That said, I don't entirely agree that Simon Jenkins writing about parking is completely irrelevant. It's interesting to see how the piece plays with the audience, which is why comments ate great. Some people just read him as a stand-up comic, others are annoyed at the London bias, some fact check him…

There are actually other areas of the UK outside of London. In these places that are "not London" the parking terror is not as acute

This had me chortling like a loon at my desk.

Time's up Simon, Jeremy Clarkson wants his act back.

Don't break the law and then you wouldn't get a fine.**** Go and whinge somewhere else

An interesting article investigating the source of the "500 extra deaths claimed by ambulance service" claim. Simon should do a bit more research – it took me 2 minutes to find this.

You'd have to be an idiot to leave your car unlocked with your laptop in it, especially if you live near Kentish Town.

Goodness, commenters are fickle aren't they?
Only two days ago Jenkins was being hailed as the lonely voice of sanity at the Grauniad for his comments on the Forest Gate raid!

Simon you’re just whining because your laptop was stolen and the warden didn’t give a toss.

My concerns are also centred on the fact if we are talking about PR and best practice etc, Julia's conception of the trade through ei (and dare I say in the past) is simply putting PROs/CEOs etc in front of important people. I had hoped the industry had moved on from this. Where's the research, needs-analysis or evaluation? It's all very much a case of: "Oh, you run an important firm, I can get you to dinner with a Times columnist." I thought we had left all that behind – at least in theory!

I also noted that she failed to answer any of the questions directly, apart from my question on whether we as PRs need journalists in the cominng decade. Journalists will always be there (hell I get £100 a month of beer tokens from a column I write!) but as PRs we need to reach our target audiences efficiently, and in a cost-effective effort to create mutual understanding, not sway some pampered Islington columnist with little or no sense and less knowledge. And in case Julia hasn't noticed newspaper sales are declining, new media use, development and content are soaring. I recommend to her the book The World is Flat, which has daft American writing, but a premise that should wake up the late adopters!

Northern cities like Northerners themselves have a style and substance often lacking in their southern counterparts and Leeds, despite its vicious one way system, is no exception.

The city’s enjoyed a great deal of regeneration in recent years …