I'm just not getting the hang of the Freedom of Information thing.

With Christmas and the new year coming and the prospect of a few difficult news-free days ahead, I thought I'd get ahead of the game.

So I asked our public bodies for some bits and bobs under the Freedom of Information Act.

Several weeks on and the answers are coming back and I'm not getting much information.

Harumph.

I asked the police to supply info they've published before - at least twice to my knowledge.

Namely, how many people in Leicestershire are currently involved in drug dealing and how many of these have what they call 'firearms markers' against their names on the police intelligence system?

They've told me in the past that this stuff is updated on the force intelligence system every four weeks.

I know "intelligence" is just that. It's not cast iron fact.

But it is indicative of where the city is going and, I think it might be of interest to the readers.

Very few people in Leicestershire can or want to lay their hands on a gun. Let's get that straight.

But let's also be very clear that we do have a number of armed criminals in this city and beyond.

Having said that, I was happy - yes really, I was happy - the other day to report that there was only one occasion last year where a shot was fired. But, I have also written about guns - the real thing, not replicas - being seized from crims - again, the real things, not replicas.

So, I am not chasing a 'Leicester's gun crime mayhem' story. I don't do that kind of thing, thank you very much.

This time they told me they weren't obliged to answer my question.

Their answer seemed to boil down to the idea that my story would be a tip-off to our armed criminals.

I wasn't asking for names and mobile numbers, just some stats.

A couple of days later the Foreign Office responded to another of my FOIA questions.

I admit, I ripped this one off from a former colleague.

A couple of years ago a Daily Mail trainee called Matt spent a few months with us.
He asked how many people from so-called rogue states had been barred from travelling to study at Leicestershire's three universities. National security and all that.

That Daily Mail lad got an answer. I got a knock-back.

If anything's going to feed a regional journalist's inferiority complex....

Another day, another refusal.

I asked the Ministry of Justice to list the contraband seized from inmates and visitors at Leicestershire's prisons. Drugs, phones and the like.

Big public interest argument in favour of us getting the goods, you might think.
"It would take too long", they said today.

Ho hum.

Maybe it's me. Do I draft my requests badly?

Or, should I be thinking the Freedom of Information Act isn't all it's cracked up to be?

There's a largely taxpayer-funded quango in the city which, days after its arrival, told us it was exempt from the FOIA. It's not their fault - and they do say they intend to "operate in a spirit of openness". But how many other public bodies are exempt?

The legislation allows me to appeal first to the bodies which turned me down and then to the independent information commissioner if I'm still unhappy.

Anyone with expertise in this area care to offer their thoughts?

UPDATE: just to be clear, what I was moaning about was the fact that the quango was exempt and when I said it declared itself exempt, what I meant was that it made a point of highlighting this fact almost as soon as it came into being.

This particular quango is jointly owned by two local authorities and that’s what makes it exempt – if it was owned by just one, it would be covered by the Act.

It still spends our money. How sensible is that?

David Taylor MP

There was a real sadness in the newsroom today as we worked on the breaking story of David Taylor's sudden death.
Some of us here go back quite a few years with David, MP for North West Leicestershire since 1997.

He had a heart attack on Boxing Day while he was visiting Calke Abbey.

The news - and we had to deliver it over the phone to some of his friends and associates - has hit people very hard.

I was a cub reporter when I first met him, back in 1994 when I joined the Coalville Times.

David was a parish and borough councillor then. I'm pretty sure he was working full time too.

That's a lot of politics to squeeze in.

Well, as Oscar Wilde said: "Socialism would be great if it didn't take up so many evenings." I'm paraphrasing.

And, it might not have been Wilde.

But, it's a good line.

When I arrived in Coalville there was much talk among the senior members of the Labour Party about 'Young David'.

I'm not sure how many attempts it took, but he won the seat from the Tories in the landslide of 1997.

I went down to the count at Whitwick leisure centre with the-then editor of the Times, (of Coalville, not London).

A few of us got a little drunk - we weren't covering, we were there for the fun of it all - and I remember being 'shushed' by someone from the Mercury because we were getting a little over-excited as we watched the political map changing locally and nationally.

For the next few years David was a good friend of the paper and was in it all the while doing his job - fighting for a constituent or opening a community centre here or there. You get the idea, MP stuff.

I don't know much about Parliamentary politics. Come to think of it, I don't know too much about the town hall stuff either.

But I could tell David was one of the good ones. I've met some of the bad ones in my time and it's not always down to duck islands and home flipping.

He will be much missed.

Mercury the Messenger, chapter II

Back to police stuff.
Every time I file a story I am acutely conscious - let me repeat that - I am acutely conscious there is a consequence.

If we report a bad run of muggings in your neighbourhood do you begin to wonder if it’s safe to go out any more? You may do.

There's been a couple of nasty ones where I live and it gave me pause for thought when I wrote the story and reflected that it was about a spot about 200 yards from my house.

But, of course it's safe to go out.

Ask someone how many cars got turned over in New Parks or Stoneygate this week. “Don’t know”, they’ll say. “Sixty?”

The answer might actually - in a good week admittedly - be none.

Have newspapers inflated the fear of crime? I don't know.

Bad reporting by definition distorts the way people see the world.

To me it's a case of 'good or bad, it's all news'.

