Inspector Gadget explains why the politicians should listen to us bloggers on the front lines.

The news he references are

Former Army chief criticises MoD

Half of Asbo holders breach order

Knife Amnesties 'have no effect'.

And no, I had nothing to do with this. I only really do 'crap' jobs (recent posts not withstanding), so if the government wanted a quiet London they'd just post me to drive around in circles all day.

Technorati Tags: blogging, politics

For those who saw the 'Imagine' programme the other day, the diligent Stuart Burns over at Feelinglistless has created an exhaustive annotation on the programme .

I found the programme funny as I was interviewed for around an hour and a half, and I think I got thirty-six words on screen. And I'm not jealous of Towerhill station which had much more screentime than yours truly.

But I had a laugh being interviewed, so it's all good for me - it's also one of the few times Laura has managed to see me this week...

It's our station's Christmas party tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to, not least because I get to spend some time with Laura.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Imagine, Internet, television

You are invited to a meeting of 'the cream' of the British web, the evening has no real agenda besides 'chatting and seeing what happens'.

So, what sort of set-up do you expect?

Well, the free vodka was a good idea, but putting everyone in a room with pounding music so you can't hear what is being said is possibly not a good idea. Add in the fact that the room is incredibly dark, so half deaf people like me can't lip-read and you have a badly thought out location.

So what do us incredibly intelligent 'cream' do? Clever buggers to a soul, we all decamp outside where it is well lit and there are tables.

...And then the DJ followed us out into the light and pounded us with stupidly loud Dance. For the second time while surrounded by tech people the suggested solution was to disconnect the speakers.

Instead we brave the cold, and like a group of dispossessed smokers we hang around the entrance chatting and 'networking'.

The meet up was a vague affair, done in part to promote 'The Webby's', which is apparently some web based award ceremony. The end date for nominations is the 15th of December and I suspect that they want a few more. Each nomination costs between $150-$250 to be entered. With 5,500 nominations last year, and 15 new categories, it's an idea I wish I'd had...

But the night was good for the excellent people that I met. The first person that I knew was Ian Forrester, who has just designed some rather cool T-shirts. What is nice is that he turns up to all the things that I do and is a constant friendly face. Ian introduced me to Walid Al Saqqaf who (over the pounding music) told me about Trusted Places. Now this is a great idea (and I have signed up), it is a peer review site for cafes, restaurants, bars and cultural places and has a really mature number of features. He has challenged me to find a better kebab shop than Best Mangel...

I also *finally* had a chance to say hello to Tom Coates, we've often shared a place, but I've never been able to talk to him. I think I managed a few words before I was dragged away by a wild haired Rob Manuel of B3ta fame - many, many moons ago he suggested that someone scoop me up for a book deal, so you could say that he 'discovered' me. He also roundly abused me for forgetting to link to my interview I did for him. Something I can rectify here. Some of the answers are vaguely tongue in cheek. Apparently his book is selling better than mine, which makes me glad that we aren't in a zero sum game.

I also managed to chat with Tom Armitage (who has the coolest blog title ever) and Meg Pickard who does lots of interesting stuff on the web. I also managed to meet Suw who, with the release yesterday of the Gower's report has been run ragged.

I also managed to chat with Joel Veitch who does those superb web animations. He's also done one for a charity, which when released I'll link to.

So yes, a bloody fun evening despite the loud music and dark lighting.

Technorati Tags: ICA, blogging, webby

Norman Geras is one of the more respected British Bloggers out there and he asked me to do one of his profiles. If you are interested you can find it here. All of which reminds me that I need to update the 'About Me' page on this site...

I've been a bit lapse in blogging of late, partly because it's been one of the few occasions when I could spend time with Laura (and it will be weeks before I can see her properly again, something that I'm not happy about), and partly I've just been completely overflowing with procrastination. Never mind - I'm looking to blog every day until the new year. Plus do 'other stuff'.

Now to ambulance things.

I love Google, I really do. It does a wonderful job and helps me out in nearly endless ways.

But.

It seems that more and more calls that I go to have a computer running in the background. These computers are often displaying a 'health information' webpage. While I think that having readily available information is a good thing, it is important to be able to interpret that information. It is not enough to read and understand the words that are shown on screen, it needs to be filtered through some form of expert knowledge, even if it is just the skill to use a bit of common sense.

Take for instance a job I went to recently. The patient is a fit and healthy 25 year old. He works on a building site and this involves plenty of heavy lifting. For the last two weeks he has had pain in his left arm. He'd already been to A&E because he was afraid that it was something serious. The hospital did plenty of medical tests, all of which came back normal.

