The 'George-anizing' of Downing Street ...

Bang! Bang! Bang! Here's what hit me this morning - straight from the Sunday papers.

• "Blair bans tradesmen from using front door of Number 10."
• "End to classless Downing Street."
• "PM's plan for 'below-stairs types' is just part of his presidential ambitions ..."

Needless to say, exactly as intended, those three 'hooks' grabbed me; I had to read on.

** "He [ Blair] demands a new 'tradesmen's entrance' at the back of Downing Street, where 'below-stairs types' can come and go out of sight."

(snip)

** "The new service would bring a symbolic end to a 'classless' Downing Street where for centuries everyone used the same entrance."

Jonathan Oliver, political correspondent to 'The Mail on Sunday,' also revealed the following.

** " ... £10 million refurbishment of the Prime Minister's residence -- code-named: 'PROJECT GEORGE'.

The first plans were drafted after President George W. Bush's state visit to Downing Street in 2003. A Whitehalll insider said: "Some of the Americans were a little surprised at exactly how small Downing Street was when they came to visit."

So, some of the Bushcrew were surprised,' eh?

Well, that's certainly no surprise. Welcome to the real 'free world' guys.

Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary, Liam Fox, literally jumped at the chance to say: " Arrangements that have been perfectly sound for previous Prime Ministers appear to be not good enough for the current occupant ... ". He added, "This plan is more evidence of his [Blair's] presidential ambitions."

'This old Brit' wonders who's set to shell out the £10 million for this. Certainly not George, I'll wager.

Incidentally, as I've mentioned before - the online 'Mail' omits much of it's print-edition copy from it's web site. Unfortunately, including this 'Project George' piece.

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** NOW- on a different topic - here's a great link that can be accessed.

It's from today's 'Observer,' and it cheered me up no end. It's all about the 'boom' and the 'bite of blogging - all around the world.

Here's a taster.

** "There is, writes Virginia Postrel in her column on Forbes.com, 'something about blogs [that] makes a lot of respectable journalists hyperventilate. News pros seem terribly threatened by online amateurs." **

"GOOD!" Says 'This Old Brit'. It's about time something woke up some of these 'press-release-re-witers'.

Here's another excerpt.

** "Conversely, good reporting and intelligent commentary is passed from blog to blog and spreads like wildfire beyond the jurisdiction in which it was originally published. This can only be good for journalism in the long run, if only because, as my mother used to say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. " **

Click below to read John Naughton's 'Observer' piece -- in praise of blogs, blogging and bloggers:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1494564,00.html