It’s a leftwing conspiracy!
Congratulations to the local creative blog, Created in Birmingham, for winning Best UK Blog at the Weblogs, and soundly beating Mad Mel. Victory was sweeter, considering both the Spectator and Melanie Phillips went on overdrive to blame dirty lefties for vote-rigging before the polls closed. Typical, though amusing.
Whatever happened to the supposed right-wing dominance online?
Giving a voice to Libdem grassroots
For nearly two and half years, Liberal Democrat Voice has aimed to represent grass-roots and discuss party issues online. In this interview, the site’s contributing editor Mark Pack, also the Libdem Head of Innovations, discusses what LDV’s point is and whether criticism of online campaigning is justified.
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What century do our monarchs live in?
The last few days have pushed me firmly into the open arms of campaign group Republic. First it was Harry’s ‘paki-gate’ and now its Prince Charles and ’sooty-gate’. As I’m already bored of talking about this faux-controversy, but keep getting asked about it, I’ll keep this short.
If two friends are joking around with each other and use names for each other that may have racial connotations, frankly its no one else’s business. But words have connotations, regardless of what idiot libertarians may like to pretend. So if someone unknown called me a paki or a raghead (which especially makes my turban-wearing brother see red), then they should expect a swift punch in the face. That’s not political correctness, that’s just me.
Are Harry and Charles racist? Who knows, that’s for their friends to decide. But what does irk me is that both seem to think words like ‘raghead’ and ’sooty’ are even jokey words. In the last century maybe, but who still uses those stupid terms anymore? It’s a silly controversy, but what I do like about them is the opportunity to keep drawing the boundary lines of polite behaviour. Just because some think ‘Paki’ is just shorthand for Pakistani and has no negative connotations here, doesn’t mean I’m obliged to accept their version of history. Nuff said.
The smugness of the right
The smugness pours through Iain Dale’s article at the Guardian’s Comment is Free site, as Dale tries to assess how much of a competitor Derek Draper’s Labour List is likely to be to sites such as Conservative Home.
Liberal Conspiracy is too serious, according to Dale, so there is room open on the Left for a big blog, but the smugness threatens to choke off whatever point Dale was making when he says, “It would be good…to have some real competition for a change.”
In the words of my forefathers, what an arrogant little shoite Iain Dale is. What I’d like to know is this: by what standard can Conservative Home or the Spectator Coffee House be judged as more successful than any individual or collective Left effort? More visits? By that definition, the websites of the mainstream meedja have us all beaten – but the very reason we bloggers write in the first place is that we don’t want to read inane drivel. Quality matters – not just popular appeal.
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Craig Murray fights the lawyers
In July last year I highlighted that legal firm Schillings was trying to prevent former Uzbekistan ambassador Craig Murray from publishing his book, ‘The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflicts’. In December, the Observer’s Pendennis reported:
The manuscript has not yet been made public, but it is thought that Spicer’s objections must involve revisiting the time Murray told a parliamentary committee he felt he’d been “set up” by Spicer, who was “extremely difficult to pin down and shifty”.
…
Murray, who had his first book published despite an attempt at censorship by the Foreign Office, says he will not be put off. He plans to post it on the internet in its original form. “There are now 122 electronic copies safe in 27 different jurisdictions, all to hit the net,” he tells me. “In the modern age, you can’t suppress the truth as you could when a few printing presses were the only means of mass communication. I have also started up Atholl publishing to produce copies myself for sale, primarily through Amazon.”
That day is tomorrow, Monday. So spread the word.
Exclusive: Oona King to join Channel 4
The former MP is joining Channel 4 as its new head of diversity. I wonder if this will stop various people trying to push her forward as Labour’s next London Mayoral candidate. I hope it does. An announcement is imminent.
Her remit will be to push C4 to: “reflect all kinds of social diversity including ethnicity, disability, nationality, regionality, age, gender and beyond.”
UK Gaza demos round-up
Israel has now launched a full-scale ground attack against the Gaza strip, which no doubt means many more innocent civilians will lose their lives over the coming days. To that extent, I think the demonstrations across the UK to express solidarity with the people of Gaza (not Hamas) were important – even if previous demonstrations haven’t had the desired effect: they send out a symbolic message, while expressing the degree of anger.
Anyway, you can read write-ups and see pictures by: Harpymarx, Derek Wall, myself, James Hooper, Rayyan Mirza, Lenin, Liam Mac Uaid, Shiraz Socialist, Janine, Andy D’Agorne, permanent revolution, on Harry’s Place and bigbluemeanie. [hat tip: Jim Jay for some links].
More pictures also on Flickr, and by Kate Belgrave.
If I’ve missed anyone out, please let me know below. Also, a few notes about my stance on the issue.
