Kid torturers aren't a sign of Cameron's "Broken Britain", just a sign that people aren't saints.

The locking up of two children responsible for the torture of two other children has caused outrage amongst the public and has been seized by the Tories as being a clear sign that Britain is "Broken". In my humble opinion this is sheer nonsense.

The attack by these two children is horrific for sure, but to say it's symptomatic of a wider problem is the sort of politicking that's become expected of the Conservatives and of David Cameron. To seize upon one incident and use it to your own ends is sick and twisted.Of course these things should be talked about and action should be taken to try and prevent them from happening again, but they've always happened and unfortunately always will.

It's not a sign that Britain has degenerated to some Mad Max style free for all, just that the media like to stoke up shock stories like this. It's the current news bogeyman; the terror on Britain streets, with hoodies and feral pre-teens fed on a diet of drugs, Grand Theft Auto and blue Smarties.

The death of Jamie Bulger was almost a twenty years ago. Is society any worse now than then? No, of course not. It's much the same as it was and as it has been for decades previously. And if Cameron hasn't forgotten, who was in charge when Jamie Bulger was killed? Oh yeah, the Tories.

It's no failing of any political party or of society as a whole. It's just an unwelcome reminder we live in a nasty, violent, horrible world.

We shouldn't forsake our humanity just to make the most of a story.

The Haitian earthquake has been dominating the headlines recently, with hope and misery and life and death all taking up column inches of the paper as bodies and survivors are pulled from the rubble. With most of the worlds media focused on the small Caribbean island, many journalists have flown over to report on the disaster.

CNN's Anderson Cooper is one of these. While there, he saved the life of a small boy who'd been hit on the head with a cinder block. This has raised the question over journalistic interference in Haiti by providing help to locals.

Now, this to me is a simple question to answer. As someone who's training to be a journalist and as someone who's first aid trained, if I saw someone in need of help I'd provide that help, journalism be damned! Yes journalists have a duty to be impartial, but this is a natural disaster and one of the worst on record. It's not like it's a general election where we can be accused of being partial to one party or another, it's a disaster where thousands of people have died. Do we all want to end up like Kevin Carter, visiting places and exploiting them for the news values and doing nothing to help?

I see that video of Anderson Cooper and I feel proud that there are people in my chosen profession who are willing to forsake and rules they may have been taught in order to go and do what's right. It's important to remember that beyond our duties as journalists, we have duties as human beings.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

So that's me done with Uni 2009. It's been a good semester, but I'm glad that it's the holidays now. Ended the year with an exam/test type thing on the stuff we've studied in History and Context of Journalism. I think I managed to do okay. I had a lot more that I wanted to write though. For the first question on modernism I wanted to talk about other modernist writers more and how their work differed from James Joyce's, but didn't get the time. In fact I barely finished on time in the first place, so I'm glad I didn't decide to expand on what I wanted to say!

I'm quite intrigued by this assignment we've been set to do on Newspeak inreal life. I'm not quite sure if it has to be present day or recent history, or if we can go back a bit further like in Soviet Russia and those sorts of places. Regardless, I think it can be a fun task to do. May incorporate Horrie's Random Bullshit Generator as well, who know!

Don't think I'm going to do anything just yet though. May wait until the New Year to do any of my assignments. It'd be nice to actually experience my holiday!

This is the end, beautiful friend.

It's hard to think that WINOL is almost over for the year. We've a special bulletin tomorrow, showcasing the best of our work but after that it'll be a new decade before we're on air again!

It's a shame it has to end so soon, especially as we've really settled in our roles and got comfortable with what we're doing. It's been a really useful exercise, I certainly know now what I want to do in journalism, which is become a sports photographer. Oringally I wanted to work on features but since working on WINOL I've realised that's not really for me. Hopefully I'll be able to sort that out after Christmas as I'd like to join the sports desk and get some first hand experience.

I think we've made the most of the opportunity and have come up with some cracking stories such as our most recent gem, which was the Lib Dem poll rigging on our site. Without the third years after Christmas the pressure's on us to maintain such a high quality of work. Personally I like to think we can do it. We know how this works now and while there may be less of us, I think we know enough to keep the WINOL machine ticking over.

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...