Weather/viral email

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 5:08 PM | add or read comments (0)

Rain, hail and now snow. This global warming is rubbish.

We'll have a full story on the weather situation in tomorrow's edition plus plenty of updates online so keep checking dailypost.co.uk to check on roads and school closures.

Nothing else to add today except I thought I'd let you see this viral email which reached me this morning. A possible ploy if one of Mr B's finest pulls you over on the A470 or the A55...

An older woman gets pulled over for speeding...

Older Woman: Is there a problem, Officer?

Officer: Ma'am, you were speeding.

Older Woman: Oh, I see.

Officer: Can I see your licence please?

Older Woman: I'd give it to you but I don't have one.

Officer: Don't have one?

Older Woman: Lost it, four years ago for drink driving.

Officer: I see...Can I see your vehicle registration please.

Older Woman: I can't do that.

Officer: Why not?

Older Woman: I stole this car.

Officer: Stole it?

Older Woman: Yes, and I killed the owner and and hacked them up.

Officer: You what?

Older Woman: His body parts are in plastic bags in the boot if you want to see.

The officer looks at the woman and slowly backs away to his car and calls for back up. Within minutes five police cars circle the car. A senior officer slowly approaches the car, clasping his half drawn baton.

Officer 2: Ma'am, could you step out of your car please!

The woman steps out of her car.

Older woman: Is there a problem sir?

Officer 2: One of my officers told me that you have stolen this car and murdered the owner.

Older Woman: Murdered the owner?

Officer 2: Yes, could you please open the boot of your car, please.

The woman opens the boot. It is empty.

Officer 2: Is this your car, ma'am?

Older Woman: Yes, here are the registration papers.

The officer is quite stunned.

Officer 2: One of my officers claims that you do not have a driving licence.

The woman digs into her handbag and pulls out a licence.

The officer examines it. He looks quite puzzled.

Officer 2: Thank you ma'am, one of my officers told me you didn't have a licence, that you stole this car, and that you murdered and hacked up the owner.

Older Woman: Bet the liar told you I was speeding, too.

So farewell then Jeremy Beadle

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 7:08 PM | add or read comments (0)

Breaking news from the Press Association. Jeremy Beadle has died after suffering pneumonia.

I have an email account with PA who fire out an endless volley of one line "snaps" about breaking news.

A lot of them are not too exciting but a few times each day something catches your eye and I have this uncontrollable urge to rush out of my office and tell everyone.

So now everyone here knows about poor Mr Beadle. A story will appear on the national pages tomorrow although the general consensus was that his passing wasn't worth a page lead on our national pages.

I guess that depends whether or not you are a fan of Beadle's About. Couldn't abide it myself.

Celebrity. It reminds me of a conversation between two sub editors I overheard in the canteen at the Bristol Evening Post which went something like this...

Sub A: "Well I can't understand what all the fuss is about. I don't see why him dying is a front page story."
Sub B: "I know, I've never heard of his group. I mean it's not like a Beatle has died or anything."

The dead pop star in question?

Freddie Mercury, of that passing fancy, soon to be forgotten beat combo Queen.

• Tags:
• Freddie Mercury
• Jeremy Beadle
• Press Association

Tiswas or Swap Shop?

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 11:02 PM | add or read comments (0)

I must declare an interest in the front page of Thursday's edition which details, among other stories, the misery of what happens when the A55 is shut during the evening rush hour. A lorry crash between Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay was the cause…and I was one of the thousands of drivers caught in the midst of Wednesday night’s ensuing traffic snarl-up.

I was returning to North Wales from my recruitment training course at HQ in Liverpool. An interesting and informative day, although it was strange to be appraised about something I’ve been doing for 15 years and more. Well, if you can’t do it, you’d better not flaunt it.

I’m annoyed with myself for failing to offer my “duality” theory for interviews. In a nutshell, this involves a simple multiple choice test in which the interviewee gets two choices – with their answers governing their destiny.
For example, which would you choose?
A) City or United?
B) Tiswas of Swap Shop?
C) Cat or Dog?
D) Lager or bitter?
E) Which to read out loud as a group - “Wind in the Willows” or “Stig of the Dump”? a question posed to me and my colleagues by Mr Booth, he with ginger hair and big flairs and teacher of class four, second year, Hursthead Juniors, 1974. The vote went 28 to 2, leaving me and Steve Luty rather disappointed

No pressure for the folks coming for interview as a reporter but unless your idea of a good day is going for a long walk in the lashing rain carrying a plastic bag for picking up poo, while whistling Blue Moon and planning an evening supping CAMRA recommendations and musing on the humour of Compost Corner and the recklessness of Mr Toad, then don’t bother turning up.
(Only joking, by the way. So hold the tribunals).