So, why was he calling for an ambulance when the illness was so old? He'd looked on a web-site and it had mentioned that left arm pain can be caused by having a heart attack. He'd read this, then started to have a minor panic attack, as he continued reading it also told him that difficulty in breathing is also a symptom of a heart attack.

Now - most people would realise that, given his history, it would be very unlikely that he would be having a heart attack lasting two weeks. But this patient read the webpage uncritically and so convinced himself that the cause of his pain was cardiac in nature.

Obviously this was one of our high priority calls, so the FRU car was already there although we weren't too far behind. All I could really do for the patient was to reassure him, check his vital signs and symptoms, and then drive him to hospital so that he could be 'checked out'. He was a nice enough bloke and he accepted that some of his symptoms were caused by his fear, so for me it is an easy job and one that got me off shift on time.

I think that you need to develop an easy-going attitude to these sorts of calls, you can get very annoyed by these calls that seem like a waste of time. I just put it down to fear and lack of knowledge, not something a lot of people can do much about.

however with that lack of knowledge rather unfortunately often comes a lack of critical thinking about what turns up on an internet search. While Google can be helpful, it isn't the be all and end all, you still need people who can interpret it, after all 15 out of 26 diagnosis isn't that good a hit rate.

I was at the preview screening of Hallam Foe last week, invited by the lovely Gia. (I'm not going to review the film as it was still a rough cut, but while I normally like my films to have spaceships and explosions I was enthralled by this film. I would recommend it. I also loved the soundtrack.)

There were 33 of us, bloggers in the main with a lot of familiar faces. Someone remarked that it was the 'A List' of British blogging - something that troubled me a little.

You see, the thing that I love about blogging is that it is something that evolved without hierarchies (apart from my now horribly dated joke). It came about, in part, as a way to build communities without leaders. Every voice is equally valued, everyone has the same chance. It just makes me a bit itchy to think about how some people have been elevated to the 'A List'.

The thing that does give me hope though is this - All the people who I personally know via blogging are all lovely people, something that I was talking with Euan about this very thing. I believe that blogging self selects nice people. If the definition of 'nice people' includes willing to listen to other people, to consider their viewpoints and to examine and challenge your own thoughts then, if not predisposed towards this before starting blogging then the process of blogging will teach you how to do this.

Maybe I think too much, maybe my blood sugar is too low - but I get vaguely embarrassed at there being an 'A List', and even more embarrassed that I might be considered part of it.

Another blogger has been stopped from writing. In the grand scheme of things where people are killed for their words not too important but nevertheless not good in a 'free' society.

I'm a big fan of police blogging, hardly a day goes past without me working with the police on one call or another. So I know that they are human beings with the same frustrations and concerns as the rest of us. Unfortunately they come in for a lot of criticism from the press and are unable to respond. Their PR department seems to prefer 'spin' and 'whitewash', playing the violins while the Titanic sinks rather than providing the truth of police work. The police blogs give us an insight into a secretive world where their hands are tied by the government and this has prevented them from making the real difference that many of them joined the service to do.

The police management have a habit of shutting down the blogs though, perhaps they can't see how well they humanise the police services. No longer is the harassed copper who comes to take your details a uniformed cog in the machine, but is instead someone who is so buried under paperwork and government targets that they can't help you no matter how much they would like to.

It looks like another police blog is in danger of disappearing, Inspector Gadget is to have an 'informal chat' with the Professional Standards Unit. His sources tell him that this will be about the blog, and that he may be in some serious trouble.

At no point has he brought the Police Service into disrepute, he has not interfered with any investigation (ongoing or in the past) and his blog has shown people the world over the struggles and strains of trying to serve the public while facing unreasonable pressures from government. He tells the truth without it being whitewashed with 'spin'. The should be no reason why his bosses should want it removed.

This leads onto the wider question as to why the Police hierarchy don't like the truth being told. Nor why members of the police seem to have their Human Right of freedom of speech and expression removed from them.

Please, go over to his site, read the archives to see what a great blog it is and leave a comment of support. He deserves it, and hopefully with a show of public support it may demonstrate to his seniors why we need police bloggers.

It would be a terrible loss to see him disappear like 'The Law is an Ass', or 'Brian's Brief Encounters'.

Why can't they be as blog friendly as the London Ambulance Service?

Right... It's taken all day but I should have answered all the emails that needed answering. If you were expecting something from me and haven't got it - you'd better resend the email.

I am such a slacker...