Where to start with this one…? Well, if you surf the British political blogs, you will have undoubtedly come across Blog Fight. On the Left, Manic and Unity. On the Right, Iain and Guido. The outcome so far…? Well, “The Charity Commission for England and Wales has opened a formal inquiry into the charity The Smith Institute”; and with any luck, Unity is in the process of ensuring certain questions pertaining to 18 Doughty Street “are properly framed and forwarded to the relevant regulators for consideration”. Is this a new form of transparency? If the MSM aren’t going to alert us poor proles to all the low-down, dirty, skulduggery that is currently masquerading as politics and British democracy, why not bloggers?
After some time away, Manic launched the first proper salvo on January 15th with this; his main issue being that although Guido Fawkes is the self-styled voice of “tittle tattle, gossip and rumours about Westminster’s Mother of Parliaments”, he is actually a very partisan commentator and is bringing the good name of political blogging into ill-repute. Whether you agree with Manic or not, he makes some very good points and has certainly made me step back and think about all this.
So here’s my perspective: i take pretty much anything i read (in any medium) with a large pinch of salt. If it’s something that intrigues me, i will endeavour to back up the claims made independently through my own digging around. I consider myself fairly astute and although i don’t profess being able to ascertain someone’s agenda immediately, after a time, a lot of hints are dropped that make you come to your own conclusions. This means that for someone like me (utterly, utterly fed up with the way British politics is now being played out), i have a wealth of information in front of me that i can digest as i see fit… and do a little bit of extra research if something strikes me as being not quite right, or very interesting. And in this day and age, there is so much information in the public domain that this task is rarely that difficult. I suppose a lot comes down to how much you trust something. I rarely believe anything i see on the TV news, or what i read in the papers… i don’t treat blogging any differently. Everyone is entitled to their viewpoint. I certainly have mine. But for me to try and draw any meaningful conclusion from something, i need a wide variety of sources and arguments to base my final analysis on.
And so on the one hand, a think tank created in the memory of John Smith that would appear to be cosying up to Number 11 Downing Street a little too much for a charity. And on the other, another “independent” think tank (and charity) the Policy Exchange, which would appear to be staffed by nothing but Tories (current, past, potential…) Chuck the new 18 Doughty Street (“anti-establishment” and “independent of all the political parties” online TV channel) into the mix and this is becoming sleaze central. And yet… it’s not really. It’s just how the world turns, how things get done. Whether it’s right or wrong is another question entirely.
Look past all the vitriol and what have you got? Well, on the face of it, quite a bit of dodginess i suppose. Whether what these institutions are doing is legal or not, time will tell. However, most important, people are bringing to the attention of the relevant authorities, cases where they believe there is genuine wrongdoing. Whatever the outcomes, the overall result is surely greater transparency. Perhaps the Smith Institute and Policy Exchange are doing nothing wrong. Perhaps they’ll just get a smack on the wrists. What is without doubt in my mind, is that other ‘independant think tanks’ will look at what is happening and will maybe start clearing up their acts a bit. Maybe certain ‘charities’ will have to clean up their acts a bit too? As for 18 DS… well it’s kinda the first of its kind in Britain and there is still legislation being formulated in Brussels to try and control this new medium. Again, time will tell as to whether what anyone is doing is right or wrong. But again, whatever the outcome, people who feel it’s not right, are spending time and effort researching the facts and presenting their arguments so the powers that be can decide. This is democracy in action… which is good.
In all reality, the next couple of years are not going to bring about a revolution in the blogosphere, with individuals trying to get to the bottom of some of the more interesting stories that the MSM do their best to suppress or ignore. Leading up to the next UK General Election in particular, we will see the online battle of the political parties. Supporters from all sides will be doing their best to promote their party and to dig the dirt on their opponents. It’s going to get nasty. I have the utmost respect for anyone who is willing to wear their heart on their sleeve and do their best to get their party elected. Bloggers from all sides are going to get seriously hurt. We’re reaching an age where you don’t have to be too technologically savvy to manipulate digital information but there’s a still an awful lot of ignorance in general out there. People do generally tend to believe what they read at face value, which is a shame. Oh well, ca c’est la vie. There’s gonna be an awful lot of bullshit, a lot of slander, flame wars and astro-turfing, not to mention the horrendous personal attacks. Me, i’ll get to sit back and watch everything that flows across my screen, making my own mind up… and really not giving a shit who gets elected. I live in Belgium, i pay Belgian tax (so help me God) and British politics has no direct effect on me. I’m proud of Britain and it’s democracy. I don’t like seeing what is currently happening to it. The more transparent everything becomes (through bloggers or others) and the people that are elected to represent the British people begin to understand that they cannot pull the wool over our eyes and that they will be held to account… maybe, just maybe ole Britannia can pull through this storm and come out the other side a healthier democracy.
All i want from life is to be allowed to get on with it, in a way i choose and see fit. I don’t want to look at elected officials and see a bunch of incompetent fuckwits (and this is by no means purely a UK thing… let’s not start on la Belgique!) I don’t think i can remember seeing a single politician in the recent past say anything that struck me as being truthful. I have had enough of spin. I have had enough of the chicanery and verbal manipulation. I want to see politicians get up and be accountable, especially the ones who make it to government. They are meant to have the people’s best interests at heart and yet all they appear to be doing is trying to further their personal agendas and waste as much hard-earned tax payers money as they possibly can. Perhaps the British political bloggers are just getting to grips with this art of in-depth commentary that reaches the parts the MSM just can’t? Perhaps they can truly start to hold government accountable and promote transparency? I ain’t holding my breath… but sit down, strap in and hold on – this roller coaster ride is just starting, it should, at the very least, mix things up a bit!
