Opinion: My first day as a 'journalist'
This is one contributor's account of their first day in the role as a local journalist - not to be mistaken for a neutral report. Journeys were delayed. Cabinet members showed their temper. And Ipswich, somehow, came out looking better than Romford.
Yesterday was quite an experience for my first day as a ‘journalist’. First of all, I was stuck at Hatfield on the Greater Anglia for 1 ½ hours cause two idiots decided it would be a good idea to goof around on the tracks (two grown men). Then after we got going again…..it terminated at Colchester…..I was over an hour late on the first day, a good way to start any work. I understand that you have to make sure these two morons are off the track, but there is no way it should've taken as long as it did. I can't explain to you why it terminated at Colchester; the train driver didn't explain; he was probably daydreaming about going on strike again and forgot to tell us.
I was then summoned to the Suffolk County Council to report on an extraordinary meeting about a judicial review, looking at the proposal to turn 6 Suffolk councils from a two-tier system into a 3 unitary council model. I knew that it was going to be fun, as it was a Reform majority-led council and even if they don't mean to, they always put a smile on your face.
First of all, Reform councillors spoke passionately about why they believed a 3 unitary model was a bunch of horse shit. They spoke about how the secretary of state for local government had ignored advice from civil servants who recommended one unitary council. Look, I'm no fan of Reform, but they do have a right to be annoyed at this. Civil servants are there to ensure that essential services run smoothly. If they have given plausible advice that a 3 unitary council won't work financially, that is something that you cannot ignore. Knowing the Labour government, they were probably waiting for someone to kick up a fuss about the lack of evidence to support their council reforms, and then do a massive U turn.
There was a fiery discussion as Michael Hadwen said to Sally Mittuch (Green Councillor) that she ‘‘May not care about vulnerable people.’’ It was quite interesting to see the discussions between the different councillors and the questions posed before Hadwen. He done the classic Reform thing of resorting to insults rather than formal debate that Reform have picked up from their daddy, Donald Trumpet.
To be fair to him though, he was asked the same question about three times, which was asking about a consultation in which 64% of people said that they support a 3 unitary model. The only problem is that the consultation was taken by less than 0.5%* of the voting population! Imagine we made decisions off such a small sample size like that; depending on what tiny group of people you ask, we could end up flipping Britain upside down; there could be anarchy, we could have Tommy Robinson crowned emperor of the galactic republic and the Republic of Ireland renamed to the republic of Elon. The point is that this argument from the Green Councillors was silly and for around 10 seconds before he blurted out an insult, Hadwen looked like he didn't have the lowest IQ in the room.
We then went to the office, and I wrote a report about it. I was halfway through when I asked Oliver if he had finished; he said yes. I then asked him how long ago he finished; he said 35 minutes ago. I couldn’t believe it. He had speedrun his report like it was Minecraft. It took me around 1 ¾ hours to finish my report. Oliver gave me some feedback on it, and I took his feedback in. I accidentally spelt Richard Rout as ‘Richard Trout’ like he was from Shark Tale, he’s not far off, to be fair; he is a conservative councillor.
We then walked around Ipswich, and it reinforced how shit Romford really is. Even though Oliver was highlighting all the problems with Ipswich’s high street, it looked like the Garden of Eden compared to Romford. I guess that’s what happens when Andrew Rosindell is your MP for 20+ years. I was then taken through Ipswich.co.uk. It’s a fantastic site and really shits on the Ipswich Star.
Lastly, I set off home. Luckily this time no idiots were walking on the track so it was a smooth journey.
I thought it was pretty nice. There was a lot of old architecture that showed the cultural history of Ipswich.
