Sticks and stones

! This post hasn't been updated in over a year. A lot can change in a year including my opinion and the amount of naughty words I use. There's a good chance that there's something in what's written below that someone will find objectionable. That's fine, if I tried to please everybody all of the time then I'd be a Lib Dem (remember them?) and I'm certainly not one of those. The point is, I'm not the kind of person to try and alter history in case I said something in the past that someone can use against me in the future but just remember that the person I was then isn't the person I am now nor the person I'll be in a year's time.

It’s not very often I come out in defence of an MP and even less often a Liebour MP but I have to defend Paul Flynn MP over the attempted censorship of his blog.

Flynn makes fun of his fellow MPs and gives them nicknames on his blog.  Some of the things he says about his colleagues are quite scathing although not with the same vehemence as people like the Devil or the ginger one.  But the Commons thought police didn’t like the idea of him using his propaganda allowance to pay for that sort of thing and told him, in not so many words, to stop taking the piss.

If you look at the top political blogs in terms of visitors, influence and noteriety, the only one written by a politician is Bob Piper and that’s because he’s blunt, critical and takes the piss.  It’s what people want to read, it’s what makes political blogs interesting.  People don’t want to read commentary or extracts of policy, they want to know who’s shagging who, who scratches their arse and then sniffs their fingers, who goes on 12 hour benders in the Commons bar and all that jazz.  They want to see politicians being called names and generally sneered at.

Flynn did the right thing – something you wouldn’t generally expect from a Liebour MP – and dipped his hand in his own pocket to pay the £250 a year cost of hosting his blog which means the Commons thought police have no excuse to censor him.  Interestingly, according to his blog he did this 18 months ago but the BBC are only now reporting it.  It’s common for the dead tree press and even news behemoths like the BBC and Sky to be hours or even days behind blogs but surely 18 months is a bit too long to be excusable?

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6 comments

  1. Jack Smith (1 comments) says:

    It’s called right wing cause “ignorant selfish fascist racist pricks with little grasp on reality” was too long, Tosser.

  2. wonkotsane (1133 comments) says:

    Ah, more verbal abuse from people who don’t read my blog, don’t know me and hid behind false names and email addresses.

  3. Manbeast (24 comments) says:

    Don’t let it worry you muck, when I was at Teesside Poly back in the eighties the various left wing groups used fascist as a common term of abuse for those who didn’t repeat their beliefs parrot fashion.

    Including each other! They used to talk a lot about beating Thatcher but in reality were far more interested in slagging each other off.

    These days fascist is becoming a short way of saying “I’d argue with you but I suspect I’ll lose so I’ll use a term of abuse instead. By the way what do you believe in?”

  4. axel (1214 comments) says:

    Fascist means together, ity has something to do with tying lots of sticks together, to make a strong stick to beat some one to death with.

    Uni was the same when i was there the first time, lots of lefties, lots of interecine spats about doctrinal wank but no fights, i had to go hunting the SWP, who were real people and did enjoy their fisticuffs

    😉

  5. wonkotsane (1133 comments) says:

    By the way what do you believe in?

    Good question. Small government, individual responsibility, representative and participatory democracy, home rule for England, honesty and integrity in those who are supposed to represent us, respect for the majority and not just the minority. I don’t fit in any box, I’m unique like everyone else. 😉

  6. axel (1214 comments) says:

    I am more pragmatic, i beleive the best system would be me as King but next best and a lot more likely is a continual swing between left and right politics.

    Both sides have their advantages but more importantly both ways have their big disadvantages. The advantages and good ideas come in the first term or two then it just becomes a conveyor of shite as the disadvantages over come the innovations and people get reminded why they only sometimes vote for that p[articular party

    I think there needs to be some sort of electoral reform. proportional representation of some flavour, I’m open to suggestions

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