Coming Next Week : Holding the Punditry to Account
The exasperated collective counter-attack by the establishment Commentariat on bloggers has inspired Guido to start a new regular feature. When the great and the good assembled at the RSA last Wednesday, shepherded by Julia Hobsbawm, John Lloyd (in absentia) and Matthew Taylor*, to bemoan their diminished status, they drew the battle-lines for a battle that should be joined and won for the blogosphere. The Commentariat desperately want to maintain their monopoly role as media gate-keepers, as the sub-edited filters of democracy and the monopoly producers of public commentary. Guido has said this before; in an age of near costless technological disintermediation "the news" is no longer what they say it is, we can make the news ourselves, unfiltered by the metropolitan media elite. Successful boutique news sources are proliferating. The media Goliaths now face an army of blogging Davids...A lot of what was said at the Editorial Intelligence event was plain ignorant, the conflation of blog writing with blog comment interaction in particular. It is true that the comments left here and on the Guardian's CiF can be pretty vitriolic and profane, but they are genuinely reflective of what readers really think. Polly Toynbee hates the contradictory "barrage" of comments that follow her articles because she has an over-inflated view of the value of her analysis. Many of us only read her articles for the pleasure of seeing them torn to shreds in the comments that interactively follow. Polly is highly paid and successful because she is a provocative columnist, not because she is a better analyst of social affairs than Frank Field. That is a valuable hack talent she shares with Richard Littlejohn...
The fear and ignorance heard last Wednesday did not showcase the "Power of the Commentariat", it highlighted their decline. They are weakened and rightly so, for they have time and time again failed to hold political power to account successfully. Proximity breeds compromise and the politico-media class has for example tolerated lying about expenses by politicians for decades and that toleration spread to tolerating spin, which is as often as not professional lying. Democracy is worse off because the Commentariat are compromised by being so embedded in the political class - or as Polly Toynbee explains "in sympathy with politicians".
Laughably the Commentariat simultaneously fear and deride what they perjoratively term the "cult of the amateur". The irony of this is not lost on Guido. The pundits of the unpopular press really need a re-think here, very few journalists earn as much as top bloggers. Guido can think of a few lone website owners who produce their content and make far more than most journalists of the Dead Tree Press. They are also profit making publishers, unlike the Independent, Guardian and Telegraph.
This misplaced arrogance of the Commentariat deserves a research-based response. The writings of the Commentariat no longer just end up as fish and chip wrapping, their writing is accessible via the internet forever. So tomorrow, hopefully with the assistance of the wisdom of the blogging crowds, Guido will start putting the profundity of their punditry in context and under the microscope, starting with Janet Daley.What did she, with all her intellectual authority, tell us about Gordon Brown last summer? Feel free to be profane...
*Matthew Taylor has complained bitterly about bloggers before. Contrast Taylor's attitude to Rupert Murdoch's attitude to the democratising of commentary. Overwhelmingly the Commentariat basically has a protectionist attitude, the increasing pluralism of news sources scares them because it devalues them. Shrewdly and counter-intuitively, Murdoch has an enabling attitude, expanding by freeing the market for commentary. He gets it.
81 comments:
Aside from the pure delight provided by watching the likes of Polly Toyboy, Lady Michael White et al descending into total irrelevance, the rise of the Blogosphere as the one true source of free speech gladdens the heart -Hats off to you, Guido...
The intelligent collation, assimilation and clarification of unsorted data - that's all the "commentariat" Guido refers to offer(ed); previously an exclusive (and highly lucrative) territory for them as a result of the costs of distribution. Distribution now being "free"(ish), they're having to work for their living, big time, as the Evening Standard did for example, when confronted with the Metro mag.
The Tuscan is a fan of BBC7, the BBC's digital-only station, a trawl though their comedy and drama archive, and it occurred to the him some time back that whilst for the moment they only show 7 days worth of programming on the "listen again" feature on the site; what one really wannts is to have full access to all broadcasters' archives, and then let private, independent, paid for or advert-sponsored aggregators do the scheduling (who has time to sift millions of hours of programmes?) .
Guido is the Autonomy plc of the Westminster Village.
For what its worth, there is a little know for the moment company that does this sort of thing with unsorted data, www.autonomy.com (Tuscan's fave business of all time, fill yer boots), the beginning of the end for the likes of the Beeb as entertainment retailers.
John Lloyd: former Communist, I think.