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Christopher Booker’s scientific credentials
Rejoice, people! Whatever you may’ve read, however many chilling predictions you may have heard, however frequently Al Gore might haunt your dreams, telling you that the world will end in a torrent of fire because YOU don’t use energy-saving lightbulbs, I can promise that all those fears are unfounded. For as people across the world glance at 2009 with such foreboding and dread, Christopher Booker has made the jolly discovery that instead of getting much, much worse, climate change doesn’t actually exist all!
Now, I understand that there’s a great deal of misinformation out there in BlogLand, and since I’m not a scientist (well, neither is he, but he sure seems to know a lot more than ‘real scientists’), I have to make sure that all my sources are of the highest calibre. So I did whatever any forensic time-deprived blogger would do, and checked him out on Wikipedia. Without further ado, and just to show how seriously you should take his scientific acumen, here are some of Booker’s greatest hits:
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A little local difficulty
While doing some reading around with my travel journalism hat on last week, I allowed myself a muted chuckle at respected travel-tech blogger Alex Bainbridge asking:
[I]f we know that when we post something we risk causing brand damage, should we self censor and only post positive things?
It’s the kind of question they might chew over while they’re brandstorming for Derek Draper’s new BlogDominanceUnit. Of course, Alex “fully rejects” posting only good news. But party flacks aside, it’s also the kind of question no political blogger would even bother asking, isn’t it? Perhaps not. continue reading… »
Behind New Labour’s online operations
So, last week New Labour’s Derek Draper hosted a breakfast at party HQ, inviting some left-leaning bloggers, party members and technology people to hear what two senior execs at Blue State Digital had to say about working on the Obama campaign. Thanks to hilarious spinning by Guido and Iain, this non-event has taken a life of its own and, since I attended, various people have been asking how it went.
Two points are worth making overall: (a) the Tory bloggers are more deluded than I thought; (b) Derek Draper’s online initatives are misguided.
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Love-Bombing the Lib Dems
Something that my lovely fiancé has been predicting for a while has started to happen: Tory journalists are being worryingly nice to the Lib Dems. To some extent, this is function creep from Vince Cable’s elevation from third party economics spokesman
to all-knowing prophet of everything
. Only Robert Peston comes close to Vince’s level of respectedness on the economy now, and I don’t think that can be undervalued. But that isn’t a full explanation for what has been happening over the last few days. Tory journalists aren’t being grudgingly nice about Lib Dem politicians, they are actively lauding them. The Award-Winning Alix Mortimer spotted Quentin Tw… Quentin Letts doing it the other day, but what really brought it home to me was when we finally got around to watching the This Week Christmas Special tonight.
Take a look at the year in review segment. Try hard to weather Quentin discussing Gordon Brown’s buttocks (there has to be slash fiction in that) and wait for the final third, where they all discuss Clegg: both Letts and arch-Tory Nick Robinson are particularly nice – I nearly choked on my Blue Nun when Robinson (who was so horrendously misrepresentative of Clegg’s performance at conference) described him as Youthful, Charismatic, and looking increasingly likely to make a breakthrough
. But that’s not as worrying for me as agreeing with both of Letts’ points.
So why is this happening now? continue reading… »
Lads’ mags and Labour: Claire Curtis-Thomas campaign
Lord Mandelson – back when he was just plain Peter, and resolutely still in the closet – used to write a column for FHM. Given that this publication is known chiefly for its annual rundown of ‘the world’s 100 sexiest women’, I always found that idea amusingly incongruous.
But not all Labour MPs view lads’ mags as a straightforward media opportunity; Claire Curtis-Thomas is campaigning to get them reclassified as pornography. I fear that she is entering a world of pain, and all for no good purpose.
We have been here before, more or less. Back in 1987, Clare Short – then a backbencher on the Labour left – introduced her Indecent Displays (Newspapers) Bill into the Commons. The target of her ire was the topless pin ups that used to feature prominently in The Sun and – if I remember correctly – the Daily Mirror, too.
A Case for Internet Regulation
If, like me, you have a knee-jerk reaction whenever anyone suggests regulating the Internet, this A List Apart article on captioning/subtitling of online videos is a challenging read. Joe Clark argues that the voluntary approach to developing a good, standardized captioning system has failed, and that only governments can enforce some sort of progress:
In short, disabled people’s right to be free of discrimination trumps the belief, however fallacious, that the internet cannot or should not be regulated.
Earlier this year, the Liberal Conspiracy take on Andy Burnham’s recommendations on Internet regulation, was that it was merely a sop to the powerful music lobby and their outdated business models. Contrast this with the case of subtitling, where it is the lack of regulation which has allowed the studios and broadcasters to ignore their obligations to provide accessible content, in favour of greater profit margins.
