During the week I was one of a number of bloggers who went to the first of what the Labour Party say they hope will be a regular series of briefings for Labour bloggers.
I think its fair to say that the Party doesn’t quite know what to make of us, or this medium. They know we’re out here and they’ve all heard of the right wing bloggers that trade on gossip and a relationship with the mainstream media but by and large we’re below the radar.
So this move is experimental, seeing how we react to each other and what sort of relationship can be developed.
This time we had the chance to meet Caroline Flint, Minister of State for Public Health, and the people doing the work on Labour’s new web-based campaign on the NHS, Better with Labour.
The site is quite good, and it’s worth reminding ourselves and the wider public what the money that’s gone into the NHS has been doing, particularly as there seem to be more than the usual share of difficult NHS stories out there at the moment.
Like Jon who wrote about this recently I suspect that some of you are going to have difficulty believing the Good News. And I think that the Party ought to be clearer where they’re taking the figures from. That said the map is great, and they’ve promised that they’ll think about how we can deep link there should we want to.
I do think they’ve missed a trick in being so output focused – x more nurses and doctors – when the real test is in the outcomes of the investment – life expectancy, numbers surviving cancers, number of smokers who’ve given up, sexual health and so on. It’s not that the number of additional Qualified Midwives (87) isn’t important, it’s just that I wonder whether it has the same impact as knowing that men in Lewisham are living an extra 2.9 years longer than they were a decade ago.
Anyway, go have a play with the site. Ask a question (Caroline and her colleagues have promised to spend time answering them). Remind yourselves of the words “Winter Crisis” and try and work out why you don’t hear them these days.
Someday I Will Treat You Good 
Of what did this briefing comprise? I’m intrigued…
It wasn’t all that different to what you’d imagine. No secret information, no juicy gossip. Just the chance for them to tell us about the campaign that will lie behind the website and for us to ask a few questions.
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