Julia Hobsbawm: daughter of Communist, I presume.
Such people are hardly likely to approve of free comment, are they?
People get to be top commentators in newspapers because they are good at politics, usually of the office variety.
They opinions are of no more worth than the man down the pub. Their one advantage is an ability to write lucidly, though if you are good enough at office politics that isn't always a requirement. Behind them sit a huge army of over-paid bureaucrats, increasingly useless now that the likes of Microsoft and Google have made home publishing so easy.
As the guy Guido quoted from Microsoft recently, this really is a re-run of the monks and their beautiful manuscripts vs the invention of printing presses.
I look forward to the denoument of the newspaper oligarchies with pleasure.
Judging by her hair,it seems the lady in the pic is smiling bravely after just being caught in the face by a John Prescott belch?
My blog on Ironies Too this sunny afternoon focuses on the non-democratic credentials of the recent Dublin doorsteppers Merkel and Barroso.... where are the commentariat on that? Part of the cover-up no doubt!
Perhaps they will all be "let go" because and I will shout this for deaf "NO FUCKER BELIEVES A WORD YOU WRITE ANY MORE YOU ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR AND THEREFORE IRRELEVANT"
now please fuck off and leave the comments to people with no editor/owners or prime ministers cock to suck(yes toynbee that means you).
The Internet has made you redundant so go get a real job to help the real economy.CUNTS ALL!!
I hope you will look at Matthew Parris, the BBC's favorite toyboy, who seems deeply spineless and consistently wrong on most things he pronounces on.
He really has become England's Andrew Sullivan.
HERE IS A STORY FOR YOU GUIDO
Watch this video, here when asked about a quote from John Prescotts book he says firmly I DONT DO BOOK REVIEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7394723.stm
I immediately thought I bet he bloody well has, so in goes David Miliband Book Review into the saviour of research the Google Search engine, within seconds this -
WHAT A SUPRISE, a book review by none other than David Miliband written only last year.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,,2042069,00.html
What a bunch of jokers we have for politicians.
Yours everly
Basil
Blair's 'Whiter than white' phrase finally makes sense to me! Still it is a pretty easy objective, even for a politician.
It is a relatively simple and straightforward problem utter cunts like these have and can be summed up in just a few short sentences, and also make a good analogy with all the problems of Labour.
Firstly, they have been found out as not quite as bright as they think they are.
They do not now have a monopoly on mainstream commentary; the normal pleb now has a voice, and the commentators don't fucking like it.
They cannot dictate their views any more; the plebs will tell them to go fuck themselves.
They are not masters of their own universe and the plebs now dictate MSM policy wit their feet and pockets; no more the likes of the Sun telling everyone how to vote, and this can be seen in recent years with the Tories getting a torrid time but still coming through.
Simply, they are just a bunch of cunts.
Perfect example? What are we doing now, and could we do it in the recent past when cunts like Mathew Taylor was, metaphorically, lord of all he surveyed? Think of Polly Toynbee and how she has been made to look very stupid over the past year or two, primarily because we now have a voice and we can tell her what a cunt she is.
Absolutely Guido, I look forward to it!
Do you mean this sort of article?
I don't think Janet Daley was really one of the worst offenders in respect of bigging-up Gordon Brown - if that is indeed what you're getting at.
The whole of the media class fawned over Brown and would have licked his shoes clean if he'd asked them to. They knew what he was like as a person - how useless a politician he really is - yet when he first got his hands on the premiership they wouldn't say a bad word about him - I guess all for the fear of losing access.
Why does the so called "established press" think it has the right to censor and distort all that I am supposed to read. You would have thought that by now one newspaper or TV station would have broken ranks and started to print and reveal the real truth. But no! So as far as I'm concerned good riddance to all the media and a big welcome to free speech as it should be i.e the web. If enough of them sink and go under then perhaps they will change their ways. My hope is that it the Murdoch empire with its crap TV and crap newspapers are first to go!
I really cannot wait for this! What a grand idea. I have been disappointed for the second or third week running at the pointless regurgitation (sorry Mr Prescott) of various memoirs in the 'news' media, even on BBC television. Most of the papers who are serialising these drivelling monologues own the book publishing houses, yet the BBC simply plods on, pretending it is all fascinating 'news'. It is not. I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper, but I follow the news online daily, and rate many bloggers over the heads of the so-called commentariat. They'll be serving fish and chips in a decade or so, never mind creating the ink on the wrappers.
