Today I vent spleen at the Royal Mail.

I never thought I'd actually write a blog ranting about the Royal Mail. Normally I'm quite the fan of our ol' posties, but this week they've royally got on my tits. 

I ordered a new pair of earphones online last week but I missed the postman on the Saturday morning that it got delivered. According to the little card they put through my door, it was being left at the Royal Mail Delivery Office on the other side of the city (despite there being at least two post offices nearer to my house but oh well).

Went up on Saturday only to find it shut (thought it might be, but you never know). Deciding I'd go this morning I caught the bus (£3.60 ticket to boot) due to it pissing it down and thought I might finally get my earphones.

It boded well, the place was actually open this time which was nice. However, it then went rapidly downhill.

Apparently they don't even have my parcel! After getting a card saying it's at the delivery office it turns out that's a load of bullshit. According to the man at the desk (who,  to give him his due, was very helpful and apologetic) it could either still be with the postman or could be at the post office just up the road from my house. 

If it's still with the postman, why is it still with him and if it's at my post office, why the hell didn't he put on the card that that's where it was?!

I left them my number so they can contact me when they finally find out where my parcel and when they do ring up I have every intention of telling them what I think! If this is the type of service that we can expect from the Royal Mail then I hope the next government does privatise the Royal Mail. Perhaps then we can expect to get our post!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1! We have lift-off!

Yesterday saw the launch of the second and third years collective baby; WINOL. After two dummy runs the previous two weeks, confidence was high in the newsroom of a fantastic first live airing. I'm glad to say we didn't disappoint and all went well! Word on the street (okay, the word of my girlfriend) is that it was a good broadcast so it's not just me being big headed.

Despite being beset with difficulties and unexpected problems (such as our main presenter being ill, network and loan counter problems etc) we soldiered on and put out a news broadcast we can all be proud of.

It's weird viewing the bulletin from the point of view of a feature writer. The news, sport and production desks and the people who work on it are a flurry of activity trying to get packages done and dusted. However, us feature writers aren't quite as pressured. Sure, we have our own stories to get in and editing and the like to do, but it seems we spend a fair whack of time on a Wednesday trying to assist the other desks in any stuff they need doing.

Obviously the more we do this the better we'll become. I just hope that we don't get really settled into our roles just as we have to leave them after Christmas. Not quite sure how we're going to be running it all on our own as well. Oh well, we'll manage, we're journos.

Democracy Live!

Having been recently introduced to the BBC's 'Democracy Live' page I thought I'd have a bit of a gander and see how useful it is as a tool for democracy (and also how useful it is to Journo's!).

'Democracy Live' is a new feature on the BBC that allows people to view Parliamentary meetings for all the major parliaments relevant to Britain, such as the Commons, the Lords, European Parliament and the various assemblies. These are broadcast live online and then recorded and aired when proceedings have finished. Furthermore, this content isn't restricted to those living in Britain either; you can access the website and live streams anywhere.

I personally think that stuff like this is fantastic. It opens up the democratic process to the public and they also get access to the European Parliament, something that people may not take as much interest in as they possibly should (especially with the Lisbon Treaty coming into effect).

I just hope that the public actually makes use of this facility. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to see how politics is played out and to really engage in the democractic process. Admittedly, things like PMQ's have become little more than a chance for some opportunistic soundbites, but still, the thought's there...