In his infinite wisdom, health secretary Alan Johnson has said obesity is potentially as great a threat as climate change.

Now I must be terribly ill-informed because I hadn’t realised that, in addition to causing death, obesity had the potential to create hundreds of thousands of refugees, the extinction of plant and animal life (is that because we will eat them?!) and change the topographical face of the planet as we know it.

I guess I’ve underestimated obesity.

[Answers are here]

Date: Friday, October 19.

Michael Wolff, co-founder of design and brand agency Wolff Olins will be speaking at the PLUS International Design Festival at the Wild Building in Birmingham.

The event is free, but if you can’t make it and have a burning question, let me know!

Mr Wolff is considered one of the creators of brand identity and has worked with a number of high-profile companies to help shape their public image.

Although he left Wolff Olins in 1983, he has also shown strong public support for the infamous Olympic 2012 logo, which the company reportedly created at a cost of £400,000.

At the moment I’m planning to ask him about the process of creating trust through a brand identity. He was responsible for the so-called “greening” of BP and the aligning of its brand with renewable energy production. Also, how easy is it to rebuild trust in a brand after a crisis (such as Northern Rock, perhaps)?

Of course, they’ll be the inevitable question about the 2012 logo too, I’m sure.

[Answers are here]

Date: Wednesday, October 17.

Investigative journalist Roger Cook is giving a talk and Q&A at The Electric Cinema on Wednesday, organised by the Royal Televison Society.

Seats cost £4 or are free to Royal Television Society members so, if you’re about, you can go and ask questions yourself. But, if you’re not, I will be interviewing him before the event and would appreciate your thoughts.

At the moment, I’m thinking I will focus on the future of investigative journalism in the UK. Is there a place for it in an increasingly budget-constrained mainstream media? What impact has the Internet had on investigative journalism. Is there any new journalistic talent that he admires? That sort of thing.

I’ll try to ask any questions posted as comments and, if they don’t make the newspaper cut, I’ll post them up on this here site. Deal?

Right. I think I have found another use for this blog. Tell me what you think:

Very often in journalism you have interviews booked in the diary in advance.

Now, before you go and talk to these people, obviously it’s a good idea to do your research and try and understand what they are about and what things your potential readers might want to know about them.

So why not, as part of that research, actually ask your potential readers?

So, from now on, if I have an interview in the diary I will try and post information about it on the blog in advance. That way if anyone thinks there is something they would particularly like to know about, they can put their question forward.

Now, I can’t make any promises that I’ll be able to ask them all, but it might contribute to a better informed interviewer and interview.

This week I’ve got two quite interesting subjects to write about, so I think I’ll use the next two posts to give some background on them…

I was asked to find four surveys of UK towns today, in an attempt to illustrate the banality of such things. You know the stuff: “Birmingham is the fourth most most popular city in which to buy chips on the second Friday of the month”, sort of thing.

The only condition was the survey had to be published this year. The ones I found were on eco-friendliness, driving, children and customer service. I think the highest rank for Birmingham was something like 42.

On seeing this, newsdesk asked me to do a quick search to try and find a survey where Birmingham had come out on top. Using the search words “Birmingham tops” the first three surveys that came up were about: buisness crime, pirated CDs and downloading porn.

We decided to keep to the original four.

I hope you will indulge me for a few sentences while I revel in a small achievement.

Today the Post published a letter from Richard Bowker, chief executive of National Express Group. He was responding to one of my articles.

It appears we don’t publish letters online (should we?) and I haven’t got a scanner, so I’ve reproduced the letter word-for-word here.

As the head of a company that is planning to move its headquarters to Birmingham, I am glad he is taking an interest in the local press! But the congratulations for invoking such a response must go to Chris Crean from Friends of the Earth, West Midlands.

But, along with the back slapping, there is an important point to make.

Now, some may say it was cruel of me to kick a company that is essentially trying to do a good thing and reduce it’s Co2 emissions. Don’t get me wrong, as the first three paragraphs of the story suggest, this is generally a good thing.

But I think it is worth noting that Mr Bowker, so honest in his letter to the Post, is in the original aritcle quoted as saying that the Midland Metro is now “emission free”.

Now, I’m sorry, but this simply isn’t correct! How can you describe incineration and the burning of landfill gas and sewage sludge emission free?!

Now, in my mind, these are perfectly legitimate ways to obtain energy. Better to siphon off waste and harmful gases and turn it into something useful than just let it float off into the atmosphere or languish in landfill. (Whether there should be such a large amount of waste to dispose of in the first place is another matter.) You could argue that it is, indeed, environmentally friendly. But, I’m sorry, you can not call it emission free.

