Mirror.co.uk editor Steve Purcell had a blog post on Friday that could be read as a masterclass in tabloid blogging.

The post somehow manages to combine a gratuitous reference to Celebrity Big Brother with a populist point about transport policy. Besides reality TV “stars”, the other people you are unlikely ever to see crammed into a rush-hour tube train are those people responsible for transport policy, Purcell says.

What makes it fascinating is how the post combines some traditional skills of the tabloid editor with the modern blogger skills of link-baiting search-engine optimisation. Purcell’s tags for the post are “travel, Jade, Goody, Shilpa, public transport, trains, commuting”. The post is illustrated with what might be a camera phone picture taken in the tube on the way to the office.

Funny — just a day earlier, a journalism blogger was pointing out how another newspaper was failing to appeal to the London commuter constituency with a blog about their concerns.

Coincidence?