The Guardian – no matter how in to ‘online’ I am, nothing beats a physical newspaper. It’s so much more enjoyable and easier to read and browse. You can quickly scan stories that you wouldn’t normally be interested in and would otherwise never read. The Guardian’s my daily, but I also sporadically enjoy and buy the Times, Telegraph, Financial Times and Daily Mail (brilliantly produced and a brilliant insight in to how totally bonkers some people actually are!). The only serious paper I’d never buy is the Independent, which personally I find dull beyond belief.

PR Week (via CIPR membership) – PR Week goes through phases. In the early 90s it was good, it then hit the doldrums for several years, but over the last three to four years has become great and is now an essential weekly read.

Yorkshire Post – still one of the UK’s most important and influential regional papers with strong investigative reporting holding local councils, businesses and universities to account. It covers the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber.

Yorkshire Evening Post – the evening newspaper for Leeds. I’ve got to admit that because of staff cuts it’s not as good as it used to be. But it’s still essential reading and a good example of how essential it is to cherish our local newspapers.

Rothwell Record – a full colour, glossy magazine for the small town of Rothwell and its surrounding villages (including Carlton where I live). If it isn’t in the Record, it probably hasn’t happened. It has a £1.20 (I think without a copy next to me) and lots of adverts, mainly from local businesses offering essential services like plumbers, pubs, builders, carpet sales etc. It’s a tremendous community resource and gives a full page to the local neighbourhood policing team – which means local people know how important PCSOs actually are, despite the constant inaccurate reporting about them in most of the national press.

If I hadn’t started that blog I might never have started Wolfstar. It would be great to be able to say that I started the blog because of my amazing intuition and foresight. But unfortunately it wouldn’t be true.

In truth it was probably laziness that made me start the blog. From 1998 to 2005 I was a elected local councillor on Leeds City Council. When I was first elected as a councillor I did something that was extremely unusual at the time and started a councillor website. As I’m not a professional designer or coder this was actually quite hard work and if I’m honest wasn’t particularly brilliant.

That’s why when I first came across ‘blogging’ I was intrigued as I thought, that sounds a lot easier than running my website. And so my first blog was born. It was the first councillor blog in the UK and the third political blog – former Lib Dem MP Richard Allan (now European Head of Public Policy for Facebook) and Labour MP Tom Watson were first and second respectively.

It didn’t take long for The Guardian to find my blog and in July 2003 it ran a profile about the UK’s first blogging councillor. As The Guardian article indicates my councillor blog deliberately wasn’t like many of today’s political blogs. It was determinedly focused on local issues that mattered to people in Leeds and more specifically my ward of Middleton (later Middleton Park) in south Leeds.

But my blog wasn’t just about the minutia of being a local councillor. That sort of the thing is for officers. You can’t run a good councillor blog without being political. It was when I was being highly political about local issues that my blog always received the most attention and engagement. Despite popular belief local politics is party political. That’s one of the problems with many of the official efforts to get councillors blogging. Because they are official they have to be a politics free zone (otherwise the local authority would be accused of funding party political campaigning). But you can’t take the politics out of it. Even seemingly mundane decisions such as when the road sweepers visit can actually be highly political (the Tories want the leafy suburbs to be pristine and don’t care about the council estates).

The other important thing I learnt from my councillor blog was the massive impact what you do online can have on what happens offline. The intention of my councillor blog was never to get all 16,000 of the local electors to read it. What I did want (and succeeded in) was to get local ‘influencers’ to read it. If they knew properly about what I was doing then they could talk face to face to other people in the community. That’s why I was pleased that people like the chairs and secretaries of residents associations read it, the local vicar read it, the local neighbourhood policing team read it (and even asked me to write about them!) All these people then went out and spread the word for me.

The success of my councillor blog meant that it didn’t take long before it dawned on me that blogs weren’t just about making my life easier, but also had enormous potential for my day job as a public relations consultant… but that’s a story for another blog post.

Cross-posted to Stuart Bruce on the World, my political blog.

We started the evening with two excellent cocktails, made by a friendly and helpful bartender. Karen wanted a Passionate Fizz (funkin passion fruit and passion fruit liqueur with a hint of lemon, shaken and stirred into Duval Leroy Champagne), but no luck as the cocktail maestro was out of passion fruit. She ended up with a Strawberry Fizz, very nice, but not that different to champagne cocktails available at lots of other places. I wanted one of the selection of rather fine sounding whisky (from Scotland, note the spelling!) cocktails, but decided to help celebrate American Independence Day with a bourbon-based tipple. I was spoilt for choice with options that included a good old-fashioned Old Fashioned or a temptingly refreshing Pomegranate and Mint Julep. In the end I opted for the intriguingly named Gingerbread Manhattan (Woodford’s Reserve Kentucky whiskey stirred with gingerbread syrup, Maraschino cherry syrup, Punt Y Mes and Angostura bitters). It was very nice, but I’d have preferred a little bit more hint of ginger. All of the other flavours were pronounced, but the gingerbread syrup was so subtle I’d never have guessed it was there if it didn’t say so on the menu. Strangely delicious, but disappointing all in one glass.

