Taken as a whole, this package was decent journalism. As I remember it, the grist consisted of speaking to some real people affected the policies of a ‘flagship’ Tory council – some rightly aggrieved users of social care services suffering a drop in living standards thanks to increased charging and the like – rather than just the usual ‘big speech’ treatment of a politician at a podium in SW1. Hardly a propaganda coup for the Conservatives.