Jeremy Hunt may have mighty plans for a revolution to create a vibrant local media, but it seems he just doesn't want to read about it in his local rag. In reply to a parliamentary question by MP Matthew Hancock asking what local newspapers the Hunt's Department for Culture Media and Sport had subscribed to in the last five years, tourism minister John Penrose said just two local papers – the Yorkshire Post from July 2007 to May 2010 and the Exeter Express and Echo from June 2009 to May 2010 – at a total cost of £700. Monkey reckons the Express and Echo will have been Exeter MP and former culture secretary Ben Bradshaw's local rag of choice. And the Yorkshire Post? Monkey's going for Gerry Sutcliffe, Labour MP for Bradford South and former sports minister. And what about local papers subscribed to by the DCMS under the new penny counting regime? Zero. "All local newspaper subscriptions were cancelled when the current secretary of state took office," responded Penrose.
