Bloggerheads backs Blair
Blogs are quite nice. Ok, so sometimes you get out of the habit and kinda don’t update them for weeks (sorry about that), but on the whole blogging can be a good way of disseminating information, opinion and nonsense. You often get interesting feedback from interesting people around the globe to boot.
When a member of parliament takes up blogging, discussion and flow of information between that elected representative and the normal human beings she serves can be improved. It’s not going to transform democracy, but it’s probably not a bad thing. So what would you sacrifice to get more MPs blogging?
I ask because Tim Ireland, aka Manic, of Bloggerheads, has decided that he is going to back Blair for the duration of next year’s election. Why the hell would someone who’s been trying to get rid of Blair for ages decide to support him at a general election when it matters most? Because he wants to promote blogging by politicians, and thinks he can best do that by working for Labour.
So Blair appeases a torturer, manipulates the terrorist threat for political ends, misleads parliament over WMD, and launches an illegal invasion of Iraq (100,000 civilians dead and counting). But you know, getting a few MPs blogging freely is more important than all that.
Whatever manic does, blair will win the next election. But surely it is the duty of anyone who believes that Blair has done all this to make sure his government pays as high a political price as possible to make sure that any future would-be war-monger thinks twice? Every seat that Labour loses at this election, even it it goes to the tories, places more power in the hands of the Liberal Democrats, the only major party to have opposed Blair’s war.
I have a lot of respect for Manic, which is why I’m having such a hard time understanding his decision. I’m sure it’s not one he made lightly, and no doubt he’ll have answers for his critics over the coming weeks, so do keep checking Bloggerheads for updates.
The only way forward for Britain - and for Iraq - is for justice to be seen to de done. Not dodged, and not spun.
–Tim Ireland, 10th June 2004
November 27th, 2004 at 14:13
The trouble is what are the alternatives. It seems ulikely that the PLP will move to replace him at the moment. Michael Howard continues to have somehting of the night about him, and the Lib Dems are not going to get enough movement to do any more than possibly take over as the 2nd party. and so we are left with Tony B Liar
November 27th, 2004 at 18:41
That’s a pretty strange rationalisation; “I’ll vote for Blair because he’s going to win”. Well, yeah - if everybody votes for him because they think he’s going to win, I’m pretty sure that he will win…
November 28th, 2004 at 08:50
That wasn’t actually what I meant. What I meant was that the choice of PM is a dire oneand we seems to be looking at a least worst option rather than the best option
November 29th, 2004 at 15:51
Seems Tim has sold out to the Blair £££’s and would rather take the cash than uphold his priciples. Every man has his price it seems
November 29th, 2004 at 18:36
I concur with all above. Until now I hade some interest and admiration for Tim Ireland’s Manic blogging even though we’ve crossed swords over Sandra Gidley’s (Romseyredhead) but his latest diatribe seems to show he’s lost the plot. Hope you don’t mind my commenting in here, but he doesn’t like feedback in his!
November 29th, 2004 at 20:33
You guys, quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand or what.
November 30th, 2004 at 10:58
Bloggerheads sells out - shock horror! Not. Every man as his price even Manic. But to sell out to Blair is just the pits
November 30th, 2004 at 11:01
So the Prince of spin joins the King of spin - a partnership made in hell and one which just about sums up the UK at the moment. Blair to get another term in office - will the last person leaving England switch off the lights! Just what does this Labour gov have to do to get voted out?
November 30th, 2004 at 15:09
Well, it seems manic has his enemies. Or should I say enemy. “Zippy”, “Mel” and “Dillion” all have similar opinions and, amazingly, the same IP address! I find it fairly bizarre that someone should try to covertly influence the tone of discussion on a blog as insignificant as this one.
Further comments from the same IP will be deleted.
November 30th, 2004 at 15:44
1. Multiple personalities? That’s a common technique, as used against Sandra Gidley and Jody Dunn (by - one might suspect - the same person/people).
2. I understand the surprise and disappointment some people must be feeling… but within a few weeks, I’ll have you backing Blair, too. Just you watch.
December 2nd, 2004 at 13:13
Wait. I’m not suire whether the implication is that Tim Ireland is supporting our illiberal and maniacal PM, whether he’s now working on a campaign for the Labour Party, or some vague area in between?
December 2nd, 2004 at 19:35
Well, he says he’s working on a flash movie that’ll have us all supporting the Bliar, despite having been trying to get rid of him for months. Apparently because he wants to work for the labour party to get MPs blogging.
Personally, I’m not sure I believe him now. Notionally backing blair is one thing, but making a flash movie extolling his merits seems to be going a bit far. There’s more to this than I first thought. Perhaps I’ve been taken in by some elaborate publicity stunt…
December 2nd, 2004 at 23:43
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant is faithful, one hundred percent.
:o)
December 3rd, 2004 at 17:36
he’s got something up his sleeve. He would.
December 26th, 2004 at 12:42
Interesting comments, but I believe the next election will be a lot closer than last time. But you never know, let’s wait and see. With interest rates a lot higher than most countries and the very heavy tax burden in the UK, anything is possible. Whatever the media tells us, a lot of people are very unhappy right now.
February 18th, 2005 at 07:58
[...] A couple of months ago I wrote a post about my disbelief at Tim Ireland’s plans for bloggerheads to back blair. It later became appare [...]