The Last Ditch

Britblog Roundup 253

Britblog Roundup #253 « Amused Cynicism.

The last Britblog Roundup of 2009 is up at Amused Cynicism. It's an interesting selection. Enjoy.

Tory Zac Goldsmith admits he is a non-dom

Tory Zac Goldsmith admits he is a non-dom - Times Online.

Another headline lusciously loaded with malevolent meaning. An "admission" carries the unspoken connotation of guilt, as in this headline we shall sadly never see;

"Labour Gordon Brown admits whole life warped by envy" 

Labour has not learned from Crewe & Nantwich. How could it? It is a party founded on an ideology of class hatred. "New" Labour's only real political innovation has been to create new classes of people to hate. They have added spice and variety to the embittered vocabulary of Leftist hate speech, but they still relish attacking their traditional foes; the successful, the prudent and their heirs. Unless of course, like Tony Benn in his day and the Milliband brothers in ours, they are Labour too. Their family trusts and tax structuring (not to mention their dynastic tendencies) are perfectly fine, of course.

The quality of political debate in Britain drives me to despair. The blogosphere has not really helped in that respect. Given the regularity with which classical liberals are venomously smeared and ridiculed in the mainstream media, it's perhaps not surprising that, given an outlet by blogging, some sought to give as good as they get. Not surprising, but disappointing. It has escalated the war of insults, which increasingly alienates reasonable people from political life, leaving the field to bruisers and back-stabbers.

Much as I enjoy his blogging and recognise the wit behind his delicate use of foul language, I worry about the election of Chris Mounsey of Devil's Kitchen fame as the new leader of the Libertarian Party. I know, like and respect Chris, but I feel he has queered his political pitch with his blogging. Not only will we, his readers, now lose the original (and best) swearblog, but his past writings (of which he has every reason to be proud) will give his opponents every excuse selectively to lower the tone of debate even further.

A recent casualty of the declining standard of public discourse is Anna Raccoon, who has thrown in the towel at her popular blog. I enjoyed her writing very much, but I also enjoy the writing of the gentlemen who stand accused (not by her, but by some or her readers) of "bullying" her into silence. I always enjoyed (though I often disagreed with) both blogs; while always knowing I would prefer to have lunch with Anna.

In her parting post, she wrote;

It seems to me that the world of blogging is fuelled by petty jealousies, vitriol, feuds, unsubstantiated allegations, apostrophe police, and a whole host of people who in another age would have been happy twitching their curtains and writing letters in green ink. I have watched in horror as several new forums have descended into a cesspool of hatred and nastiness, and you know what? I got up this morning and decided that I just didn’t have the energy any more, or the thick skin, to do it any longer.

Save as to the thinness of her skin, as to which she is best able to judge, she is quite wrong. There are many corners of the political blogosphere where civilised debate is attempted. Her bitter words will help mainstream politicians and journalists build their dismissive stereotype of bloggers. As if the professions that spawned Lord Mandelson and Alistair Campbell had any moral standing to criticise.

A sad week then. One more reasonable voice falls silent, enemies of libertarians are licensed by the party to call us all c***s, and the political charlatans mob the toff de jour as if it were still the 1950s. I have been both poor and prosperous in my life and I can't correlate the contents of my bank account to my wisdom or morality at the time. The only remarkable part of Zac Goldsmith's story is, though even better placed than Anna to kick back and enjoy life, he is prepared to give up his non-dom status to become an MP.

Even those who envy his wealth certainly can't fault the man's enthusiasm.

Why Normblog isn't

normblog: Bow - wow - ow!.

I read every post published on "Normblog" with interest. Generally, it is intelligent, well written and wrong. Occasionally it's intelligent, well-written and right. Sometimes it's about cricket and I can't judge. But it's never a blog. I am not being a purist. Nor am I deriding Norm's considerable efforts or writing talents. It's just that a blog provides the opportunity for readers to comment. And today (for the first time) I really wanted to. And I couldn't.