The point is, wittingly or unwittingly, Mr Bowker engaged in “greening down”. It’s something I see far too much of in the press releases sent into the paper.

I don’t know exactly how it comes about, but it seems to me that some companies/organisations feel this sustainablity lark is a bit too complicated for ordinary Joe Public. So, perhaps because it will also make them look good, they generalise – glossing over the thornier issues and tossing in a few positive phrases such as “carbon neutral”, “emission free” and (argh!) “green”.

Is it any wonder so many people are confused about climate change issues?

The worst part is that, somewhere along the line, this was also misrepresented to some of National Express’ staff. When I called the National Express press office they were under the impression that 100% of the company’s energy would now come from wind and hydroelectric power. That is to say, it would be emission free.

This claim rang alarm bells, so I did some research and, low and behold, it was not the case.

The day the article went out, I got a cross message from National Express’s press office on my answerphone. A press officer said my article was completely inaccurate and that there would have to be a correction placed in the paper.

With a sinking feeling (because you can only try and get all the info, but you never know what you might have missed) I rang E.ON – who I had contacted to get information on the tariff for the story – to try and establish where I might have gone wrong.

They said they’d get back to me. The next thing that happens is this letter appears in the paper.

Now I understand that with the heightened awareness of climate change there is a pressure on business to be seen to be doing something positive. But, this needs to be achieved by being open and transparent, not by fudging or misleading people. This is particularly important if your company sets great store by its environmental credentials, as National Express claims it does.

That’s why I’m particularly glad to see that letter – a small victory for honesty and clarity.

I had the pleasure of tea at the marvellous Kitchen Garden Cafe today, followed by a stroll through a very autumnal Kings Heath Park. It was a wonderful, peaceful experience and reminiscent of the sort of walk that normally happens post-Christmas dinner. The colours on the trees are also glorious this time of year.

Bah humbug to all those in Moseley who treat KH with disdain. I think it’s great.

So, I’m now five whole posts in to this blog experiment and I’ve suddenly realised that I am stumbling over a whole host of questions about what I should and should not blog about.

I want this blog to be my blog, to write about things I care for. But I’m also conscious that I have, on occasions, to be careful with how I do that.

Take today for example: I was reading an article on The Stirrer website, suggesting that all the ”grunts” at P&M were more concerned about their £300 payout than they were about the sale.

Now, I can’t speak for anyone else but me. But this blog, if anywhere, is where I should be able to respond to something like that. 

Several times today I’ve had my finger over the button wanting to let rip about that story and to say that, for me personally, the £300 is not the be all and end all. I understand why Mr Goldberg wrote it, but surely there are more important things to be thinking about here?

But despite feeling passionate about it, I never pressed the publish key (!), because it feels uncomfortable.

Why should that be the case? Well, there are a number of reasons. One I have already mentioned in my previous post. Another is that I don’t want this blog to get involved in pointless political wranglings.

This last reason, I think, leads on to the more pressing fact that I haven’t come to any firm conclusion about what this blog is actually supposed to achieve.

Blogging is so different to writing for a newspaper. For a newspaper you are required to develop a certain style of writing and a knowledge of what is ‘newsworthy’. This provides some structure within which to work. 

But with blogging the rules are much more fluid and suddenly everything is up for grabs. I am in the dark and unguided. I think I’m feeling the fear.

Woo! Home before 8pm! A rare treat…

Over the past 24 hours I have been pondering the best way to blog about the fact that yesterday the sale of my paper was unannounced.

As a journalist interested in the media landscape of the West Midlands, it would feel ludicrous not to mention that it happened… particularly as the story involves my employer.

But, then again, I think it would probably be wise to avoid any personal analysis… particularly as the story involves my employer.

Suffice to say, the times they are a’changing. I’d be interested in your views on the subject (including the move to Fort Dunlop) and am happy to put straight any misconceptions where I think I can.

But there are also other changes afoot that are closer to home and that I feel a little more comfortable talking about.

As of Monday my role at the paper is changing. Up until now I have been a full-time business reporter covering general news and managing the media & marketing and enterprise pages.

My new position will span both news and business and my mission (which I have chosen to accept) is to focus on stories related to the creative industries and sustainability. A strange mix, you may think. But there are many things that link the topics, including the fact the both are big interests of mine.

It’s a new role and I’m determined to do it justice. So if there’s anyone that feels there’s a gap in what we’re doing with these sectors, then let me know – I’ll be trying my best to fill it.

In the meantime, I’m off to make the most of a quiet night in with a long soak in the tub!