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Bloggers against libel: help Alex Hilton
There are interesting stories afoot: a former member of Labour, who joined RESPECT and then joined the Conservative Party, is currently suing Alex Hilton, former parliamentary candidate and manager / former owner of Labourhome.
Some of the details can be read on his site. The news was brought to my attention at Harry’s Place, and Dave Osler is apparently also being sued?
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The finest press in the world
ARE THEY BRITISH?*
*No.
ARE WE GOING TO APOLOGISE FOR SUGGESTING UP TO 7 OF THEM WERE?*
*No.
All images via 5 Chinese Crackers, who has more commentary.
Council bans Christmas
Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the familiar seasonal reports of local authority killjoys trying to ‘ban’ it. And like the Christmas displays in the shops, which the laws of commerce now require to be in place before the first leaves fall from the trees, the reports of the bans start earlier every year.
This year it was the city of Oxford that was first in the media firing line with the Oxford Mail’s ‘Council set to axe Christmas’ headline on 1 November setting the tone for a spot of ‘political correctness gone mad’-style bureaucrat bashing.
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Yes, we want a Lobby Pass
Last week Paul Linford said on his blog:
As I have pointed out before, what we must now call the Big Five political blogs are, by virtue of their size, influence, and networks, practically part of the mainstream media already. They are, in no particular order, Iain Dale’s Diary, Guido Fawkes, Political Betting, Conservative Home and the most recent newcomer to the elite, Liberal Conspiracy. In my view, all should be in the lobby.
That was in response to a report in the Press Gazette that the House of Commons is apparently giving this some thought. To be honest, I doubt it is, but I will chuck in my two pence anyway.
For different reasons to Mike Smithson at Political Betting, who is in favour of a lobby pass while Iain Dale and Paul Staines are not, I would welcome a lobby pass if offered to Liberal Conspiracy. We’re not here to simply throw mud at the politicians and keep screaming they are all scum of the earth. Our aim is to think about, plan for, and demand more progressive politics. We’re about making this country better, not just to support one party. We may not follow PMQs obsessively, but we could at least find it easier to ask specific MPs questions relating to our campaigns or have more meaningful discussions when papers are published by government departments. Most of my fellow Conspirators agree. Bring on the Lobby Pass, if it ever happens.
Andrew Gilligan’s false allegations
Plenty of people had plenty of fun at the expense of Andrew Gilligan last week. Now the laughter has died down, let’s assess what has been learned.
Looking through the threads of the two Cif articles in question – by Ken Livingstone’s former chief of staff Simon Fletcher and by esteemed fellow Conspirator Adam Bienkov – we see striking examples of Gilligan making false allegations against his critics, being shown to be in the wrong, then failing to admit it or apologise. They don’t inspire much confidence.
1) At 4.50 on Friday afternoon, a commenter called AView posted three times on Adam’s thread in quick succession. Posting at 5.53 Gilligan asserted that AView was a pseudonym of Livingstone’s economics adviser John Ross. An hour later Ross, posting as RMRoss, made an appearance to point out that this was wrong (as did AView in the small hours of the following morning).
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Andrew Gilligan is becoming a laughing stock
Updated with image
Oh dear oh dear. Not long ago he was the darling of Fleet Street with press plaudits galore. But now the Evening Standard’s Andrew Gilligan is rapidly becoming a laughing stock.
It’s not just the hysteria: using not one but two articles in the paper to launch attacks on Tory Troll (Adam Bienkov), BorisWatch and Dave Hill, while at the same time dismissing them as inconsequential.
It’s not even just the sock-puppeting. Adam pointed out yesterday on his CIF debut:
Why is New Statesman not recognising the NUJ?
Word has reached Liberal Conspiracy that journalists within the venerable left-wing magazine are not happy that it has yet to officially recognise the National Union of Journalists union.
The magazine has been undergoing editorial changes as new editor Jason Cowley took over from Sue Matthias, appointed acting editor when John Kampfner left. In October its US editor, Andrew Stephen, resigned. Cowley has also axed columns by Darcus Howe, Julian Clary and Ziauddin Sardar and hired James Macintyre from the Independent as a political correspondent. Martin Bright remains political editor.
LC has heard from more than one source that many staff considered the snub of the NUJ “outrageous”. Chapel members are considering contacting trade union advertisers with the New Statesman to put pressure on the management for recognition. The left of centre mag produces the TUC supplement every year.
But a magazine spokesperson, when contacted, said they were trying to resolve it. “No official position has been reached and the proprietors are still in discussion on the matter,” I was told.
It’s only right to ask why a left-of-centre magazine is taking so long in recognising the NUJ. An official statement by the union will be sent over to us tomorrow.
(article edited 7pm)
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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