• Tags:
• A55
• reporter
• Swap Shop
• Tiswas

Barmy embargo

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 1:39 PM | add or read comments (0)

Reporter Steve Bagnall played a blinder yesterday to secure our front page scoop for today's edition - the first interview with the pathologist at the centre of the biopsy blunders at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

The story of the cock up, in which cancer sufferers were wrongly given a clean bill of health ,"broke" at 10.30 am yesterday. That was the embargo deadline the hospital trust put on a story which was circulated to the media the night before. Now, a 10.30 am is about as much use to a morning newspaper as a chocolate fireguard. In pre-internet times we would have been left sitting on our thumbs for the best part of 21 hours waiting for the next edition to be published before we could reach our readers with this story.

dailypost.co.uk gave us the chance to break the news simultaneously with the BBC and the wesbite of the evening newspaper in Wrexham. But the fact remains that our biggest audience (and in fact the biggest audience for any print publication in North Wales) is the print edition of the Daily Post. We tried without success on Tuesday night to have the embargo deadline brought forward to earlier on the day so we could run the story on Wednesday along with everyone else.

So we were a bit cheesed off to to say the least. But as I said, we were able to get into the mix yesterday thanks to the website. And we did something very important in today's edition.

We took a story that was already in the public domain, moved it forward dramatically and analysed it more thoroughly than anyone else. Steve, news editor Debbie James and her deputy Rob Davies deserve much credit for this, as does deputy editor Andy Gilpin who designed the fabulous front page and the "spread" on pages four and five.

We like to be first - and we also like to be the best.

• Tags:
• Daily Post
• North Wales
• wrexham maelor

Busy with breaking news

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 1:25 PM | add or read comments (1)

A hectic news week with more than its fair share of drama and tragedy.
This has certainly been reflected in the amount of traffic on our website - with record levels of people visiting and record levels of those coming back for more.
We have expanded our digital operation and have been stepping up the volume of breaking news coverage on the site with the news agenda changing throughout the day. So to plug ourselves, make sure you come back more than once a day because you never know what you might find!

We are currently advertising a job for a reporter with the Daily Post. I must make sure I am up to speed on all the latest rules and regulations governing recruitment. One key introduction last year was to put the age of applicants out of bounds, although it is not exactly rocket science to work out someone's approximate age from the school and employment details on their CV. Besides, if they are the best person for the job, who cares?

I recall once being interviewed for a management position on another newspaper when I was grilled for three hours, not just about my journalistic ability but my sexual orientation, marital status, political persuasion, religious conviction..and my willingness to resign from a trade union if offered the post. Can anyone tell me how many employment laws were broken during those three hours?

Radio Wales and Ninja Turtles

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 2:50 PM | add or read comments (0)

I took my turn again on BBC Wales's late morning show with Jamie and Louise today - if I carry on like this I will become a fully fledged media tart.
We were discussing, among other matters, the appointment of Wales' Commissioner for Older People, featured on page two of the Daily Post today (and on the front of the Western Mail). I was more than happy to sing the praises of the Welsh Assembly Government in making this "world first" appointment.
The needs of the older members of society are dreadfully neglected. That's an unacceptable state of affairs and as our population continues to age, it can only get worse without decisive action. But Ruth Marks' appointment will be meaningless unless she fights her corner hard and gets the right support from the public and private sector. She'll certainly get plenty of support from the Daily Post and we wish her all the best.

The discussion also reached into our classified section, traditionally packed in the New Year with unwanted Christmas gifts, none of which can explain the two examples I quoted - the sale of an unwanted Princess of Wales figurine and a Ninja Turtles truck. They sound like gifts from Christmas 1990.

• Tags:
• Radio Wales
• Ruth Marks
• Welsh Assembly Government

Whale of a time

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 1:22 PM | add or read comments (0)

IT's going to be a January without booze.
And chocolate.

I didn't dare walk Max on the beach this morning in case Greenpeace tried to throw me in the water and feed me plankton.

Anyway, enough of my Christmas overindulgence. It was a delight to see so many national newspapers following our exclusive yesterday about Sian Lloyd's hush hush wedding in North Wales.
One Wales-based character whose comments continue to attract many column inches of national coverage (and whatever is the web equivalent of column inches) is Mr Brunstrom and his "E is safer than A" comments on the Today programme.
Chwarae teg - he certainly knows how to put the issue on the table, sparking lots of earnest articles asking how dangerous IS ecstasy.

At our morning conference today, acting picture editor Jeff Pitt mused over whether this meant he should now be taking ecstasy for headaches. The general consensus was that it would still be easier to go to Boots for asipirin than to find some shady character at a rave club every time you felt a migraine coming on.
But what does E cure, exactly? pondered Jeff.
Various suggestions were made, the favourite being...chronic shyness.

Another MP has called for the chief con's dismissal but we won't be getting too excited about that in tomorrow's edition. What we do have is the disgrace of a former Coast FM radio DJ in court for grooming schoolgirls on the web.
We're also looking at Conwy Council's plans for primary school re-organisation. Apparently, 16 schools will be less than half full by 2012 - and that has to mean closures.