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.

The Wookey Hole Witch has got my knickers in a twist. I have spent much of my professional life trying to sell good stories in to the media. Stories which impact on the lives of real people - stories about improvements in the NHS, changing adoption laws, campaigns to get children fit or to fight for the rights of disabled people to name but a few. It is always hard to get a cynical, celebrity-obsessed media interested, particularly in stories where there is not obvious point of conflict - good news isn't news. I know and accept this. So today's Witch coverage has left me in the dither. I have to applaud the PR person who nicked the Tourism Queensland "best job in the world" wheeze and brought it to Somerset. Genius. Even if an cackler is employed at the going rate of £50k a year (which I seriously doubt - the hopefuls all had a drama school air about them if you ask me), it will be money well spent. The coverage has been phenomenal. But I have to ask how has the media been so taken in - the BBC has been broadcasting live down there all day, it is running on Sky and the story has made the print and on-line media. I know we are in the silly season but really?