No news is good news (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

No news is good news

4:05pm Wednesday 11th February 2009

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It is, dear blogfans, that time of the week again.

Yes, that's right - it's that time when the good old blog is written and I attempt, however vainly, to inject a little humour into the otherwise seemingly relentless flood of BAD NEWS.

This includes bad news within the office as we all continue to limp along in these credit crunched times and of course it includes bad news out in the real world as well.

There's been a slew of court stories lately, ranging from assault to conspiracy to rob, as well as a hike in council rent and flooding in Chingford, making for a distinctly apocalyptic-looking paper this week.

We've also seen further protests at the Lea Bridge Road mosque as tensions continue to mount over control of the committee and Thorpe Coombe Hospital is to close two wards for patients with dementia after the standard of care was criticised.

Having spent more or less two days solidly over at Snaresbrook for the aforementioned conspiracy to rob trial (they'd only just got through the opening statements by the time I left at 4.30pm yesterday) I'm a little bit out of the loop, I must admit. But upon returning to the office, it seems we and the good residents of Waltham Forest are, as ever, doomed.

We do get the odd call asking us why we don't print more good news stories and the answer is quite simple - we just don't get that many. If you've got one - by all means, send it our way. I'm sure it would cheer everybody up no end.

Meanwhile, I have discovered recently that FCR is not fearless. This may come as a shock to some blog readers but it turns out he is indeed afraid of something - or I should say, someone.

FCR, in a moment of weakness - or perhaps I should omit the F, since it no longer rings true - admitted to being afraid of me. How is this possible? I hear you cry. Surely FCR is afraid of nothing and certainly not a harmless junior reporter?

I'm told, however, that he's not the only one. Apparently, I'm scary. Quite how I achieved this reputation, I'm not sure, but there it is.

It remains to be seen whether I can use this to my advantage...