My local newspaper ( @sotlive) today published a story showing the 'challenges the city faces'—basically a bunch of photos of rough sleepers. Looking through their timeline I couldn't see any tweets mentioning local MPs. Bit odd for a local newspaper? I decided to investigate. 1/7

Using my (limited) digital skills I ran a site search of the paper ( https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk ) to see if it could reveal what was being reported. The results were...interesting. 2/7

First up, I threw in some of the terms the paper seems fond of. Here are some results: 'Beggars' got 2,860 results. 'Heroin'? 6,180 results. 'Thug' was a biggie with 26,700 results! Another word they love, 'homeless' got 20,100. 3/7

So, then. The Sentinel (or @Sotlive) is widely reporting the problems of our drug-addled city, that is full of homeless people. 'Well', I thought, 'I bet there's LOADS of stories where the good journalists at The Sentinel are taking our hard-working MPs to task?' 4/7

So, I site-searched the MPs. First, Stoke North MP, Jonathan Gullis: 563 results. Bit weird? How about Stoke Central (where the 'challenging' photos were taken). The MP there is Jo Gideon. Her results? 5/7

118 results. One hundred and eighteen. Jack Brereton, the Stoke South MP? 301 results. So. 982 mentions of all 3 Stoke MPs across a site that mentions the world 'homeless' OVER 20,000 TIMES. That's a problem. 6/7

We can't place the blame of problems in our cities at the door of the local press. But, if you're an editor or journo at a local paper, PLEASE push to expose the problems at the top that are destroying the people at the bottom. 7/7

@HayleyParker6, @WaddingtonPost,
@RobCotterill2 - I'd love to hear your take on this?