Tim Ireland, independent political activist who has done some work for the Lib Dems in the past, has written a post taking on uber-blogger Guido Fawkes with an appeal to the bloggersphere’s better nature. From what I’ve skim-read there are some good points.
If I might make a suggestion in one word, Tim: “footnotes”. Any chance of separating the point out from some of the yards of detail? (the summary doesn’t quite cut it)
In other news, Mark Pack (Lib Dem propellor head in chief & Lib Dem Voice blogger) is on 18 Doughty St tonight.
Hat tip for Bloggerheads: Liberal England
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12 Comments
The devil’s in the detail, unfortunately. A good thing, then, that there’s one popular ‘blog’ that has an official policy about not going into detail.
With a bit of luck, my feet will look less multicoloured than on my previous appearance…
Not the only reason for you to watch your step, Mark.
;o)
Actually, tonight, Mark, you should be Matthew. It’s a Den thing.
I could actually boil down Tim’s arguments into three general pieces of good advice:
1) Remember that everyone has an agenda, and most of the time they don’t go to the trouble of publishing it.
2) Remember that, on the Internet, anyone can be no-one if they want.
3) Remember that, on the Internet, anyone can be anyone else if they want.
Fawkes is to blog as tabloid is to broadsheet. Adjust your credulity filters accordingly, folks.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Tim’s digging proves all that much. I think the critique that the blog is a political mouthpiece that offers no right of reply (read: Guido is allowed to do politics but no-one else is) is more than sufficient.
^^ Umeeksk = Me
Techie point: any way to get LDV to display a screen name of my choosing rather than just my username? Other than just logging out…
I’m trying to phase out “Umeeksk” as a screen name, it just confuses the hell out of people 😉
Sure, go to https://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-admin/profile.php and set your screen name there.
Ta! 🙂
As liberals who believe in property rights you will understand that my blog is my property. I may allow a reply, I may delete it. Tim wants me to blog by his rules. He has become obssessive, I banned him from my comments. I told him to do it on his own blog. He did.
Rob Fenwick has been known to moan in my comments, during the leadership election my comments were full of Libdems arguing ad nauseum. Tom Watson, David Miliband and John McTernan have recently replied in my comments. Everyone accuses Guido of being in some other camp and worse, the labels change daily. Homophobe one day, libertine metrosexual the next. A fair degree of “Guido is crap because…” is permitted. Particularly the funny ones.
Tim basically thinks I spend all day manipulating my comments whilst counting the money from shadowy backers who finance my research team. Oh and he doesn’t like the blog layout.
You know not all of us have a higher purpose. Mocking the pretensions of our governors is Guido’s hobby. Having fun at the expense of politicians makes a change from them having fun at our expense, that is partly why the blog is popular. Nobody is forced to read it, no taxpayers are harmed in its production.
It is a humourous gossipy blog, keep some perspective and try not to bore on in the comments.
> Oh and he doesn’t like the blog layout.
Well, at least that bit’s changing 😉
Hello again, Guido. The invitation stands; do feel free to drop by to mine to raise any points you haven’t invented yourself.
I’ve always been amused – actually, make that wary – of/by people who refer to themselves in the third person as Guido has just done in his response.
It’s like Bob’s character in Ted Danson’s “Becker” series. The short-arse one with a fixation with women and a small-man power complex.
I mean, have a look!
“Everyone accuses Guido of being in some other camp and worse”
“Mocking the pretensions of our governors is Guido’s hobby”
But then there’s also “I may allow a reply, I may delete it”.
If I was an armchair trick-cyclist I’d diagnose split or multiple-personality.
As I’m not I would suggest either confused egotistical paranoia or a typical run of the mill, common or garden political junkie.
Intriguing all the same… Carl likes this, Carl likes this a lot, Carl may even need to have a lie down in a dark room for a while until all this malarky between Guido and Bloggerheads blows over. Carl is not looking forward to the forthcoming elections. Carl mops Carl’s brow…
See, it’s scary isn’t it.
Perhaps he’s just profoundly in love with Pandora, Carl (or the Mirror’s 3AM)…
Remember, there’s no ‘I’ in ‘Intellectualization’ (OK, *technically* there is, but you can prove anything with facts…)