It’s my last day at the Mercury today, then I’m off to London, where I’ve got some interesting stuff lined up. But wherever my career eventually takes me, I’ll always feel proud to have worked for the best local newspaper in the country.

The Mercury has a great editor in Richard Bettsworth who rightly believes that the role of a newspaper is to hold those in power to account. The Mercury isn’t the arm of a council press office, as some local papers elsewhere in the country have sadly become.

Politicians don’t get favours, stories aren’t spiked because they don’t fit the editor’s worldview, and reporters are encouraged to dig for the truth behind the spin.

Anyone who tries to obstruct our attempts to accurately report Leicestershire life is politely told: “Sorry, this is what we do.”

A couple of years ago – while some editors were still so scared of the internet that they banned their reporters from blogging or using Twitter – senior Mercury staff were actively encouraging reporters to jump on board.

It was my use of Twitter and this very blog that has made being political correspondent at the Mercury so rewarding.

You, the readers, gave me ideas, tip-offs and gossip. I turned these into stories, then got instant feedback and follow-up ideas from you all. It felt like I had a team of hundreds working alongside me.

Finally – a word on the last-minute news of my departure. When I handed in my notice a few weeks ago, I considered mentioning it on Twitter. But then I was given some sage advice; when politicians know that you’re not sticking around for much longer, the juicy stories can suddenly dry up.

Hopefully, by keeping my impending exit quiet I’ve managed to squeeze every last drop from some of our more loquacious politicos.

Anyway, thanks again for all of your help over the past two and a half years.

David

Nick Rushton and Joe Orson have both made it through to the final stage in the race to become the Conservative Party’s nominee for police commissioner.

Rushton’s seen as such a cert for the nomination that he once used a council meeting to taunt Jewel Miah over his failed attempt to get the Labour nomination.

Given the massive Tory-voting donut around the city, the successful candidate will be big favourite for the £70,000-a-year gig. Drinks are on you, Nick.

Also, if he wins he’ll have to stand down as deputy leader of Leicestershire County Council, so that’s one less candidate for the top County Hall job if Parsons is ousted.

Registered Tory party members will get the final say on the police commissioner candidate when they vote on May 26. A lesson in democracy to the Labour party, which saw a group of apparatchiks hand-pick their chosen one.

Part of my Saturday political column was chopped to make way for an advert, so I’ve published the rest below:

“The tables were turned this week when someone lodged a Freedom of Information request about me.

I send out scores of them every year to public bodies across the land, but it’s the first time I’ve ever been the subject of one.

It relates to the leaked standards watchdog report about Lord Mayor Rob Wann’s cancelled parking tickets, which was on the front page of the Mercury last month.

The request reads: “Leicester City Council leaks like a sieve! Obviously your standards committee members leaked the Rob Wann report. This is outrageous! Please let me see copies of any emails, letters or any correspondence between the Rob Wann investigation standards committee councillors and David MacLean of the Leicester Mercury. We need to know who leaked the report.”

The exchanges will eventually be published on the council website. But unlike many politicians who fear openness and transparency, I’m quite relaxed about my email dealings with any of the councillors being made public.

You’ll see the time I cursed my luck when one councillor told me about a juicy row that went on at a meeting I’d chosen not to attend.

You’ll see a few invites to the pub which I’d issued to local politicians for a catch-up and a chat about local issues.

And you’ll probably see several frantic emails which I often have to send to unreachable councillors as deadline approaches, pleading: “Call me ASAP.”

Sadly for the curious member of the public who submitted this request, the source of the leak won’t be revealed even if they request copies of my dealings with every public official in our city.

And that’s because the biggest scoops are always leaked in person.”

Cabinet members were ready to resign if he didn’t. Backbenchers were twitchy about a drawn-out expenses probe in the run-up to an election. The finishing touches we’re being put to his political obituary.

Following the Mercury’s 10am news conference we cleared the front page and two pages inside, poised for a resignation statement. I combed the archive as I prepared a colour piece on his political career. A photographer was on standby to get a snap of him leaving County Hall.

