David MacLean

COUNTY HALL - Wednesday July 14 - 2pm A few weeks ago I took my gran along to the Apple store in Leicester to show her an iPad. My fingers danced across the shiny screen, I blitzed through folders full of photos to show her its capabilities, and...

I'm off up to county hall from about 1pm onwards. There's plenty of catching up to do with councillors and officers alike, and the scrutiny commission kicks off at 2pm. Just one word of warning; if you're a politician who's likely to be knocking around...

Amongst Leicestershire County Council's job listings for care assistants (£11,000 pa), learning assistants (£13,000 pa), and a maths technician (£14,000 pa) is an ad for a new communications director. Expect plenty of applicants because the salary...

When I started work at the Mercury back in January, I was struck by how frank Leicestershire County Council leader David Parsons could be. He spoke, in my opinion, the way all council leaders should do: honestly, without jargon, and with an eye for a...

Mercury editor Keith Perch has blogged about the accusations of political bias - from all sides - that news organisations inevitably face during election time. It's worth reading in full here. The finest example of the party political paranoia that...

Almost forgot to tell you about the recent arrival of Fergus Sheppard, the county council's media relations czar. He seems like a pretty straight guy and he's also web savvy, so get hold onto your hats for council 2.0. He's certainly got the...

The ongoing saga over the school hall at Breedon on the Hill has caught the eye of Private Eye. Ian Hislop and friends highlight the row - centred on villagers' use of a local school hall - in the current edition of the publication, and it's clear...

City cabinet member Rory Palmer took part in the Obama campaign over in America back in 2008, so he's got experience of working for one of the slickest campaigns of modern times. His Parliamentary campaign is currently ticking all the right boxes...

When two senior politicians started arguing in the upper echelons of County Hall this week, they were quick to spot one of my colleagues lurking further down the corridor. Like any savvy politicos they moved away from the prying eyes of the Press...

Typical. You wait days for a half-decent council meeting then two come along at once. Both the City and County councils hold their budget-setting council meetings today. I'll be up at County Hall for 2pm, then zooming back to the town hall for the...

I grew up in the north east, where the Labour party has a tight grip on most of the region's constituencies. General elections are more of a formality up there. "Stick a red rosette on anyone and they'll get elected," they'd say. Things are a little...

If newspapers reported every bit of in-fighting within political parties, there wouldn't be room for any other news. It's part of politics. So a rumpus up in North West Leicestershire among the local Lib Dem branch wouldn't have been newsworthy - if...