An officer called me today and said he'd arranged for me to talk to an 89-year-old woman whose shopping bag had been stolen by some sneak.

Christmas presents, pension, personal stuff. All gone.

When I get the story together I will include some background.

Purse 'dipping' is big at this time of year - the shops are crowded and purses are bulging with savings drawn out for the big shopping trip.

While telling this lady's her story I will say that the picture is relatively good so far this year.

In Leicester city centre, the number of thefts has been low this past couple of weeks compared to previous years, some thieves have been locked up and the police (with the help of us as well as the telly and radio people) have done a great job
letting elderly women know that they have to be careful when they pop into town.

I know we’re in a position to influence the way people feel about all kinds of crime and, as a consequence, how at ease they are as they go about their business.

Going back to that earlier stuff about the council, for me it’s not whether I talk the city up, down or sideways.

It’s about telling people’s stories and keeping a sense of perspective. Let me know if you think I get it wrong.

Mercury, he was that messenger fella wasn't he?

I had words with some people from the city council today. They keep accusing the Mercury of "talking the city down".

The politicians have been saying it for some time and now, most recently in a letter we published last week, the civil servants are saying it too.

One of them rang up to ask me why I'd left a fairly facetious comment in response to the letter on our website. I decided to defend our honour.

Why, I'm asking, is this same phrase cropping up time and time again.

It smacks of a PR strategy. I might be wrong though because this really isn't my field.

But, my reading of it is that some of these council people really do see our scrutiny of their affairs - sometime critical, sometimes supportive - as an attack on the city itself.

No, it's nothing of the sort.

If we have a pop at a council policy we're aiming at an administration, not a city.

There is a big difference.

Browsing Twitter earlier today, we found this post from the "Labour voice of New Parks", Councillor Colin Hall - otherwise known as Ultra_Fox. We know from past experience he's not our biggest fan.

He has referred to us as the Daily Heil. A good socialist lad should know better than to mess around with Nazi imagery. It's poor taste, isn't it?

He was reflecting on the failure of the city's bid to be part of the World Cup party. He's not happy with the football authorities and, it seems, us.

Councillor Hall - the city's high bailiff no less - wrote the following: "Recriminations over this defeat will continue. In particular, the treachery of the Mercury in past 6 months won't be forgotten or forgiven."

We've backed the bid from the very beginning.

Treachery?

Isn't this all getting a little overheated?

Thankfully, my job doesn't take me too far in to the political world.

I covered the city council beat for a wee while some time ago while we waited for a new correspondent to arrive.

I hated every minute of it.

A few days in, I wrote a story about some part of town getting new road safety measures.

I spoke to one of the local councillors. "Great news for my ward, I'm delighted.....", he told me.

A day later someone from another party said to me: "I saw your article. Did you know he voted against those road safety measures at every opportunity?" Grrr.

Someone read the blog, I said, someone read the blog.

Kingswood have removed the 'to let' sign one of their contractors attached to the front of my house.(See below).They came within a couple of hours of my complaint and took the sign away - but left some bits of wood and a couple of nails.
Oh well, it's a victory of sorts because the few lines I wrote about this the other day attracted a reader's comment. And not someone who sits within 15 yards of my desk.
Is this the start of an online publishing sensation?
My contributor is called Ned and I followed the link to his blog and, although I haven't read it in too much detail just yet, I noticed he has posted a series of photographs of Leicester's best buildings.
There are some ace places in this city and I think it's easy to forget that sometimes - especially when I'm walking past the spot where the Pump and Tap and the Bowstring Bridge used to be.

My name is Ciaran and I like meeting people in uniforms.

I broke into new territory this week - Keyham Lane police station.
For vague historical reasons - I've no idea what they are - we've never really had so much to do with this place, even back in the days before I got here.
It's in Hamilton, Leicester and it covers a huge part of the city, neighbourhoods like Belgrave, Thurnby Lodge and Netherhall. Big, important and, above all, newsy places.
I arrived at the station the other night and, straight away, one or two officers pointed out that other stations get all the publicity.
Well, the job now is to win the trust of these officers and see if we can get them in the paper as often as some of their colleagues.
I look forward to doing that - the softy stuff and the less easy side of life there.
It started really well.
I spent a few hours walking around Belgrave and St Marks with Pc Laura Nutt.
This will be part of a series of features I'm putting together toward the end of the month.
I've got half a notebook of shorthand notes and I'll get around to reading and translating them over the next few days.
Pc Nutt was great though. A real beat officer.
She knows what makes this area tick, what gets under people's skin.
She also dealt with one of the resident ne'er do wells brilliantly. I watched her search the lad in the street, while chatting to him like a concerned mum.

Why do the small things bother me so much?

Slightly off topic this one.
Imagine my surprise when I got an angry call from home earlier today to inform me that my little castle is apparently on the market.
It's mine, all mine - and I've got the mortgage statements to prove it.
Kingswood estate agents apparently have other ideas.
A contractor working for them stuck a 'to let' sign in my front yard earlier today. Grrr.
I made a couple of calls to their office - which is a couple of hundred yards away from home - and asked them to take it down.
Six hours or so later it was still there.
I'm leaving the office shortly and I'm hoping it's gone by the time I get back.
Again, I say 'grrr'.