"Many of us only read her articles for the pleasure of seeing them torn to shreds in the comments that interactively follow"
Had to laugh when I read this as it's exactly why I read her articles. Fair play to Michael White though, at least he replies in his comments section, unlike Polly "Two Villas"
The Toynbees & Kneepads of this world look down upon us (or so they think), from a great height. A month or so back, Kneepads referred to some information he had (this was around the time of the Number 10 reshuffle, which he portrayed as being a major success - ha ha ha), and then went coy as to its provenance. One can only assume in order to show us plebs the sort of people he has access to (so to speak).
Whereas a major reversal has taken place. The facility to bash Toynbee on the noddle on a weekly basis is a sheer delight. Add in Kneepads, Ashley & Rawnsley and that is major sport. Bollocks to ManUre winning the Prem again - who cares, when you can hunt down allegedly - top columnists from - allegedly - top newspapers, and give them a good slapping, that is true sport. Can't hunt foxes? Then hunt pundits.
Could it be that their grasp on reality is patently filtered through their media circumscribed world? Ms. Toynbee, I gather, in her stint as Social Affairs editor, was known as "The Eternal Flame", for reasons obvious.
So out MSM stars are just catching up with the rest of us with regard to Brown, i.e. that the cunt is not fit for purpose and may well leave Number 10 in a straightjacket or under a chemical cosh. That taken on board, they can turn their attention to the fact that the role they used to play no longer exists. Adapt, or die. Or remain our whipping boys and girls.
Janet Daley..well what can you say?
Out of Touch
Out of Time and out of ideas.
Dead slapper walking
Now, woz the lady's hir in Bride of Frankenstein mode because of
a) a Prezza belch
b) a Prezza bulimic incident which could include a Chinese banquet for 8, 3 M&S Trifles, a gallon of condensed milk as well as a couple of super-sized Big Macs...
c) McSnotty sneezes rather than nibbles
d) Tuppence Dun-grieving takes off her makeup
e) McCyclops's Prius gets a much-deserved Tiger in it's Tank courtesy of a 50,000 volt lightning strike from the 1 of the 3 Scottish witches (feel free to guess who) and flies up to a mind-boggling 56 mph - wow, he's gonna get to C & N even faster now, Jonah watchers!!
Or maybe it's the thought of PMQ's this next couple of weeks...
I suppose it's this article you're referring to Guido? It's certainly good for a laugh.
I was going to say something else but even though a Guardian reader myself I have to agree with you about Polly T. She is typical of the Hampsteadocracy (even though she lives out Chiswick way I think, Hampstead is a state of mind.)
Every time she trots out the argument that beoples' fears about law and order are unfounded because "official statistics show crime is actually falling" I want to see her condemned to five years hard labour in the Black Pudding mines of Lancashire.
Does she not undertand whatever officil statistics show to be happenin, it's likely the opposite is actually happening?
Up here in Accrington we do not bother reporting low level crime such as vandalism because all that will happen is PCSO Tiny Littlebotton will turn up on his Raleigh Chopper two days later and give us 500 forms to fill in.
I wrote a longish piece about the economics of opinion here which you may find of interest. Disintermediation is the thing, to catch the columnist who would be king.
"profundity of their punditry in context and under the microscope, starting with Janet Daley..."
Surely shome mishtake ??
careful Guido you are in danger of taking yourself too seriously. opinions are like arseholes...
Anonymong,
Precisely my point, so lets examine the recent record of these arseholes and their opinions.
Janet Daley. Mark Steyn in drag and there's no sign of him in the DT
these days. Thank God.
Did anyone hear Nick Jones, former BBC political correspondent of the BBCon Radio 4's Broadcasting House this morning? They were looking at the serialisation of Prescott's "book" and Jones admitted that h had known all about the relationship between Brown and Blair, but that he and the whole flock of sheep had been "bullied" by Downing Street not to report it. A quite extraordinary confesion which quite simply renders his entire profession redundant. Guido is completely vindicated.
Daley won't qualify as a top-notch eggy facer, but she has some notable splats, which would make a good symbol.
"I won't say I told you so. What would be the point of gloating over what was, after all, a pretty commonplace observation: when parties of the Right abandon their natural ground, they leave a vacuum which parties of the Left can fill (or pretend to fill).