A cabinet meeting took place behind closed doors in the morning. Then, at 3pm he faced his group.

Usually a fairly short affair, this one lasted for an hour and a half. “He’s gone,” one opposition politico said as he looked at his watch. A mischievous Lib Dem had printed out a message on A4 paper which read: Position Vacant, Apply Within. He planned to pin it to Parsons’ office door.

The meeting was later painted as an unthreatening affair – a chance for Tory councillors to throw their weight behind a trusted leader. But the atmosphere afterwards didn’t suggest that.

As members emerged many kept their heads bowed, avoiding eye-contact with the press. Parsons remained inside the room. Some members hugged him.

As he left he said he was heading to his office for ten minutes. He looked shaken and exhausted.

Eventually he emerged with deputy Nick Rushton in tow, plus a handful of other loyal troops. He said he would be cooperating with the investigation, planned stay on and clear his name, and had his party’s full support.

The cabinet members who’d been ready to resign just hours earlier had been squared, at least temporarily.

• An awkward acronym? Check
• An amazing truism? Check
• The word ‘major’ in the intro? Check
• News hook is an “official launch”? Check
• 600 word release that’ll be used as a nib, at most? Check

Hold the front page, boss, because five “research clusters” from well-known European regions such as Aquitaine and Molise will be teaming up with researchers in Leicester to come up with one of those “green traffic management systems”.

The council press office went wild and capped-up the entire project acronym – THE ISSUE – which is the ‘Transport Health Environment – Intelligent Solutions Sustaining Urban Economies’ to your man on the street.

In a moment of press office magic we’re helpfully told that “local partners will be working in partnership”.

And the whole thing is funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme, which “promotes knowledge exchange and joint working”. Obviously.

The note to editors offering “further media opportunities” is, shall we say, ambitious…

i am the student of msc information mamanement in robert gordon univeristy aberdeen.i have an assignment on the topice of finding a job as information manager through inetrnet or news papers.i found a job in this website as information manager and now i need some information about this council .so please if you help me to find some information about this council and its way of work taht should be so much help to comleteing my assignment.i am not applying for this job but just imagining for my assignment that i am applying .so what i need to apply for this job and what kind of proposal and stragties i need to make for them.i am very thank full if you give me the name of some journals or book that written on this.please reply me as soon as possible

I became a political journalist to cut through spin and to report the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it was for those in authority. One of the most frustrating things as a journalist is not having any freedom in your role. 

Many journalist friends across the country tell me they don’t have that freedom. Editors tell them which public figures to target, which political parties to go easy on, and which issues are no-go areas. Those same editors, who started off as young and enthusiastic seekers of truth, often simply become another member of the local establishment.

Before arriving at the Mercury I turned down a job offer at another newspaper because I wasn’t convinced that I’d have the freedom to report on politics in the area.

But when I moved to the Mercury it was clear that Keith was very keen for reporters to do some traditional digging and contact-building and come up with stories that press officers would have kept hidden.

When I started there were two political reporters, and Keith wanted to make sure we both knew the Freedom of Information Act inside out to help expose the workings of local authorities, and courses in London were offered to us. Two years down the line and I’ve pulled in some cracking tales from FOI.

As a former political journalist himself Keith’s door was always open for advice on how to cover the complexities of local government. And while he wasn’t one of those editors who turns up to the opening of a civic envelope, he was plugged in to Leicester life and politics and I’d often leave his office with a tip off about a developing political issue.

Back in 2009 when many regional editors didn’t want their journalists blogging and Tweeting, Keith encouraged it. It wasn’t unchecked, of course, but there was just one very simple proviso: If you wouldn’t say it in a column, don’t say it on the web. It’s now a major part of my job.

After previous experiences elsewhere it was a joy to be able to report on politics knowing that politicians couldn’t get stories spiked simply by going above your head to the boss. Stories would be held by him if he spotted any holes in them, but none were ever spiked because of their potential to upset a politician or party.

Several local politicos, from across the political spectrum, sent messages to me this week saying that he brought bite back to political reporting at the Mercury. Long may it continue.