Norm defends Obama for bowing to foreign potentates and says it doesn't matter. Yes it bloody well does. America is a beacon to the world, not just for (relatively) unrestrained capitalism, freedom of speech and rock n roll. It is a republic founded on the views of Tom Paine and others who believed that (until he proves otherwise) one man is of as much value as as another. It was founded on a word I hardly dare utter because - like "liberal" - it has been hijacked, deformed and repackaged into meaninglessness. That word is "equality."

Equality before the law. Equality in the face of state power. Equality in everyday dealings between people. Not the fake equality of the Socialist, but striving for equality of opportunities. America has strived and has succeeded, not completely, but enough for a boy from an Arkansas trailer park to become President. The whole point of America, in short, is the much-derided (by "liberals" and believers in "equality") "American Dream."

As an Englishman, my first political thought was the realisation that I could not aspire to be head of state because my father was not the "right" guy. That's the opposite of the American Dream. It is disempowering. It undermines ambition. It inclines the nation's heads to the ground, not the horizon. Though Queen Elizabeth II is a good woman who does her best, the institution of monarchy is damaging to the national psyche. Of course an Englishman can do well and an American can do badly. But the American Dream makes the reverse more likely.

The Original and Best Tom Paine believed America should leave the bowing and scraping of monarchies and aristocracies behind. He wanted to build something better in fellowship and freedom. He was right to set such goals. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and the rest understood as well as old Tom why an American should bow to no man. Still less should their President, who symbolically stands (unbowed) for them all. Every president since has understood it. Oddly and shamefully (for a man who professes to worship equality) Obama does not.

If Bill Clinton had so much as inclined his head, his own followers would have muttered. There is something sinister about the inability of Obama's supporters to recognise a mistake on his part. Norman is wrong. More wrong than usual. He is even more wrong because, while calling his web page a "blog" (twice in the heading alone) he does not allow his readers the facility to say so.

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers

Carter-Ruck in new move to stop debate in parliament | UK news | The Guardian.

I understand all the concern about injunctions preventing the reporting of Parliament, but why are the lawyers at Carter-Ruck the villains (and partner Adam Tudor in particular?) There have been flash mobs outside their offices and they have been vilified across the British blogosphere.

Why is the headline to the linked article not "Trafigura in new move to stop debate in Parliament?" Lawyers do nothing without instructions. Those instructions come from their clients and whatever actions they take are on their clients' behalf and in their name. If Mr Tudor has been asked to block publication, then that is what he must try to do - whether he personally approves or not. You may say he is liable to criticism for failing to advise his clients that their actions would be counter-productive (as they certainly have been - who had heard of Trafigura before?). However, you don't even know whether the actions were on his advice or against it. He can't tell you without his client's permission, which is hardly likely to be forthcoming.

Perhaps Adam Tudor is the ass or the villain you think he is. A first class degree from Oxford doesn't speak to his morality or his common-sense. You should at least accept that he is the agent of his clients in these matters. If you want to be angry, be angry with them. Except maybe you shouldn't. At least not just yet.

If there is anything to make Adam Tudor smile in the media today, perhaps it's this quote from Prodicus, in the course of roundly criticising him and his partners and calling them asses;

These are the world's smartest legal brains with vast collective experience.

If the partners of Carter-Ruck have a collective sense of humour, they will use that quote on their website, to the irritation of the world's smartest legal brains. After all, they didn't go into defamation work to be loved. As I am sure they are reminding themselves today.

An independent legal profession, free to serve the interests of (popular or unpopular) clients, is a pre-requisite of a free society. You may not like how much some lawyers earn for doing this important work, but if you want the big bucks what's stopping you? There's almost always a shortage of legal talent. Get the qualification, put in 20 years of hard work, and maybe you can nose through the flash mobs in your Porsche too.

Because that's really why the lawyers are the villains here, isn't it? The English Vice: Envy. I can understand "rich bastard" rhetoric from the envious left, but the rest of the blogosphere should really know better.

[I am a partner in a City law firm. I am not, and have never been, a partner or employee of Carter-Ruck]

Lady Bracknell meets the Blogfather

Iain Dale for Bracknell.

That Iain wants to be an MP is clear. Why he wants it is less clear, at least to me. As a leading blogger and in-demand mainstream media pundit, he is reasonably influential. As a backbench MP, he will be a cipher.