Then it was upstairs to the pleasantly appointed Dining Room where we got to share a nice private booth with comfy leather benches. One of the best bits of the evening was the very friendly and attentive waiters and waitresses who provided sterling service throughout the evening. The tasting menu had a tempting array of starters. The most delicious by far were the beer battered tiger prawns with a sweet chilli sauce and wasabi. Piping hot with really crisp and light batter encasing juicy prawns. The sweet chilli dip was deliciously spicy (at most places they are usually they far too sweet) and the smudge of green wasabi delivered the knock-out punch you’d expect. The marinated Italian olives were plump, succulent and delicious. The houmous with toasted sesame seeds and grilled pitta bread was far tastier than the bland pulp that passes for houmous at far too many places.

The honey and mustard glazed baby sausages were disappointing. It’s hard to find anything else to say about them. When the centre of attraction is meant to be the sausage, you expect really good sausages. These were just bland, meaty yes, but with no distinguishing feature. With a such a bland centre piece the honey and mustard glaze couldn’t hope to add a shine. And now we come to the teriyaki chicken skewers with a satay sauce. Sounds good doesn’t it? Unfortunately a more accurate description would have been grilled chicken with a smattering of sesame seeds and some indeterminate brown sauce.

One of my standard tests in any restaurant is the ‘Can I make this at home”. The Living Room passed with flying colours for the beer battered tiger prawns as I couldn’t come close to replicating them, they were simply delicious. I could have done the olives if I could find the right deli. I could have done the houmous, but that’s only because it’s one of my specialities. The honey and mustard sausages would have been delicious if they can find a better butcher who can actually make tasty sausages! I don’t know what they were trying to do with the teriyaki chicken. How can you go wrong on such a simple dish? It should have been packed with flavour, instead you might as well as been at a fast-food joint.

So after an array of starters that pleased and satisfied more than it disappointed, it was on to the mains. The sea bass baked en papillote in a clam and shellfish bisque, with lemon roasted fennel was simply delicious. The sea bass was perfectly cooked and the bisque added an amazing kick the whole ensemble. It was Karen’s favourite dish, but she is a fish lover. I’m not a big fish fan, but still found it sublime. The miniature steak, ale and mushroom pie was perfect. Juicy, tender steak in a rich gravy, topped with a sliver of puff pastry. It was just right as part of a tasting menu. The mushroom and ricotta ravioli with parmesan sauce was a bit of a disappointment. The pasta was just a bit too heavy and therefore overwhelmed the very subtle mushroom and ricotta filling. The parmesan sauce lacked, well parmesan.

And now we come to, what was for me, la pièce de résistance – the roasted pork belly with grain mustard mash and caramelised parsnip with a red wine sauce. It normally comes on the ‘Home Comforts’ part of the standard Living Room menu, but you’d have to be a very accomplished cook to do it as well as this. The crackling was crispy and golden with just the right amount of salt, breaking off to reveal the succulent pork with just the right amount of fat. Simply splendid. Roast belly pork is always something that tempts me on a menu, but I’m often put off by the fact that it is accompanied by mashed potato. I’m not a big potato fan and can only eat mash if it is perfectly cooked – and it never is. Except on this occasion. It was delicious with just the right consistency and the perfect amount of grain mustard.

And the Caesar salad was just a nice Caesar salad. Crispy lettuce, crunchy croutons and lots of parmesan (maybe that’s why there wasn’t any in the parmesan sauce for the pasta). Just what you’d want. as a refreshing accompaniment to the rich selection of delights on offer.

And now we come to the pudding where we were encouraged by the friendly waiter to continue the theme and go for a sharing board of summer desserts… a warm chocolate and orange pudding, crème brulee, blueberry cheesecake, lemon meringue, strawberries with clotted cream and ice-cream. Oh dear. This was a massive fail on every level. The warm chocolate and orange pudding was dry and tasteless with too much of it even though it was a tiny taster size. We were warned there was no crème brulee, so we were offered extras of other items. The blueberry cheesecake was just disgusting. I’d be amazed if the pile of goo on top actually was made out of blueberries – it was simply very sweet, unidentifiable goo. The cheesecake would have disgraced the cheap and cheerful range at a supermarket. The biscuit base was soggy and the cheesecake had a fluffy, foamy texture as if it had been frozen. The lemon meringue was acceptable, nothing wondrous, but at least it was edible. And finally the strawberries with clotted cream and ice-cream. Surely you can’t go wrong? Well you can if you forget the clotted cream. The strawberries and ice-cream were nice.

