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Blair police interview dominates blogosphere
- Posted by Owen Walker
- 15 December 2006
The New Statesman's round-up of the best of the political blogs
Throughout a torrid day for Tony Blair, the blogosphere was alive with accusation of news burying. Labour Watch claimed Mr Blair was using the Lord Stevens inquiry to take attention away from his police interview. While Liberal Democrat Voice said the post office closures was the buried story. As the day wore on there were even accusations of burying the investigation into the abandonment of BAe’s fighter plane deal with Saudi Arabia - Dale's Diary.
After a day like that I’m sure the only thing Mr Blair wanted to bury was his head, in the sand.
On Wednesday, Dale's Diary determined to broadcast a story he believed would be buried by the press themselves. A Freedom of Information request revealed 305 incidents of journalists illegally obtaining confidential information and Mr Dale said: “To me this is a huge story, but for obvious reasons I do not expect to read about it in our national newspapers tomorrow. It is therefore important that the Blogosphere does a viral marketing job on this story and transmits it as widely as possible. Go to it!”
Another hot topic for debate was Girls Aloud’s interview with the New Statesman New Statesman. In it they set out their views on British politics and criticised David Cameron for trying to be trendy.
James Cleverly viewed the interview as “Either ironic genius or clueless,” while Ben Brogan said: “It's not just their pithy views on footballers' wives that are irresistible; it's the helpful way they brush off the desperate attempts of politicians to ‘get wid da yoof’ (or whatever it is they say).”
Mike's Tent of Reality reserved his criticism for the band: “Nadine Coyle is enthusiastic about grammar schools. Very commendable, although I wonder whether she and her bandmates would have been bright enough to have gone to one?”
Girls Aloud were not the only ones giving their advice to the Conservative leader. In the wake of Mr Cameron’s second year in charge, ConservativeHome which LabourHome summarised: “Ditch Osborne as shadow Chancellor; Ditch the A List; Ditch Maude as party chair; Show more steel as leader; Stop hugging hoodies and give them a good slap instead; Prepare for crap results in the Welsh and Scottish elections.”
In other news, Clive Davis believes Democratic candidate Barack Omaba may have a few image problems: “Not only does his name rhyme with "Osama" (shock, horror), his casual no-tie dress sense reminds some people of the equally laid-back President Ahmadinejad.”
Meanwhile,Guido Fawkes seems to be frustrated at the success of his site: “Now the daily readership is 10,000+ plus, and a good proportion of them seem to be total loons, it is getting tedious to have to delete dozens of comments a day.”
For anyone at a loose end next week the blogging community is meeting in the flesh at the Bloggerheads Christmas carol service Bloggerheads.
The event, at 7pm on Wednesday in Parliament Square, carries the following warning: “You should be aware that if you attend this carol service, it still classifies as a spontaneous demonstration (of faith, hope, joy and/or religious tolerance) and there is a possibility that you will be cautioned or arrested under Section 132 of the Serious and Organised Crimes and Police Act (2005)”.
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