:
There was no way that Gordon Brown was going to abandon such a spectacular win-win recipe for wiping out the opposition.
:
Just one last word of advice for Mr Cameron: when the Labour spokesmen respond to your speech this week by shrieking "lurch to the Right", I suggest you laugh out loud and say that the most brazen lurch to the Right of the decade has been performed by one Gordon Brown."
Telegraph, 01/10/2007
To be fair, in the same column she begins to see that GB didn't offer any plans which would enact his grandiose visions, but she still seemed to think that he had created real wealth and jobs, rather than that he spent nearly a decade ramping the economy, destroying pensions, and relying on the expansion of the money supply by government borrowing and personal credit.
Brown had not lurched to the right; he had lurched to the left in creating a client electorate, a version of a command economy where the state is making most of the demands, and had tried to fund it by raping the few remaining wealth creators. This is just not going to work; the Post Office is in meltdown trying to find 1bn pension provision. Goodness knows how many other public sector pensions stand little chance of being paid.
Of course the journalistic 'establishment' is panicking. They already know what hollow shells they truly are, and are terrified that their regular paychecks will vanish.
Well done Boyce and Anonymous 5.09 for providing the link to Janet Daley's nauseating panegyric to Brown.
Peter Oborne is another candidate for a kicking.
You’re doing a good job Guido, - good luck mate!
Meanwhile, - the flatulent, patronising, whinging, arrogant, sycophantic, whining, wittering from Al-ja-Beeba, Toyly Pondu, and the grouniad in general, only sharpens the need for the freedom and guile of Guido and his blogs.
[And didn’t we know that Boris was the name to watch and support as soon as the above twerps started to berate him?]
There, that feels better.
I pray there is a sunny spot against the wall especially reserved for the commentariat.
Good man Guido. Never ever take oneself seriously is my motto.
This is where the Toynbee's and Parris's of this world come unstuck. It goes without saying that 99.9% of MPs also fall at the "I am a serious important person" hurdle.
I'm with you all the way on this Guido - but just keep this point in mind.
I'm often amazed at the interesting opinions and angles and well-informed detail that comes in comments.
But comments are by their nature brief - and these people in the commentariat get paid for writing short essay-length pieces.
In fact I'm often amazed how over-stuffed with padding and circumlocution they are. Newspapers could make their points far more succinctly if they really tried - which is why I spend most of my news-consumption time getting it On Line.
So to counter the likes of Polly Toynbee and the professionally horrendous Janet Daley (and maybe let's throw in Melanie Phillips for good measure) - the bloggers and commenters need to package their stuff a bit more professionally.
They have lots of good points on their side. They can cite their sources in links and show video clips. Maybe with a bit more clever control of data they could create mashups which made use of library data in the way you are suggesting?
Keep up the pressure - on the BBC and everyone else. If we've paid as taxpayers for the creation of this data, then it should be available to us - and we should be able to repurpose it for our own ends.
I blog on arts, literature, and culture in general - but I think I'll see if the same principles can be brought to bear in that arena.
Very well said Guido, wankers the fucking lot of them. Polycystic Toynbee, what an arrogant, deluded self righteous cunt she is. Has for the slimy cunts Toilets Maguire and Paul Routledgee of the Daily Mirror shit, the less said the better. Cunts!
The MSN are running scared because of the democratisation of commentary. The likes of Polly and Dick waffle about having the right to speak their mind, but how dare the general public share this privilege?
Polly must be sick of the sight of ordinary people commentating on her prose. What does she think we do with the hard-copy Guardian - just read it, nod approvingly, and flick over to the Sudoku? Her opinion causes us to comment, so we do. If any commentator does not like this principle, kindly shut off the laptops please!
It's the public. The public always knows its own mood better than the pundits. Whilst they are staring up their own backsides considering their next piece of punditry the poor bloody public already knows the bloody problem and can usually frame it in two or three well chosen sentences emphasised with expletives. F'rinstance, 'Gordon Brown is a wanker and he should fuck off before he makes an even bigger dogs breakfast of the country'. And, 'Cameron is just another bleedin' crowd pleaser, what the fuck good is he likely to be? A PR man that got lucky'. Or better yet, 'Darling's a poodle, he looks like a cross between Joe90 and Groucho Marx, and he talks the bollocks he's told to, so no-one is ever going to take him seriously'. I could go on, but you get the gist. Why bother with all the elegant English from the punditers when the message can be as simply expressed as 'Fuck off Gordon - you're a cunt' and 'Go! Boris!'.
