Reporting Power Civic Structures: Why They Matter, How They Work Kate Ironside This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/reportingpower This version was published on 2019-08-28 This is a Leanpub book. Leanpub empowers authors and publishers with the Lean Publishing process. Lean Publishing is the act of publishing an in-progress ebook using lightweight tools and many iterations to get reader feedback, pivot until you have the right book and build traction once you do. © 2018 - 2019 Kate Ironside To my family Contents Acknowledgements ....................... 1 READ THIS FIRST ........................ 2 Part A: The Overview ...................... 6 1. UK Government & Parliament ............... 7 2. Devolution: How We Got Here ............... 28 3. Reporting Wales & Scotland ................ 39 Wales ............................. 39 Scotland ............................ 46 Consequences for England . 59 4. Terror & Hope: Northern Ireland .............. 67 5. Local Government ...................... 103 Part B: News & Local Government .............. 125 6. Child Protection ........................ 126 The Tale of Baby P . 130 The Death of Declan . 158 Rotherham Child Abuse Scandal . 160 7. Housing & Planning ..................... 179 Planning Challenges . 181 CONTENTS Housing Challenges . 184 Structures in a Nutshell . 188 The Tale of Grenfell Tower . 196 Part C: Governments & Parliaments in Action ....... 230 8. Why Students Do or Don’t Pay Tuition Fees ....... 231 9. Bombing Syria ......................... 262 Part D: Money .......................... 285 10. Government Budgets: Affecting Lives .......... 286 11. The Price of Justice ..................... 306 Paying for Justice (& Story Ideas) . 315 Part E: Reporting Public Services ............... 344 12. The National Health Service ................ 345 Issues: The Never-Ending Health Stories . 347 Structures: How to Find Stories . 363 A Place of Fear: The Mid-Staffs Scandal . 381 13. The Police ........................... 406 Structure & Accountability . 408 Funding And Why It Matters . 420 Reporting Rape: The Police, the Politicians and the Press . 428 Cliff Richard, the Police & the BBC . 437 Part F: Final Tips For Newsdays ................ 452 14. Guide to Compiling Your Student Newsday Diary .. 455 Contacting Me .......................... 459 About the Author ........................ 460 Acknowledgements I would like to thank, above all, my husband Jon Smith, former Political Editor of the Press Association, for spending so many hours painstakingly editing this book and for his suggestions and improvements. Without him, this book would not have been com- pleted. All errors, of course, remain mine. My thanks also go to Professor Diane Kemp of the Broadcast Jour- nalism Training Council, who has pioneered these BJTC publica- tions and who encouraged me to write this. I am also grateful to my employers and colleagues, first at the University of Bedfordshire and then at the University of Northampton who gave me the time to write Reporting Power, and for their helpful comments on the text. Last, but definitely not least, warm thanks go to my students for their enthusiasm, interest and willingness to crawl out of bed for 9am lectures on public administration. You’ve been terrific to teach. Kate Ironside READ THIS FIRST Welcome to the second updated edition of Reporting Power, with new chapters on government spending and the criminal justice system. This book is intended for journalism students but it is of equal use to journalism interns and new reporters. It is best to read this (free) e-book as a downloaded pdf rather than in your browser. The day I began writing the first edition of this book, firefighters and police officers were combing the charred, smoking shell of Grenfell Tower in London, searching for human remains. At the time it was feared that up to 100 people had died in the blaze. The figure was later revised down to 72. Traumatised survivors, bereaved families, friends and neighbours were casualties too. Grenfell was Britain’s worst fire disaster since the Piper Alpha oil rig blaze claimed 167 lives in the North Sea in 1988. A public inquiry was subsequently launched into how the block, home to an estimated 400-600 people, became a death trap. