Until recent years most people tended to stick with reading one national newspaper - perhaps favouring its political slant, a particular columnist or section. With the arrival of the internet, online articles and also Twitter, many including me have taken to reading more widely (to the detriment of newspaper sales) choosing to read on subjects of interest regardless of which publication they come from.One of my favourite newspaper adverts was the Independent’s several years ago where the viewer saw the same scene repeated but from different perspectives. The first angle showed a woman walking along a pavement carrying a handbag. Next a skin head running to tackle her. Then the angle panned out showing something starting to fall down towards the woman. Finally you saw the whole scene and the skinhead reacting to the danger, saving the woman from injury.
Although I don’t claim to be independent – after all I belong to a political party - I try to be fair and accurate. I love a good debate and if someone else has a valid point, I’ve no problem with accepting it.
I believe it is important to show links of local bloggers from the different political parties in Reading (even though I often do not agree with what they write or their personal/political views) so that you, my readers, can easily see what the other parties are saying and work out for yourselves with whom you agree.
I find it interesting that my Conservative colleague Richard Willis does the same, yet the Labour, Green & Lib Dem blogs choose not to.
Nobody has all the answers so keeping an open mind, being prepared for healthy challenge, and trying to represent my residents - as well as making it easy for you to read what others of different political parties are writing - suits me.