I believe Guido rather likes Peter Oborne's work, so he won't be under scrutiny too much (as one anonymong said he should be).
Mark Steyn is one of the few columnists to actually have his work scrutinised in every possible way- from armchair critics to Govt bigwigs. Geoff H's suggestion there really seems off-key.
Does Guido recall the excellent Scott Burgess of the (late) blog Daily Ablution? If anyone is in contact with him they would be able to get one of the best Fiskers available to aid Guido's project, which is a noble one. SB particularly specialised in getting Polly's goat...
I quite like the sheep, I'll bring me wellies.
Ms Daley's opinions on Gordo - see here.
Janet Daley is An Trained Philosopher, Mr Fawkes. Read this and weep at your worthlessness:
I accept that the perception of the party needed to change, but did it need to advertise so blatantly what was inevitably going to sound like a cynical public-relations strategy? Were the manipulations made so transparent, rather like a Richard Rogers building with all its inner mechanics exposed, in order to show how clever the new leadership was? If so, the strategy has well and truly backfired. Mr Brown may have had a stupendous start thanks, bizarrely, to our nation's enemies; but Mr Cameron could take this sombre moment to reconfigure his approach to opposition. What the voters will look for is not a leader who bangs on about how things look, but one who can cope with reality.
Brown leaves Cameron looking hollow
Prose and reasoning of that quality don't grow on trees. Thank God.
why is your page not 3d?
ie. keep the front page as it is but have a 'next' button which shows older stories in context? (in the case of ken corruption etc.)
Thank you Guido for that most enlightening piece of bloglobism - a most appetizing gravy which complemented my joint of roast Labour ass a treat, this afternoon. You know, until you pointed it out, I never realized Janet Daly was a Charmoise. But be careful about putting lipstick and make-up on domesticated animals before having your wicked way with them, you randy old rustic rascal - ALF's ranks are bursting with unrestrained psychopathic philosophers who leave even the most hardened Jehovah's Witness cowering in a cold sweat behind the settee and a double-bolted front-door. However, that aside, what else is there to say but: GO ON NOW! ROUND 'EM UP BOY!!!
Democracy is worse off because the Commentariat are compromised by being so embedded in the political class - or as Polly Toynbee explains "in sympathy with politicians".
She probably finds this a difficult concept to express...mainly due to her tongue being strained so far up Gordon's arsehole (for a spot of spring cleaning, naturally).
In Matthew Parris's defence, he writes beautifully and was spot on about both Blair (insane) and Brown (hopeless).
Commentariat? "They don't like it up 'em!", as Sgt Jones used to say. The democratisation of comment due to the rise of the blogs has put and end to the days when Polly and Co. could talk bollox to the great unwashed without challenge. The combined range and experience of bloggers and posters outstrips that of any single commentator and as such has made short shift of the arrogant and incompetent musings of the MSM types on a whole range of issues - social, financial and political. This has impaired the usefulness of twats like Polly and Dame Michaela White as gatekeepers to the political class, who are thereby failing in their bought and paid for arse licking duties to the establishment. Good...
Who the hell are these Guardianistas working for a paper kept in circulation only by Government expenditure on obligatory advertising for government and council positions that any sane person would not believe existsed. Government corrupt influence perhaps?
They have tied themselves to the mast of the Crapship ZanuLab, amazing when the shit hits the bows how much will fall on them. Let em go down with the rest of the poop the ship is carrying!
Hit or hallow
"A trained philospher"?
Fuck off you wanker !
Yeah thats what we need more of , "trained" philosophers.
Not designers , engineers or other money generators, just cunts who sit on their fat arses pontificating having been "trained" by some other worthless ,oxygen thieving arsehole.
As to her prose, so fucking what.
caseless bureautwat 4:13 PM
John,
Having been beaten into the somewhat unsavoury ingredients of an over-egged omelette, you now appear to have assumed an upper-class persona and joined the very bloggers who have fried you in your own fetid fat. You are a traitor of the most vulgar portions, mate. Ready to rumble? Had better be - coz I feel a massive eruption coming right on up my pipe.
metropolitan media elite - you've got them on the run Guido - no longer can they have a clear field to publish their arrogant views - Toynbee in particular has been shown by you, Ian and fellow bloggers just what an ignorant woman she is - mind you Littlejohn's put down of her on Question Time was classic - cant stop watching it!