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, reporters were turning to those who bore responsibility for Grenfell Tower. To the council – the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. To the then Depart- ment for Communities & Local Government. To the local tenant management organisation. In isolation, on a normal day, these bodies and their responsibilities might be considered dull. But they are not dull when their actions, policies and spending de- cisions may have contributed to the construction and maintenance of a building so hazardous that it turned into a blazing inferno in just 15 minutes, condemning scores of innocent men, women and children to a dreadful death whilst their horrified neighbours watched in the streets below, powerless to help. READ THIS FIRST 3 Reporters working on this story did not have time to ask: “Who is responsible for housing? What’s a council? Who do I talk to in a council?” They needed to know already so they could pick up the phone immediately to the right people. And this is why student journalists need to understand civic struc- tures. It doesn’t matter whether you are studying news journalism, magazine journalism, sports journalism or any other of the varieties of journalism courses out there. This is material you all need to know because you have no idea what stories will come your way during your careers or indeed what stories you will have to deal with during your student newsdays. This e-book will demonstrate how civic structures work (or don’t work), why you need to understand them and how you set about reporting them. We shall do this largely by walking through news stories which have dominated the headlines. All the stories are thought-provoking. Some may make you angry. It is, regrettably, the nature of news that our focus tends to be on what goes wrong in life rather than what goes right. In the process we shall look at some fabulous journalism and some poor journalism. There will also be news-writing exercises. Through the links in this book you will attend real press conferences, scour real par- liamentary transcripts, gut real inquiry reports and more, building your journalism skills and putting your civic structure knowledge into practice – so that when you come to do it for real, during your student newsdays, on placement and in work, you will know exactly where to go, what to look for and who to ask. Because you need a broad overview, this book begins with a review of central and local government structures and a guide to devolution. It will explain how you report them. We then move to a deeper understanding of local councils and the organisations they work with by looking at two topics: child READ THIS FIRST 4 protection and housing & planning. In the process, we will examine the civic failures that contributed to the deaths of two little boys and the organised abuse of hundreds of young girls. And we shall look at the story of Grenfell Tower, a tragedy with UK-wide implications. To deepen understanding of how governments and parliaments work, we will look at one domestic issue: the evolution of the policy to charge university tuition fees, which neatly demonstrates devolution in action. And we will look at one foreign & defence issue: the decision to bomb ISIS in Syria. As it is critical that every journalist understands government spending, we will then look at the mechanics and context of government budgets and examine the criminal justice system as a case study of government spending. Then we move to two public services: the NHS and the police, explaining how you report them. The process is much the same for all other public services. We look at the Mid-Staffs hospital scandal, how a fly-on-the-wall documentary helped the change the way police approach rape investigations and we conclude this section with the case of Sir Cliff Richard, the BBC and South Yorkshire Police. Finally, there will be a guide on how to compile a civic structures news diary for use in your newsdays. This will make it easier for you to find stories. Good luck. Kate Ironside, University of Northampton, August, 2019. *Please note: civic structures are constantly being tweaked, mod- ified and re-named. Why? Because those in power frequently think change is good. And sometimes it is. During the writing of this book, two government departments changed their names and READ THIS FIRST 5 multiple politicians changed jobs. All names and structures were correct at the time of going to press. * Part A: The Overview Structures and how to report them In Part A you will find your essential guide to how the UK Govern- ment & Parliament, the devolved institutions and local government work. In the process we will look at the release of a mass murderer, attend press conferences and find out how the monkey mascot for Hartlepool United FC became the town’s mayor. You will also find out: How to contact politicians How to contact governments, parliaments and councils And how to use their online services to find the agenda items, briefing papers, transcripts of proceedings and official reports - all of which could give you cracking story ideas. Throughout the book, hyperlinks will take you to the places you need. Do remember to download the book as a pdf. The hyperlinks will then open in a separate window. That way you can return to where you left off in the book when you have finished with the hyperlink. If you read the pdf in your browser, you will be taken back to the start of the book each time you finish with a hyperlink. 1. UK Government & Parliament How They Work and How You Use Them How the UK is governed depends entirely on where you live.