Thursday 29th January 2015

[Tubby Isaacs]

And needless to say, there was not a single mention of Milburn's interests in private health.

Ian Katz tweeting out the opinion of Julian Legrand, an "ex-Labour advisor". He's been knighted by the Coalition, so not quite the lefty they made him sound.

The only people that Stratton went to for her piece were disaffected Blairites.

I expect in time they'll get round to a few strong critics of Labour for using too much private health in time.

That's the thing, useless old Labour. Always get it wrong. Nobody thinks they strike a decent balance.

[rebeccariots2]

James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers · 1h 1 hour ago
Superb speech from @Ed_Miliband at #westminstercorrespondentsdinner. Another reason for Cameron to dodge those TV debates

And that's from the Mail....

Ed really needs his team to up their game. Burnham did his best. Woodcock seemed very unprepared.

Bizarrely - Hain is, again, being very good on QT. After he wrote such a good article the other day.

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, friends.
I look forward to your words tomorrow.
love
JA

[rebeccariots2]

Andy Cowper @HPIAndyCowper · 54m 54 minutes ago
Newsnight is not handling the Labour health policy agenda with the disinterested impartiality that I would expect.

[TechnicalEphemera]

Andy Cowper @HPIAndyCowper · 54m 54 minutes ago
Newsnight is not handling the Labour health policy agenda with the disinterested impartiality that I would expect.

If Andy Cowper is making statements like that the BBC have over reached themselves.

[LadyCentauria]

Goodnight JA – and PF and AAW – and hello to Grumpy Old Git and justamentalpatient.

I'm slow today but have just caught up. Slightly disappointed that JO'B didn't give us the storming performance we hoped for but he doesn't do that every single day on his own programme. His interuptions seemed fewer than those of other Newsnight presenters. He didn't smarm all over Wollaston. Agree that Woodcock didn't seem on top of the subject. Will catch the rest of the programme later as I switched over for QT where Hain is, mainly, doing a good job. Kate Maltby very strong in her condemnation of the US 'Healthcare' system. And Happy 76th Birthday to Germaine Greer.

And hello to Rednorth, too, whose name I just spotted as our newest member here.

[rebeccariots2]

Andy Cowper @HPIAndyCowper · 54m 54 minutes ago
Newsnight is not handling the Labour health policy agenda with the disinterested impartiality that I would expect.

If Andy Cowper is making statements like that the BBC have over reached themselves.

Quite. Did you see it TE? I'm rarely this angry about TV reporting but to have two programmes in a row that are basically utter hatchet jobs ... disgusting.

Here's what the political editor of the Times said about tonight ...

Michael Savage @michaelsavage · 1h 1 hour ago
Blimey. Quite an evisceration of Labour health divisions on #Newsnight. As tough as anything you'll find in the "right-wing press".

[thatchersorphan]

After 18 months of work and 130,000 pieces of feedback Guardian completes first website redesign since 2007 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/after-18- ... esign-2007" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; The new site is responsively-designed meaning that it is intended to read equally well on mobiles, tablet and desktop computers.


'intended' .....

[rebeccariots2]

After 18 months of work and 130,000 pieces of feedback Guardian completes first website redesign since 2007 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/after-18- ... esign-2007" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; The new site is responsively-designed meaning that it is intended to read equally well on mobiles, tablet and desktop computers.


'intended' .....

read equally well on mobiles, tablet and desktop computers.

Well if the feedback is to be believed - they've achieved that - it's shit on all of them.

[TechnicalEphemera]

If Andy Cowper is making statements like that the BBC have over reached themselves.

Quite. Did you see it TE? I'm rarely this angry about TV reporting but to have two programmes in a row that are basically utter hatchet jobs ... disgusting.

Here's what the political editor of the Times said about tonight ...

Michael Savage @michaelsavage · 1h 1 hour ago
Blimey. Quite an evisceration of Labour health divisions on #Newsnight. As tough as anything you'll find in the "right-wing press".

As I said, nobody watches Newsnight.

Last time I watched it was 2010, once. Before that 97.

[LadyCentauria]

After 18 months of work and 130,000 pieces of feedback Guardian completes first website redesign since 2007 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/after-18- ... esign-2007" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; The new site is responsively-designed meaning that it is intended to read equally well on mobiles, tablet and desktop computers.


'intended' .....

And just below the text of that article are side-by-side images of the old and new front pages. Which one looks cleaner, neater, and more 'intuitively' navigable? The one on the left. The 'old' one. The 'new' one is a mess.

They also say more people are scrolling to the bottom of the page. Yep, that's many of us. Scroll to the bottom of the page to look for the link to the desktop/original version. Discover it's not there. Spot "All topics" so choose that. Use alphabetical list to look for Politics or Society or Disability or Reviews, then scroll for ages through the P, S, D, or R, list wondering why the heck they've included personal names in the list given there was an option to choose All Names right next to All Topics on the page you first started scrolling on. That would be sheer murder on a 'phone or tablet and only works on this (loaned) Macbook because it's got such a brilliantly responsive touch-pad-thingy-whatever-it's-called track-pad that fair whizzes up or down pages as slickly as grease.



Edit 'cause I remembered it's a track-pad...

[LadyCentauria]

And, while I'm at it, why-oh-why-oh-why do I have to scroll back to the top of the article I've just read in order to click there to read the comments, then only get served a handful and have to click on something else in order to get the rest served to me? Were the '45 members of staff' (who, allegedly, worked for 18 months to create the new site) paid-interns who'd been hastily issued with copies of Coding for Dummies (badly translated from the Chinese edition via German) and a copies of Pick-Me-Up magazine and Facebook for design guidance?

Ach!

[refitman]

And, while I'm at it, why-oh-why-oh-why do I have to scroll back to the top of the article I've just read in order to click there to read the comments, then only get served a handful and have to click on something else in order to get the rest served to me? Were the '45 members of staff' (who, allegedly, worked for 18 months to create the new site) paid-interns who'd been hastily issued with copies of Coding for Dummies (badly translated from the Chinese edition via German) and a copies of Pick-Me-Up magazine and Facebook for design guidance?

Ach!

Someone totted it up and reckoned that it has cost them in the region of £750k for the new site. Money well spent

[RogerOThornhill]

Watching This Week and talking about the Cameron use of 'weaponizing' to avoid answering the question I just wish that Ed could come out and say "Mr Speaker, can you get the Prime Minister to just answer the fucking question for once?"

[LadyCentauria]

David Owen on Booktalk was asked whether he was shifting back to the Labour Party said he's always been a Social Democrat and still is, that the Labour Party today is far more attractive to him than it was at the time he left, and that he gave them some money just the other day. I don't think he's going to rejoin them, though. He was on because he's written a book called The Health of the Nation: NHS in Peril. Think I'll put that on my list.

Edit to add: Booktalk or whatever the programme about political books is called on BBC Parliament