8:19 PM
Top man. I fear it won't be too long before we open our cherished copy of the Stun one ominous morning and behold the drawer-drooping vision of Brown's baps pertly pushing out of the page before us in all their glib gordonesque glory...and yet another proud British institution will be trashed forever.
A little bird tells me that Matthew Parris will be outing Brown as gay in the not too distant future.
Go for it Matty lad!!
You cannot lump Matthew Parris in with the rest; he is one off and the best of them bar none.
9:51 PM
Great dingos! The future is blogobismal!
Is Melanie Phillips an anagram of 'Help me! I'm insane'? Stupid zionist cock-sucking harpy.
Is Yasmin Alibi Brown an anagram of 'IS it cos my alibi is brown'? Stupid Ken-cock-sucking whore.
Is Polly Toynbee an anagram of 'I'm important and rich! LIsten to me!? Stupid 'Whose cock should I latch on to now...?!' class-traitor.
I could go on...
It is not just Politicians that want to silence the Blogoshpere.
The Global Elite, who really run the Show ( her Majesty's Dark Forces ) are desperate to get control, look out for lots of internet related bad news like People hanging themselves in Bridgend and the authorities denying any link so that WE will demand action on the Internet.
Oh what a tangled web..
Could I direct attention to the venue of this anti-democratic talk-fest?
The RSA. (http://www.rsa.org.uk/)
As I've blogged on here before, the RSA used to be - if I remember rightly - the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce.
It has a lovely building just off The Strand and been around for 250 years or so. However, it has recently been taken over by the Blairite-Liberal arseholes who buggered up this country.
Have a look at the website. Instead of encouraging something useful that might generate profit, it now declares its mission to be
'working to remove the barriers to social progress'
It's so-called design projects for undergraduates are a grotesque PC joke..
'Design for mental health, recovery and wellbeing'
'Catalysing social change through design-led citizen participation'
'Sandals: Globally inclusive design for an indian village'
'Creating and inclusively designed world'.
http://www.rsadesigndirections.org/briefs/RDD0708-Projects.pdf
The liberal-middle class nannying experiment has failed horribly. Gordon's taking the flak in bunker and the culprits have legged it are holed up in the RSA and Fleet Street.
Fuckers.
Apropos of nothing in particular I am going to use this oppurtunity to speak, in order to release some of the tensions built up over another days work in this third-world defacracy ( a shit-hole, run by the shit, for the shit)...
Maggie - I know you're not long for this world, but I hope you die in fucking agony. Alone.
Major - I hope Currie gave you a dose
Blair - Cherie. Ha ha. Twat.
Brown - you pathetic dick-wad. My girlfriend has had periods that have been more enjoyable (so she says)
Prescott - stick ya fingers down your throat, grip hold of something fleshy and PULL, PULL, PULL.
Ming - Aaaaahhhh, nobody loved you. Run away. Apparently you were quite good at that.
Cleggover - did any of the 'Flirty 30' come back for more? Thought not...
Wee slot-gob: you are uglier than 2 dogs fucking
Cameron - you chub-faced little dweeb, I would stab you up as soon as look at you
Osborne - I've had your missus & she was crap
Blunkett - your dog was no better
Smith - I've seen past your cleavage you floundering half-wit
Straw - Hear no evil, see no evil , do no thing. Myopic moron .
Alexander (D.) - expec to be severely tuoghed up at morning brake
Burnham - Guess where I'm going to shove that eye-liner pencil...
Harman - The kevlar vest still leaves major arteries in the arms & legs exposed, it would take 2-3 mins. before you lost consciousness
Hodge - Boot. Neck. 10 mins. Nuff said?
Balls - Blunt knife. Your future lies somewhere in alto-contrato, I believe
Cooper - Harpy wife. We'll kill youir kids & save you the fees.
Benn - Dad's Diaries. Arse. Shoved right up. That's what I mean by hereditary...
I could go on, but perhaps that's enough 'comment'.
I feel so much better.
Oh joy another Monday and another brown relaunch,wonder if this one will get off the pad or will the self destruct button be pressed.
Anonytart said...
"In Matthew Parris's defence, he writes beautifully and was spot on about both Blair (insane) and Brown (hopeless)."
Who are you? Is fucking boyfriend? Off with you already!