Overall I’d score The Living Room 6 out of 10. It would have been 7.5 if it hadn’t been for the truly terrible desert board, which seriously let down what had been a really good meal. The only other minor criticism was that the music was just a bit too loud to enable comfortable conversation.

DISCLAIMER: We ate at The Living Room courtesy of The Living Room as part of the Leeds Loves Food festival organised by Marketing Leeds, which is a client. If you want to take part in the Leeds Loves Food Twitter competition then all you’ve got to do is tweet your 140 character restaurant review and include the hash tag #LLF. 

On Thursday I Twittered my support for the striking journalists on the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post who are facing redundancy.

I was delighted by the almost instant response from Yorkshire’s public relations professionals with lots of colleagues from other PR firms and in-house departments quickly tweeting their support. During my lunch break I went down to join the picket line, as I understand did PRs from Finn Communications and Ptarmigan PR. At Wolfstar we’ve also sent some chocolate biscuits down to the picket line to help keep our friends well nourished (see this story on the official strike blog).

So far I think the campaign has had support from PRs at: Wolfstar, Finn Communications, Green PR, Hatch Communications, Fox Communications, Ptarmigan PR, Staniforth PR (Manchester), Yorkshire Water, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

Apologies if I’ve missed anyone, feel free to add you support in the comments.

My reason for supporting the journalists is two-fold:

1. Respect and friendship for the work they do and the value it has for me as a PR professional.
2. Defending local democracy, business and society. Despite the growth of the internet (which after all is the foundation of my business) I still strongly believe in the importance of a strong local press.

Just two examples of how important the YEP and the YP are:

1. The Yorkshire Post’s excellent coverage of Stylo plc’s financial problems – the FT and quality broadsheets couldn’t hope to compete because they don’t know the company and its personalities.
2. The Yorkshire Evening Post’s many stories by Peter Lazenby exposing the dangers of far-right extremists targeting local council seats.

You can read more and leave your messages of support on the official blog at http://ypchapel.wordpress.com.

UPDATE: It’s worth watching this short video to hear from the NUJ’s Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stannistreet and the YEP Father of Chapel Peter Lazenby.

Most telling for me was chief strategist, David Axelrod, talking about the difficulties of campaigning against friends in Primaries or internal party elections. Axelrod had worked for Hilary Clinton in her first Senate campaign and now found himself working on the other side.

I had exactly that experience when I worked as Director of Communications for Alan Johnson in the Labour deputy leadership elections. Hilary Benn, another of the six candidates, is an old friend of mine and as a Labour Party staff member I worked as his campaign manger in the Leeds Central by-election where he first won his seat.

XP: Wolfstar blog

OpenSkies is a new airline from British Airways and it has launched not with a traditional website, but with flyopenskies a business blog where they invite you to “join the conversation” and say they want to try and be open about the process of starting the new business.

My old friend Simon Collister has an interesting post about his just completed CIPR diploma dissertation on “whether political bloggers in the UK have an influence on the media agenda of broadsheet newspapers”. I look forward to reading the full dissertation which Simon is going to publish as a PDF.

Chris Edwards, chief executive of Education Leeds, is someone I know and admire from the days when I was a local councillor. He is now a very prolific blogger at his Interesting Times! blog. After spending the day at BETT with a client I read that Education Leeds and Bluewave SWIFT were winners of the prestigious BETT award for ‘Supporting Institutional Leadership and Management Solutions’.

The always interesting Colin Byrne, CEO of Weber Shandwick, has a good post on online politics about both the Labour Party and the Conservatives appointing advertising agencies, both of which are looking digital marketing strategies. I can’t help but wonder if ad agencies are the right people to assist with this and if public relations consultants might not be better qualified.

PR Week reports (behind a pay wall) that “public affairs chief” Steve Morgan of Morgan Allen Moore is “commuting between London and the US to work for Hillary Clinton”. Given what’s happening with Labour deputy leadership contender Peter Hain I suspect some people think he should be spending some more time in the UK.

Full Disclosure: I was director of communications for Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Health, and the deputy leadership contender who narrowly lost to Harriet Harman.

XP: Wolfstar pack blog

See you there?

I’m not a big fan of Second Life, but I do recognise its potential and this is a good way of benefiting from the opportunity. Second Life citizens (audiences) might be tiny, but they and Second Life carry influence way beyond their size.

Why can’t Marketing Leeds be this creative? I live in Leeds and know it is a vibrant, dynamic city heaving with creative, financial, legal, scientific, technological and marketing talent. You’d never guess any of this from Marketing Leeds’ efforts, which make the city look like its stuck in the 1990s.

As an aside I’m speaking about social media at a Manchester Digital event on March 7 – I’ll post more later.

Thanks to The Register for alerting me to the fact I need to wear my woolly jumper today as the BBC forecasts temperatures will plummet to 3°C.

Technorati : BBC, Leeds, The Register