but nonetheless exhilarated after last night's fabulous Thousands of Voices Christmas concert at Llangollen.
1,400 Daily Post readers gathered at the International Eisteddfod site for our annual Christmas curtain raiser.
It was a night to remember - some fantastic performances, especially from the kids at Ysgol Eifion Wyn in Porthmadog and, of course, Bryn Terfel. He was just superb - what a voice!
We made an announcement towards the end of the show that there had been some technical problems caused by a power surge. S4C had actually lost the use of a good chunk of their equipment but they did a great job to fix things up and all went fairly smoothly, despite the need for a couple of retakes (which meant we got to hear Bryn et al again, hurray!).
The only problem we have now is - how do we match this next year?

Wet n windy

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 1:35 PM | add or read comments (0)

Global warming? Sounds more like global washing to me. I'm half expecting to see an ark taking shape on the River Conwy.
Needless to say, the Daily Post is on alert for flood reports from across North and mid Wales. All these downpours don't make the business of selling papers any easier (who the heck wants to go out in this weather?).
I get the feeling shops are struggling in the deluge. One supermarket is even flogging off Christmas stock at half price (because no one's buying it, the check-out lady told my wife). And Gordon Brown's a fat lot of help. More expensive petrol...brilliant, that's really going to kick-start the economy.
I've just signed up for a competition in next week's paper - and the first prize is a whopping £5,000. Not bad with Christmas coming...pity I'm not allowed to enter.
Talking of Christmas..if it's your office or works party soon then we want to see your pictures! If you are taking along a camera phone or digital camera you can send us your pictures (and videos) and we will feature them on dailypost.co.uk.
We will have details about how to send in your pictures and vids in the Daily Post tomorrow (Friday).
Go on, embarrass your boss. You know you want to.

Santa Fun Run/Business Awards

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 10:20 AM | add or read comments (0)

An action-packed weekend. Arrived at Oswestry on Sunday morning for the Santa Fun Run. With howling gales and rain coming down sideways I was struggling to see where the "Fun" bit kicked in.
How wrong can you be.
Once all the Santas gathered on the start-line for the warm-up, it was clear this was going to be one of the highlights of the year. There was a superb atmosphere at the start and along the route, with the good folk of Oswestry out in force to cheer us on. I'm really glad I took part and helped to raise some cash for Hope House-Ty Gobaith.
Also very pleased with the way our Achievement Wales busienss awards went on Friday night. I thought the standard of the winners was absolutely fantastic. We have some brilliant entrepreneurs in North and mid Wales and it was a pleasure to honour some of them. A full report will appear in our business section this Wednesday