Many of the commentariat are cowards really. They sit and snipe & pontificate from the safety & cover of their desktops , situated in a well appointed London bijou home, delivering judgments from on high. Wonder when Polly last traveled on the Tube with the smell of BO offending her oh so delicate senses. Least politician have to be elected every 4 or 5 years and hey are answerable to us every so often and can be held up to ridicule.
Now we can ridicule the commentariart, thanks to Guido, d, listen to fuckers squeak, some of them don`t like it when we tell what a load of bollocks they speak. I have a message for Pol and friends, get over yourself darling. If you don`t like us pouring scorn of your 6th form scribblings,, why not fuck off and find something more useful to do, like eh, counting acorns in Hyde Park, you bilious short sighted hypocritical idiot
molesworth 1:
I'm on your side. I'm feeling your pain. Vote for me I will make it better! I love you.
I liked paul b's description of pol's utterings as "6th form scribblings", because it seems a perfect summary of the situation when it comes to commentators like her.
Her comments (and those of people like her) do seem to prove that she has no idea of the real world, and that for her dogma always takes precedence over practicalities or logic/reason/fact.
Granted that some of the public are indeed too stupid to know what's good for them (eg "give me a 50% pay rise or I'll go on strike" leading to a situation where the company would go under and you wouldn't have a job at all if everyone got a 50% pay rise)
But I'd rather hear the views of the public than pol's views anyday; I'll make up my own mind then as to which of the 100's of views out of the public's ones make sense to me.
The public also have a much wider range of views and much more collective knowledge/intelligence than the commentators, so you can never beat a true public forum when it comes to finding out what's going on. That's one of the reasons I like this blog so much; the initial topics are great for debate, and the subsequent comments posted by people always tell me something I didn't know before. But, most of all I like it because it's not politically censored like the BBC's blogs are. (censoring swearing on a BBC blog I can understand, but the problem is they're censoring on purely political grounds too)
@anonymous May 11, 10:24pm said...
// In Matthew Parris's defence, he writes beautifully and was spot on about both Blair (insane) and Brown (hopeless).
//
Spot on, tho' I would add he has also - correctly - diagnosed Brown as insane as well.
Can't we have a mutiny, and dump the cunt in a boat in the China seas, with the cabinet. Oh, and Wendy Alexander
Potty Polly does not live in Chiswick. She lives in Clapham in Labour-controlled Lambeth. She slags off every Tory council under the sun, but keeps quiet about Lambeth - which is tripling social care charges and this year had the highest council tax increase in London.
Blog posters will remain "profane" for as long as potty columnists suck up to weirdo party leaders and dress up their sycophancy as "analysis".
All good knockabout stuff, confirming the utter uselessness of pointless polly and dame michael kneepads.
To introduce a note of reality to the proceedings, the bbc is a far more dangerous institution , having institutionalised subtle left wing bias into its entire news output. Visit the biased bbc blog as well as GF !
Guido,
You should take a look at Jackie Ashley's piece in the Gonad today.
"Beware cosy deals between politicians and their pundits"
It's quite the least self-aware piece of writing that has published for .. well twenty minutes or so.
GUIDO can't you see the fucking irony of censoring my comment yesterday. It means you suffer from the same condition which you complain about. I never thought I would have to say this, but "you are the same fucking hypocritical scum as the rest of them".
No hypocrisy at all. Guido is not obliged to give you a platform. This is private property not a public space.
Guido's support for your freedom of speech does not extend to supplying an audience. Fuck off to your own blog.
They have dominated the social and political agenda for the last forty years. It doesn't matter who is in power the policies are the same. Dissent is thought crimes.
Sadly, Dave and co don't seem to address the issues. Changing the government to reduce public spending by 2 or 3%is hardly worth the bother.
The villa in Italy is the British equivalent of the numbered account in Zurich. There is always somewhere else to go when a country is totally bankrupt.
Guido, You're describing what happens when a disruptive technology meets an established industry which thinks it has a God given right to exist.
Look at the reaction of the recording industry to cassettes, CD writers and the InterWeb thingy. It's got to change and most of it can't.
The word 'amateur' is interesting - it just means someone who does things for the love of it, not necessarily badly.
'Amateurish' is another interesting word. I suggest there are amateurish professionals, Mary Riddell and Polly T being examples.
She really is fucking ugly.
Guido said;
"Guido's support for your freedom of speech does not extend to supplying an audience. Fuck off to your own blog."
