Mentioned in dispatches

LGC regularly gets mentions in national papers and other media following reports in the magazine.

But it’s something of a first to get more than 20 column inches in the Daily Telegraph on the basis of the animated debate the website generated about the Audit Commission.

An earlier blog detailed how a comment column from John Seddon became a major talking point for the sector. Read it here.

The debate has now been used by the Telegraph’s home affairs editor Philip Johnston to suggest that “helpful criticism” of public services is routinely given short shrift.

In his paper/website column, he tells his readers/visitors that “the balloon went up when Seddon wrote an article for the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) proposing the abolition of the Audit Commission, a quango that is supposed to ensure the delivery of value-for-money services by local councils”.

Johnston notes were “indundated” with responses (we were, 170+ at the last count). He quotes some of the responses to underpin his argument that Mr Seddon is right.

So, nice plug for LGC. Pity there were no links to us or - better still - the article itself with all that rich and interesting debate. (Although they did take a comment of mine).

No hard feelings - here’s a link to his page! Philip Johnston