Johnson takes to the stage in Nottingham

It used to be said that the Queen must think all hospitals smell of fresh paint, such were the efforts made by staff to refurbish any building she might visit.

In the case of Health Secretary Alan Johnson, it must seem like each hospital he goes to has just achieved success with a new medical innovation.

Mr Johnson was in Nottingham to visit City Hospital and see its state-of-the-art stroke referral service, which allows victims of strokes to be taken from their GP directly to a specialist ward. The service has already helped 110 people in Notts and even saved a policeman's life earlier this year.

But from the Government's point of view, it gives the NHS a chance to show the positive things it is doing around the country in the face of some generally cynical media coverage.

Visits of Government ministers to the provinces are usually pretty chaotic from a journalist's point of view. We generally spend most of the day sitting around in waiting rooms as the politician concerned meets the patients and staff, while a slightly flustered team of public relations officials circle round and try to head off any unscripted moments which might send them "off message".

By the time I joined the rest of assembled press pack at the City Hospital, the health secretary was already running ahead of schedule. This might not sound notable, but for a Government minister making stops around the country it is virtually unheard of.

Soon the carefully scripted procession though the stroke and urology departments took Mr Johnson round to the waiting reporters. As I waited in an interview room for him to finish speaking to the television news reporters I struck up conversation with a middle-aged woman whom I assumed to be part of the PR team.

It turned out to be influential Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee, accompanying the health secretary on his visit for an upcoming article. Given her reputation as a New Labourite and supporter of many government policies, some may say the distinction from the rest of the PR team isn't that vast.

In the end, I didn't get quite as much chance to grill Mr Johnson on the NHS in Notts as I would like. After giving him an easy question about the new stroke service, I only managed to ask two more questions about the hospital trust's superbug record and financial situation before my interview was cut short due to time constraints. Even the Evening Post photographer was stopped from taking pictures after only a few snaps.

A few minutes later a relaxed looking Alan Johnson (with Polly Toynbee) strolled out of the hospital door and onto a waiting patient link bus. It might have been a big event for the local media, but for him and his team it was just another day in the never-ending drive for positive publicity.

What do you think of visits to hospitals by Government officials? Are they important for our NHS or just a photo opportunity?

Winter Blues? I'm too busy doing Yoga

Even if you're not one of those superstitious types who insist on having their Christmas decorations down by the sixth of the month, January usually feels as empty as a bookshelf in Paris Hilton's house.

Finances are tight after spending all our cash on brightly coloured paper and sprouts (two-thirds of which went in the bin), there's nothing to look forward to and the weather is dire. On Friday it was so dark outside the Evening Post's office at 1pm I was worried I had set my alarm 12 hours late and accidentally got up in the middle of the night.

The depressing nature of this time of year is even backed up by science. According to a formula devised by Dr Cliff Arnall of Cardiff University's Centre for Lifelong Learning, the most depressing day of the 2008 is set to be a day or two either side of January 21.

(For those who want to calculate it themselves, the formula is ([W + (D-d)] x TQ) ? (M x NA). W = weather, D = debt, d = money due in January pay, T = time elapsed since Christmas, Q = time since failed New Year's resolutions to quit smoking, drinking etc, M = general motivational levels and NA = the need to take action.)

I can easily believe it. In fact if I didn't have to be at work on the 21st - which falls on a Monday, naturally - I would probably spend the day listening to Radiohead records in a darkened room.

The only way out of the rut which looks set to lead me to the crazy house (or a severe case of Seasonal Affective Disorder) is to do something drastic. Hence, as of this week, I plan to enlist in a class at night school.

It might not be up there with bungee-jumping off the top of the Empire State Building in terms of sheer exhilaration, but I'm pretty sure I'll get something out of it.

There's no shortage of options either. A quick glance at the websites of some nearby colleges or that of the Notts branch of the Workers? Educational Association reveals a wide variety of courses to save from me from another evening of watching TV on the sofa.

In the Arnold and Woodthorpe areas alone I could, should I wish, learn more about psychology or Buddhist philosophy. I could pick up a brush and do some watercolour painting, even learn the rudiments of yoga.

It's probably no coincidence that these course always start in January, when the uncommitted such as myself are most vulnerable to attempts at self-improvement. Many of the classes only last for two weeks before being called to a halt due to lack of numbers.

