Noel Gallagher was back in the news again today. This time, however, the reports weren’t about him having another fight with his brother, Liam, or the release of a new song: the story was about how he’d been approached by Simon Cowell to be a judge on the X Factor.

While many of us would have been interested to see what the straight-talking rock’n’roller had to say about each week’s hopefuls, he’s apparently turned down the opportunity – much to the consternation of his 11-year-old daughter, Anais.

Noel could have grabbed the opportunity and got himself in front of millions of viewers each week – and no doubt sold a few more albums in the process – but I can’t say I blame him for turning it down.

If he’d had gone for it, he would have been accused of selling out, of betraying his rock’n’roll roots and had a number of his (former) fans shaking their heads at the fact that he’d gone ‘mainstream’. Although he’s never had the image of a wild man of rock in the mould of Jim Morrison, Keith Richards or even his brother, he’s all too aware of the impact of negative publicity.

The photograph of him swigging champagne with Tony Blair at a Downing Street reception in 1997 routinely comes back to haunt him and he probably didn’t want anything else dragged out in years to come that called into question his ‘cool’ credentials.

He would no doubt have been roundly criticised if he’d accepted the position. Maintaining a rock star image isn’t easy – I just hope Anais understands!

The nation watched with baited breath today, as Tony Blair took the stand in his own defence of the Iraq invasion. Whilst the merits of his support for the war are sure to be relentlessly questioned and harshly criticised over the next few days, the facts revealed in the Chilcot inquiry are likely to be already widely known. The Iraq war was the most closely covered episode of Tony Blair’s Prime Ministerial career, which got us Peppermints thinking about the impact of the internet on political reporting.

The age of the Internet has changed forever the nature of governance. Even on the eve of the Iraq invasion, back in 2003, the public was able to follow every decision and development, in as close to real-time as had ever been possible before. Today, the intensity of coverage is even stronger, with Number 10 posting policy updates, as they happen, across its Twitter platform.

For those employed to PR the actions of governments and politicians, this has been invaluable. It allows them to reach out to sections of society commonly less inclined to involve themselves in the political process. It allows minute-by-minute trumpeting of good policies and defence of bad ones. And most importantly, it prompts and facilitates discussion. People no longer have to have read today’s newspaper to be up-to-date on the latest policy decisions; just pop onto your Twitter page and find out how it affects you!

Discussion, transparency, information and inclusion are buzzwords on every party’s manifesto; they’re all invaluable in the promotion of democracy and good government. No wonder, then, that social media now plays such a key part in that promotion.