70% of legislation comes from Brussels and, on the remaining 30%, our so-called "legislators" vote as directed by their party leaders. There is no sign that David Cameron will whip his troops any less aggressively than Gordon Brown. Indeed since press and public obsess about the "strength" or "weakness" of the party leaders far more than about the abysmal quality of our legislation, he will have little choice. Frankly, though I defer to no-one in my respect for Iain's media skills, I rather doubt he could improve the quality of any legislation if he wanted to.

MPs must toe the party line, which is why most MPs blogs are partisan, tedious and a general waste of pixels. Like him or loathe him, Iain is a great communicator. I am sure he will eventually get his political wish, but what will it mean for (pace the racier, but less influential Guido) Britain's leading political blog?

Tellingly, Iain Dale's Diary does not get much of a mention (I can find one link) on Iain's Bracknell campaign website. This, despite the fact that most Brits to whom the word "blog" means anything, would probably think first of him when they heard it.Perhaps he knows that, as a socially-liberal, reasonably freedom-loving backbench MP serving a paternalistic watermelon of a High Tory leader, he could no longer be the Blogfather?

Britblog Roundup No 241

nourishing obscurity: Britblog Roundup N241 - Best of Britain.

It's up, over at Nourishing Obscurity. My thanks to James for my first Britblog mention ever.

Tom Paine's Daughter

Tom Paine's Daughter

I would have to be pretty churlish not to link to this blog, wouldn't I? While your blogger has two daughters and one of them is highly political (and has been known to blog) I think this new blogger is claiming a relationship to the original and best Tom, not me. Nonetheless, I wish her (or perhaps him as the posts are signed "Tom Paine") well. It's nice to know old Tom, once known as "the most dangerous man alive", is still inspiring political thought around the world.

There speaks a true blogger

Global Voices Online » Iran: “My interrogator had read all my posts”.

If you read this story and felt jealous, you may be taking your blogging too seriously.

Quote of the day

Dick Puddlecote: It's Confirmed. Scotland Is Going Insane.

Mr Puddlecote is one of these, shall we say, trenchant bloggers whom I admire but am too gentle  to emulate. My personal view of Scotland is that the immense beauty of that country and the rich variety of its whiskies are Nature's way of compensating for the cretinous leadership its people have "enjoyed" (and sometimes, understandably, palmed off on us poor English).

I have often also thought the fighting spirit of the Scots was more an understandable therapeutic release of their frustration at their hopeless leaders, than evidence of any loyalty to them.

I do have to applaud Mr Puddlecote, however, for his turn of phrase in describing Scotland's current leaders as;

...so dense they could bend light...

As Oscar Wilde once said flatteringly to Whistler, "I wish I had said that". As Whistler replied, "You will, Oscar. You will."

Up 9 places in the top 100

Top 100 Right of Centre Blogs.

It seems to me that If I slipped a few places this year in the top 20 Libertarian blogs, but am placed higher in the top 100 Right of Centre blogs, the libertarians must be doing better. Does that make sense?

Congratulations to Obnoxio, who has shot up from 81st to 13th place. Evidently not many blog readers are maiden aunts, especially as the top 3 libertarian bloggers are Devil's Kitchen, Old Holborn and Obnoxio. It seems (d*** and b**** it) that the public prefers freedom-minded bloggers who swear freely.

I am delighted to see my slot from last year occupied by new entrant Anna Racoon, one of my learned friends, who is as sound as a pre-Brown pound and trenchant with it.

However, I am sad to see that the most important British blog has slipped several places in the rankings. I refer of course to Burning our Money. It's far more important than the bigger blogs because it holds the government to account for stewardship of public funds. This is a crucial job that the British media - staffed as they are by innumerate arts graduates - and Parliament - staffed as it is by ambitious poodles - signally fail to do.

I am also personally disappointed to see An Englishman's Castle slip many places. It's the first blog I turn to every day and is unsurpassed for concise wit and acute observation. If I envy any blogger his turn of phrase, it is the Englishman. Chin up, old bean.

Anyway, The Last Ditch is now placed at number 38, up from number 47 last year. Thank you to all who voted.