But whichever course I end up choosing, I'm determined to go the distance.

It might mean that the beer section of my nearest supermarket takes a hit due to my reduced loafing time, but at least when I'm finished I might be able to do a passable watercolour painting.

Do you have any New Year's resolutions? And how do you get through the winter blues?

US hopefuls give campaign a personal touch

If you've ever felt like the build-up to a general or local election is going on for ever, the chances are you wouldn't have enjoyed living in Iowa for the last few months.Thursday night saw voters in the mostly rural US state cast the first meaningful votes of the country's elections by taking part in the first caucus of the season, signalling the start of a race for the White House which will only get more fevered as the final vote on November 4 gets closer.But in reality, the jostling for position, fund-raising and criss-crossing of the country in search of vital votes began months ago.

Given how high the stakes are, it's hardly suprising. With candidates spending more than 100 million dollars each on their campaigns, they're leaving nothing to chance.And though the electoral system in the USA is as convoluted and incomprehensible to outsiders as they come, the tight margins could be a forerunner for our own General Election come 2009 or 2010.

The USA's image as a bastion of democratic purity has been tainted by scandal in the last two elections. Few will forget the recounts and farce of the 2000 presidential election, where George W Bush won despite failing to win the popular vote.Four years later Vietnam veteran John Kerry was defeated in part because a campaign to cast doubt on his outstanding military record.

Many believed the Bush administration's master of the dark arts, Karl Rove, was responsible.This time round though, the old guard has been replaced (Hillary Clinton and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani aside) by a bunch of largely unknown candidates, and the race is wide open.

A case in point was back in December, when Democratic hopeful Barack Obama joined talk show host Oprah Winfrey in a series of rallies across three pivotal states.In the next few days Obama's staff were busy contacting as many of the thousands of attendees as they could to make sure of their voting intentions. In the lead-up to the Iowa caucus, volunteers trudged through the snow of a mid-Western winter to put promotional hangers on residents' doors.One Iowan resident interviewed by reporters was able to play messages from staff representing all the Democratic candidates left on his answer phone, asking whethern he would be turning out on the day.

Election time in the UK seems almost quaint in comparison.Those aiming for our votes limit themselves to a few photo opportunities or a visit from a prominent party official, but conscious of our voters' suspicion of grandiose displays they shy away from overt displays of electioneering.The high-intensity campaigning from the US hopefuls might sound desperate - but I can't help but think it would have been nice for some of the prospective MPs to have lavished that kind of attention on my house when the UK chose its leader in 2005.What do you think of the techniques employed in the US elections? Should our voting system be more like theirs?

Snow excuse for failing to deal with winter weather

If there's one thing that always captures the nation's interest during the post-Christmas lull, it's the arrival of snow. For many people the first sign of white flakes around their ears is great news.

Kids get to go sledging and make snowmen, TV camera crews get to shoot heart-warming footage of them doing it, and the more elderly (or at least those who haven't already used up their Winter Fuel Allowance) get to compare the winter in question with those from decades ago - which naturally were colder and longer than the newfangled modern ones.

But in the main, the arrival of snow in the UK usually precipitates a particularly British kind of mild chaos. Office workers have to sit at their desks in mittens and scarves because the boiler is broken. Children get the day off school because of the half inch of snow around their houses. Previously busy roads become impassable.

As the cold snap swept in across the UK towards Notts this week, phrases like "travel chaos" and "fleets of gritters on standby" were already being bandied about. Luckily the cold snap is expected to be over by the weekend or you would be worried about the whole country grinding to an icy halt.

For all the panic over our transport infrastructure, it's not like our snowy spells are even that arduous. Other countries seem to manage - during a year I spent studying at the University of Wisconsin in the USA the authorities dealt with inches of snow and temperatures dipping past -30C with consummate ease.

The omens for Notts aren't too promising. In 2005 a 5cm flurry of snow across parts of the county prompted police to warn motorists against travelling, as drivers slid around on ungritted roads or were forced to wait in traffic jams.

If the snow does come this week, the city and county councils will doubtless spring into action with gritters and other measures to keep our roads open.

But I still can't help but wonder why, in what is supposed to be one of the most advanced countries in the world, we are always taken by surprise by a spell of cold weather which we know will always come at least once a year.

What are your experiences of snowy weather in Notts? Do our authorities cope well when the weather turns bad?