Chocks away

Hurrah, after almost a week of being grounded, we are free to fly. The Icelandic ash had very little impact on my life but was clearly a miserable time for stranded air passengers and the airlines. And the Government knew that which is why the idea that it sat on its hands deliberately trying to being unhelpful during the middle of an election campaign is ridiculous. In the face of huge pressure, Andrew Adonis, Transport Secretary extraordinaire, took the advice of Civil Aviation Authority and, abiding by the regulations set by aircraft manufacturers themselves, put passenger safety above the commercial well-being of the airlines. Isn't that what we want and expect our politicians to do? Isn't that what they failed to do in the run up to the banking crisis? So why are opposition politicians now criticising Adonis and demanding an immediate inquiry? Would they have seriously overruled the regulator? Their response is an excellent example of why coalition government won't work in Westminster - too many politicians are incapable of resisting the urge to play petty politics when they should be thinking about the public interest.

Ashes to ashes

So day five and we are still in lock down. No flights in or out of the UK and indeed most of Europe. It is pretty amazing. A volcano in Iceland (a country with something of a record of exporting uncertainty) has created havoc. Travellers are stranded across the world including several world leaders who planned to attend the Polish President's funeral. The intrepid Dan Snow's attempt to recreate a Dunkirk like evacuation of British travellers from the French coast has been thwarted apparently by French border officials. If the ash continues to cloud the atmosphere, you can be sure that will be the media will been flamming up stories about supermarkets running out of green beans and roses flown in from Kenya and factories shutting down as they run out of spare parts. Perhaps the most interesting impact of the ash cloud has been to knock the election off the top of the news. Campaign managers and party leaders will be furious. So is this Mother Nature giving us a wake up call? I can just imagine her in something of a Pussy Galore outfit, waving my fist at the planet shouting 'that will teach you to ignore all the other signs I have sent about the dangers of global warning'. Maybe not. But it would do us no harm to use this time when the skies are still to reflect on what we can do to protect our planet from the damage we inflict on it.

X Factor - no thanks

I am not going to write about the debate other than to say that if I worked for Clegg I would sew up his trouser pockets - the Man at C&A look was a bit unattractive from my perspective. No, today's rant is about Gary Barlow. What have I got against the mild-mannered pianist from Take That? Well, today Gary has joined the Conservative election trail to launch "School Stars" which Tory spin doctors described as "an X-Factor style competition to encourage young people to get involved in music". I have written in the past about about the dangers of using celebrities to front campaigns, but I don't think that is the problem with this. What I am upset about is the thinking that what our children need is to be encouraged to become pop stars. Don't we want, don't we need our children to aspire to more than being celebrities? Don't we want them to want to become civil engineers, plumbers, teachers or pharmacists? The idea that we should be reinforcing a Hello-style view that success equals fame regardless of your abilities makes me want to scream. Yes, I want children to enjoy music, to enjoy sport but we also need to make sure they understand that there is more to life than celebrity and that wanting to be a hairdresser, physicist, carpenter or web designer are worthy ambitions.

Watch out Manchester, the circus is in town!

I am easily riled. it does not take much to get my gander up. So you can imagine my mood this morning when I awoke to find that the Today programme was being broadcast from Manchester. I was a little blurry (I always am in the morning) and it took me a moment to understand why. Was this part of the BBC's mission to reflect the diversity of this country's nations and regions? No. It was because 12 hours after the programme has been broadcast, the first television debate between the party leaders will take place in the Granada studios in the city - ie a television programme being broadcast by a rival company. And the Today programme is not alone. It would seem that every single political journalist in the whole of the land is up north. It is preposterous. The debates themselves have been taken over, the 76 rules which will be applied mean that the chances of there being a proper debate are pretty slim so the media has done what it does in these circumstances and turned the whole thing into a media event. So we have Alistair Stewart being interviewed on what it will be like to host the first ever tv debate, vox pop from the streets about what the good burghers of Manchester feel about it (very little it would seem), all manner of punditry on what it will mean. Give me strength. I am sure the debates will be interesting for people like me but I seriously doubt that millions of people will be glued to their sets tonight. It will be tomorrow's reporting that will have an impact as will the YouTube clips of any terrible faux pas committed by Compo, Foggy or Clegg and the acres of write-throughs in the Sundays - God help us all.

