You see what Labour are like!

They still haven't learned there lesson from Blair and Brown, the architects of the biggest recession since the second world war!

I quote Frankie Boyle: '...they have done alot of bad s***, and told big bad lies with big bells on them!'

In my opinion, Frankie's quote sums up labour's behaviour totally.

If anyone of us ran a small business like Labour ran the Country, we would put in prision!!!

Is Dan Hodges real, or satire?

I write for LibCon and I leave comments there regularly. I have also left (possibly hundreds) of comments on LabourList over the last couple of years so I am sure Alex Smith would recognise my contributions. But I have never been contacted by him, and neither has Sunny said "don't write that because Alex won't like it". The whole story seems like a bit of a fantasy.

Was Alex at NetRoots last week? I was (and gave a brief talk). I would have welcomed some contact with Ed Miliband's social media czar, if only to tell him to feedback to Ed that if he fills in his blank piece of paper without asking Labour members first he will get a rough ride at this years conference (and I *will* be there to hold him to account).

Dan blogs entertainingly. But the piece is wrong.

The factual errors could have been avoided by attempting to contact the subjects.

Can Will Straw be part of a pro-Ed Miliband blogging cabal forged in the leadership campaign?

Not when he voted for David Miliband.

That's a matter of public record.

Left Foot Forward projected an Ed M win, based on polling and MP surveys.

That shows some people can separate analysis and advocacy, while others predict what they hope for.

Did Alex Smith create a group of Katwala, Hundal and Straw who he keeps close?

No. I have known the other two for several years longer.

Does Smith send this group briefings and lines to take?

Not in my case. I should have no objection if he did.

Do that group agree? On some things, not others. Sunny and I collaborated on a challenge to traditional identity politics in 2006 but have quite different perspectives more generally. He did join Labour in 2010 after voting LibDem. Straw and Hundal are a long way apart on the deficit.

Dan

How would you substantiate the claim of the piece that the improved position of left blogs in the 2010 Total Politics blogs poll can be attributed to Alex Smith's efforts working for Ed Miliband.

You rather vaguely cite this as 'late last year'.

I just looked up when voting closed.

It was 31st July. The results came out in September.

The growing profile of left blogs was organic, not top down.

James Crabtree's New Statesman piece in Dec 2009 set out how the environment was shifting, and predicted postelection developments well.

Ed Miliband's leadership campaign came later.

This kind of thing really highlights the problem with Labour. They think they have to do a Campbell and keep everything under wraps - God help free speech. What a shower of control freaks.I actually think that the 'right' began blogging in the first place because mainstream media were so much under New Labour's thumb that there was seldom any platform for dissent of any kind. No lessons learned then.

I thought the point of blogging was the idea of free thinking away from the mainstream and entrenched in the ideals of freedom of speech.

Now it seems Labour has collectivised their representation. So it is an extention of the Labour Party and also recieves funding from the Trade Unions.

That's in the long run is going to limit appeal and curtail their freedoms of expression.

Also, Sunny Hundal backed the Liberal Democrats at the last election so I guess they really are bouncing off each other.

Still, I guess it's an improvement at making up stories and smearing opposition MPs and their families.

Great. Can he now hire someone to tell him:

a) how to stand in public (his stance is like a seven year-old who is trying to show that he doesn't like wearing the new clothes his parents bought him

b) how to dress - his tie the other day was awful, and tied too short, almost like a VIth former

c) how to speak - tougher, this one, but he has a duty to improve his presentation as leader of the Labour Party.

Hmm online campaigning is better suited to the right I think. Socialists aren't good at brevity, it's the burden of thinking about things that screws them. That's why you get some many right wing nuts popping up spitting hate. Takes no effort, swamps out everything else, appeals to people who won't get listened to in person. He's got his work cut out. Will C above is spot on!

I attended Netroots this weekend, I was asked to speak to a session about what we could do to engage women online politically. I pointed out that we were- and we werent being listened. Apparently not answer that organisers wanted.

I have been described as a radical, self promoting, shameless, hysterical- unrealistic, and have felt the fury of our new Labour spin machine for daring to point out that opposing the cuts supporting a party who er....dont oppose the cuts- might not be the best idea.

Labour not opposing the cuts is one thing. Labour pretending to people who are actually affected, that they are opposing the cuts is another. Labour trying to co-opt the resistance to this economic agenda, and marginalising those affected is quite another.

Perhaps Alex should stick to Labourlist. Cos he has just managed to turn a resource which could have helped people actually organise- into a media shitstorm showing just how irrelevant his, and the other main political blogs are to real life.

Will not be attending netroots again. Labour still get my due each month- I dont need to travel half way across the country- to be exploited, marginalised and mocked.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3421076/ansell_speech_50.mp4 (Moderators please feel free to remove if not appropriate to post here) was my bit at netroots. Since then I have had the vitriol of wannabe politicos and journalists unleashed for daring to say it.