I’ve been deeply amused by my local council’s reaction to the news that the Government wants to shut down 2,500 post offices, including seven (for now) in Hackney.

Even though it’s the Labour party that is ramming through the cuts, local councillors from the same party have been running about desperately trying to look like the good guys. So much so, in fact, that councillors from the De Beauvoir ward - who don’t have a post office of their own to save - have been dashing over into Islington to preserve the big branch on Essex Road (this one, for convoluted reasons, can actually be blamed on the Lib Dems).

But the thing that really made me laugh was the coverage in Hackney Today - the council’s propaganda rag - which you can see above, counterbalanced by a bit of news from the Press Association. The council knows how to turn out a carefully-worded article, sure enough, and the photo of mayor Jules Pipe is charming; but anyone reading the words would have no idea that the party that runs both the country and the council are the ones that condemned the post offices in the first place.

Well, fair play to them if they think it’s the best use of local taxpayers’ money and they can get away with it.

Not that getting away with it is hard. As the BBC pointed out a couple of years ago, many residents have “no idea” that Hackney Today is produced by the council; although that didn’t stop some commenting on its “lack of real news”.

But, as always with these in-house rags, one has to be so careful not to overstep the mark. That might - shudder - attract accusations of impropriety. Satire, such as this, is all very well - but to stand accused of actual wrongdoing…. well, that would be, wrong.

That’s why I’m simply going to offer one recommendation which, I am sure, will make Hackney Today a newspaper that residents will be proud of: ask Jules Pipe to stand down as mayor and become a sub-editor once more.

I’m sure that Jules’s grip of local government regulations and his keen eye for detail, as acquired on the Sunday Telegraph, will enable him to spot errors and contradictions such as this one from slipping through the net.

Naturally, as mayor, he would be familiar with the “Code of recommended practice on local authority publicity” (snappy title, available here), which states that

Publicity should not be, or liable to misrepresentation as being, party political.

Knowing that, surely a keen sub-editor wouldn’t allow the three Labour councillors of De Beauvoir ward (email: debeauvoir@hackney-labour.org.uk) to use the pages of Hackney Today to publicise their website at debeauvoircouncillors.blogspot.com in every issue.

After all, this is a website that has the strapline “News from your local Labour Councillors” and jolly, partisan remarks like:

Unfortunatrly [sic] Islington’s Lib Dem run council dealt the first blow to the Essex Road Post Office by selling the building

and

Labour’s Alan Laing, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “Hackney Council aims to attract and increase the number of female cyclists within London

and

By the end of next month, there will have been even more new trees planted around the Borough as part of Labour in Hackney’s commitment to plant 1000 new trees by 2010.

and

The Green Party in Camden are now using Labour run Hackney as an example of good practice.

After all, publicising a website like this in a council publication only weeks before a mayoral and LGA election might, for all I know, contravene this other regulation:

Particular care should be taken when publicity is issued immediately prior to an election or
by-election affecting the authority’s area to ensure that this could not be perceived as seeking
to influence public opinion, or to promote the public image of a particular candidate, or group of
candidates.

Anyway, as I suggested, the trick is to reissue Jules Pipe with his blue pencil; and if he can cut some of the crap like “good practice” whilst he’s at it, then so much the better.