Trouble in Rome

What is going on at the Vatican? The powers that be at the Powers That Be appear to have initiated a radical new business development strategy. How else could you possibly explain the half-hearted and poorly executed apology for the handling of child abuse by the church authorities which has battered the reputation of Papa Ratzi and the Vatican for the past few weeks? How else could you explain the latest development in this whole sorry episode - Cardinal Bertone, the Pope's second in command, claiming that there "is a relation between homosexuality and paedophilia"? Could it be that the Vatican is trying to attract customers in new markets? That it believes that this kind of prejudice and complacency will appeal to conservative Catholics particularly in Africa? Or could it be sheer incompetence - they are just really bad communicators with no control over the message and no idea how the story will play out? I am not sure which is worse.

Its a fair cop

The decision by the Labour Party to portray David Cameron as the wonderfully unreconstructed 80s TV cop Gene Hunt was roundly condemned as a positioning error. If they had bothered to talk to anyone outside the party they would have quickly discovered that Gene is admired by exactly the kind of men they are trying to engage with and fancied by lots o women. (I have to confess I am in that category although he doesn't rank as in high on my list men I shouldn't but do secretly fancy as Stringer Bell). The poster has prompted lots of commentary and coverage but possible the best follow up was in yesterday's Mail on Sunday. As well as the regular questions such as "which party is best able to deal with the economic problems", it polled readers on which TV detective most reminded them of Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Gordon was regarded as most like dour (and indeed now dead) Taggart while Dave reminded 46% of those polled of posh detective Lord Peter Wimsey and only 10% of the marvellous Gene. Hilarious. Alas we are not told who which gumshoe Nick Clegg most reminds MoS readers of but the consensus amongst colleagues is Troy from Midsommer Murders.

Working the web Obama-style

I was at a breakfast this morning hosted by NESTA entitled "Will it be the Web Wot Won It?" about the impact of digital communications on the election campaign. There was a consensus that while this time round the impact would be limited, by the time of the next general election (assuming there isn't another one later this year) things would be very different. Of course this is so, although there are legions of pundits telling us otherwise. They cite the success of Barack Obama in engaging millions of people in his election campaign and would have you believe that we are on the verge of a social revolution in this country too. It is utter nonsense. The context in which Obama pulled it off are completely different to the situation we find ourselves in the UK in 2010. The USA has no national print news media to speak of; it is difficult and time-consuming for candidates to make an impact. The absence of a national newspaper and the sheer size of the country means that a higher proportion of people use the web to get their news. Even if this was the case here, the reality is that the structures of the political parties here are too rigid at the moment to allow the kind of engagement that Obama encouraged. In this country if you want to get involved you have to join the party. You have to go to dull party meetings. You have to pay subscriptions. You can't just turn up to a coffee morning, see if you like it, make a few calls or give out a leaflets one Saturday morning. Oh no. But this is what the Obama campaign did so well. They got people to do a little, if they wanted to do more, they could. If they didn't that was fine too. The campaign was also brilliant at keeping people informed about the strategy, themes and activities going on in their area. As a result on the weekend before polling day, 4 million calls were made to voters in swing states by volunteers. It is hard to imagine local party leaders yielding control like that in this country during this campaign. If they want to take best advantage of the opportunities brought by the web, they are going to have to be a bit more relaxed.

Olympic dreams

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Olympic Park for the topping out ceremony at the Olympic Stadium. It was brilliant. I was a topping out virgin but I am told that it was exceptionally good - bagpipes, bells, an evergreen branch, a plaque, noggins of ale and spanners. Fan-bloomin-tastic. The stadium is beautiful, it is breath-taking. It is a wonderful example of how creativity, engineering skill and hard work can produce something amazing.

There was so much cynicism about the whole Olympic project at the outset but the naysayers have so far been proved wrong. The project is on time and on budget. It is regenerating a part of the capital which was desperately in need of investment. Jobs are being created, skills are being improved and something marvellous is being created. And it will have a long lasting impact.

By the time the Games start we hopefully be well out of recession and ready to have a party. I for one can't wait.