Layer 90 Political Bloggers, Blears and the Backlash.

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Perhaps wee Hazel Blears has a use, after all, in that her very unattractiveness - physically, and in speech and manner - helps to crystallise, as it were, in human form, the repulsiveness of New Labour’s conduct, ideas and messages.

Her recent pronouncements on political bloggers are not only unattractive going on repulsive, they’re positively sinister. Check out what Blairwatch has to say on the subject at

http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/ - Meanwhile in Lilliput.

I found the Guardian’s article on Blear’s speech very unsatisfactory, especially its assumption (by listing them) that she was concerned mainly by right-wing blogs:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/05/hazel-blears-politics-media-labour


From my own experience it’s clear that the New Labour political creeps and arseholes that are running this country at national and, here and there, at local level, are indifferent to where the criticism of them comes from. They listen to nobody. All they care about is having and retaining power.

They’re quite happy to shift allegiance from Bush’s neo-conservatism to Obama’s centre/libralism at the drop of a hat. They were always very clear that they have no ideology, no guiding philosophy - they only care about “whatever works” - meaning, whatever makes us popular, whatever keeps us in power, whatever we can get people to go along with. What they absolutely hate, and can hardly bring themselves to engage with, is criticism - wherever it comes from.

Also on the subject of Blears and her unhappiness with ‘political bloggers’ -
( http://fabulousblueporcupine.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/cynical-nihilism/ )

Alix, at The People’s Republic of Mortimer says,

We in the People’s Republic now realise that we have spent a totally deficient amount of time over the last year’s blogging activity on fostering a culture of cynical corrosive nihilism. We are obviously hopelessly out of step with the zeitgeist, what with our all-too-frequent postings on such subjects as the teaching of history, Herbert Spencer, Anglo-Norman linguistics, urban planning, psychological profiling and our interminable difficulties with British Gas. We are a damn sight too constructive, optimistic, reflective and cautious, among the many other inconvenient qualities associated with liberalism.

We are ready to make amends.

So what’s the single most depressing, cynicism-inducing, hair-tearingly awful, weepingly ruinous assault on the nation’s political psyche we can recall?

Alix then has this quote from the Blear’s speech:

“ …and in recent years commentary has taken over from investigation or news reporting, to the point where commentators are viewed by some as every bit as important as elected politicians, with views as valid as cabinet ministers.”

Views as valid as cabinet ministers. Views as valid as cabinet ministers? You see? I’m gibbering with fear already. This woman thinks that no-one else’s views are entitled to be seen as being as valid as those of cabinet ministers. She is suggesting that it is wrong for people to have views which are taken as seriously by the electorate as those of cabinet ministers. She thinks that cabinet ministers have a special claim to have their views prevail. She has genuinely, totally forgotten that cabinet ministers are supposed to serve the people, represent their views. She has genuinely, totally forgotten that this is a democracy.

There’s no point quoting any more of this. Just read it.

Please pay particular attention to the bits about Mandleson, government control of the .co.uk registry, internet regulation, and New Labour putting together a “rapid rebuttal unit” blogger team.

Maybe one day we’ll have cause to thank wee Hazel for raising the hackles of so many good writers and bloggers.

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All that most of us want the Labour party to do is drop the ridiculous ‘New’, admit that they colluded for 11 long years with Bush and the financiers who run the world, used deception to drag us into an illegal war, created a housing shortage and an unsustainable house price bubble, ruining many poor souls along the way, fucked up most people’s savings and pensions, failed to supervise the banking sector properly, created despair and disillusionment among public sector workers, caused millions of children to suffer higher levels of stress and boredom, . . . and so on, and so on . . . and start governing in the interests of the majority of the population - and maybe, just maybe, we’ll say, “OK, we’ll still vote for you, providing you get rid of Blears, Mandleson, Balls, about three thousand little toe-rag apparatchiks who squat within the party hierarchy and get paid as ‘advisors’ and ‘consultants’. Then again, maybe we won’t. Not that there’s any chance of them doing even five percent of what’s on that list.

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It’s interesting though, the extent to which those within government have pretty much stayed ‘on message’, stuck together, hardly ever ‘gone rogue’. It’s obvious why, of course.
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