Yes this is your own blog so come on Guido, get with it. If you tell someone to fuck off, always finish with a TWAT or CUNT! Cunt preferably. So your comment should have read
"Guido's support for your freedom of speech does not extend to supplying an audience. Fuck off to your own blog. CUNT!!
On punditry - I can reacll B Johnson Esq coming out for Hilary in one of Telegraph pieces some time ago. I think we are being a little harsh on Daley and Parris. Daley is no right wing version of La Toynbee. Toynbee is the worst kind of clueless lefty nurk, unable to hear the bollocks she is writing as the whole lefty edifice crumbles around her and the globe. Daley tries to argue from a vaguely libertarian view (it seems to me) and not to polemicise about rightyness but to describe the human conditions that make it so. I agree that she was wrong about McBean, but that may have been due to depression about the opposing qualities of Dave more that McBean's own qualities. I felt that that article was a bit plaintive.
Editorial Intelligence
Polly Toynbee
Deadwood Oxymorons
Polly Toynbee lives in a Victorian house overlooking Clapham Common estimated to be worth at least £3million.
Janet Daley has the kind of hair that strongly suggests that whilst she is keen on spouting her opinions, she isn't about to listen to anybody else's.
...the bbc is a far more dangerous institution , having institutionalised subtle left wing bias into its entire news output.
Backwoodsman May 12, 2008 9:01 AM
I think the BBC has abandoned subtlety, judging by the contributions of Marr, Naughtie, Pienaar inter alia.
"The news is what WE say it is, so F--- Off you bunch of proles"
Anonymous said...
I liked paul b's description of pol's utterings as "6th form scribblings", because it seems a perfect summary of the situation when it comes to commentators like her.
Thank you for that anon. I used the term 6th form scribbling advisably. Toynbee to her credit writes well, very articulate.However her views are permanently fixed at a 6th form agi-prop level. I will myself admit with shame to being an angry socialist lunatic at the age of 18, (back in the 70s) raging at the of perceived unfairness in the world. Now though, blessed with the experience that goes with life and responsibility one realises that the socialism (that Toynbee advocates) is not the way. Toynbeed thought processes are still at the level of the angry teenager. One can only assume she does not have the intelligence to move on, to learn and develop, she has not matured. On virtually every issue, she holds infantile, puerile and undercooked views.Its obvious she has lived a cloistered privileged life, untouched by the real issues & problems faced daily ordinary folk, small firms etc.
For all the above, I have nothing but contempt for her, unlike say a John Mortimer, who although a socialist, is a far more balanced, reasonable and witty person. La Toynbee is an embitterd sour faced boil, who deserves her daily lancing on here and elsewhere.
To put it more succinctly, shes a cunt and the more derision she receives the better imo.
While I also admit to enjoying a spot of Toynbee hunting, I particularly thirst for BBC bashing. In truth anything that spoils their ZanuNL loving ways often brings me to let out a bit of wee in excitement. It’s not that I hate the BBC per se; it’s the slimy toads who admit it’s more biased than a Labour Party Political Broadcast and then do nothing about it that spike my outrage meter.
So yeah Guido get your gunpowder out, and seeing as your sharing, I’ll have some too please.
12:02 AM
Shit! How come we never thought of that one! Great concept! Great visual! Great Scot! Where are my tissues?!
paul b; I liked the 6th form analogy a lot, so with my gordon brown hat on I shamelessly nicked it without giving credit and used it on the sky news blog about cameron's debating style at PMQs, ie:
"Dave; get to the real detail and point out very specific problems like the lib dems do, and then make it look like you really mean it and that you're truly disgusted by what's happened; it's not just a 6th form debating chamber where all your mates can gang up against your opponent; you need to use incisive relevant logical arguments instead because it's not just MPs who are listening to you."
You are very welcome anon, I claim no copyright to the phrase- any weapon I can provide to use against the one eyed idiot monster you are more than welcome to use. I have this experimental great lie seeking ground to ground missile tucked in my back pocket, it locks onto to the sound of bullshit - fancy seeing who it targets in SW1 area!!
I have this fecking brilliant image of a grainy b&w vid of the sort the Yanks show when bombing Iraq.Picture it,Brown bending over just as my missile locks on & hits him up his jacks..its a bunker buster, so has a delayed explosion which goes off as it reaches his colon BOOM!!!
Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice
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