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Digital Politics

This week has been a momentous period in British politics. I'm glad I was on hand to watch it. But in fact I could have been anywhere - because I have followed events via online news services, bloggers, and in particular the live blog at Guardian.co.uk - which has outstripped even the regular political bloggers in gathering up to date information. It's a site that's updated every sixty seconds or so.

This illustrates two points. First, that the mainstream media has been forced to embrace blogging - after its initial sneering contempt for citizen based journalism. Second - that this competence doesn't come cheap. Despite the Guardian's excellent online presence , they make a loss of eight million pounds a MONTH. Kelvin Mackenzie famously called the Graun 'the worst newspaper in the world' (because it sold so few copies) - and there's still an element of truth in that when you consider the newspaper as a business enterprise. But then that seems to be true of all the daily broadsheets - which another blogger (Guido Fawkes) wittily described as 'vanity publishing'.

The State of the Parties

A picture that does not need a caption.

"Disaster" - the movie

This excellent compilation ends with a plea I don't endorse - but it's worth watching anyway. Tomorrow I shall be voting tactically to register my democratic protest against what's shown in this film.

Front Line Services

At the risk of sounding like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, I am astonished at the number of people - from radio and TV announcers, to politicians and people who should know better - who continue to use the expression front line in describing their relationship with the public. Government ministers responsible for children, schools, or social services routinely describe their 'front line services' or people offering 'support' on the 'front line'. The use of this metaphor is doubly telling. They might be accused of ignorance: they are clutching at a journalistic cliche to dramatize their bureaucratic efforts. But even if this is the (only slightly) excusable reason, it does not hide the fact that at a sub-conscious level, it's a dead giveaway that they regard the people who they are supposed to be serving, helping, supporting - as The Enemy.

It's a military metaphor, for goodness' sake! The front line is where one lot of armed men confront another with a view to killing each other. Is this how how our government minister for schools sees the children who are being educated? It would seem so.

What makes this even worse is these ministers, police officers, petty local officials, and government spokespeople are supposed to be SERVANTS of the public. WE are paying THEIR wages, and they are supposed to be acting on OUR behalf.

Open Source Politics

Douglas Carswell is the English Tory MP whose private member's enterprise yesterday helped to get rid of the Speaker of the House of Commons - a man who has had his snout, hands, and feet in the trough of the MP's expenses scandal, and who even more importantly has tried everything he could do to prevent the scandal being investigated. So - good riddance to a corrupt (and completely incompetent) functionary, and well done to a parliamentary newcomer for helping to bring about the first resignation of a Speaker for 300 years. But when he was interviewed on Newsnight, Carswell came out with a phrase in defense of his action which seemed to me like a bolt of lightning opening the way to the future - 'Open Source Politics'.

I have written about the benefits of Open Sources here, here, here, and here. It's an approach to technology which is powered by an ultra-democratic sharing of information, making software and data available free for people to use as they wish. And it has resulted in a revolutionary transformation of the way things are done - both in business and information technology. But I have never heard it used in conjunction with politics before.

He introduced the notion of 'open primaries' whereby local people select their own members of parliament - not having them parachuted in by the party apparatus, as is still the case in the rotten old-fashioned system we have now. This was supplemented by the equally attractive idea of recalling and de-selecting MPs who failed to serve the interests of their constituents. It's a bottom-up approach which clearly has enormous potential - even though it's likely to frighten the establishment, because it's so radical - which is perhaps why it appealed to me. When I checked, there's an entry on Wikipedia explaining more. I imagine copies of his book The Plan will start flying off the shelves pretty soon now.

Are Newspapers like Banks?

Why do newspaper columnists such as Jackie Ashley and Polly Toynbee write political opinion pieces, and then fail to respond to the arguments put forward by readers in their blog comments? Do they feel it's beneath their dignity to respond? Do they not take the criticisms and points of rebuttal seriously? Can't they be bothered? Do they think they've not been paid enough to spend some extra time debating the points that are raised?

It strikes me as another example of how the mainstream media still just doesn't get it regarding the digital age. They're stuck in the old formula whereby a journalist would write an opinion piece (and that's all it is - an opinion) which was printed in the paper - and then a letters editor might select one or two responses for publication in the next-but-one day's edition - and that's it.

Wise up you people. Your opinions are worth little more than the well-informed people who track public events, have memories, and principles, and can spot a duff argument when they see one. In fact you don't seem to me very much more informed than the readership you are writing for - so why should you be getting paid at all?

Perhaps Alan Rushbridger should be answering that question. But then rather like the present government (and the banks), he is earning such a big salary whilst making such a huge loss for his employers, maybe he is not interested.

UPDATE 21 May 2009

Daily Mail & General Trust fell into the red as it reported a pre-tax loss of £239m for the six months to 29 March, with an 85% fall in operating profit at its regional arm and a 59% fall across its national newspaper division.

Language and Politics

I'm astonished at the number of politicians, educationalists, and especially local government officials who use the expression 'delivering front line services'. They are talking about dealing with the public, their students, or their electorate. Don't they realise that the expression is a military metaphor? Front line troops are those who face danger,confronting an ENEMY. Is that how the Ed Balls and Lord Lamings of this world see that part of the public they deal with? Maybe not consciously, but the choice of term is sub-consciously revealing. And even more remarkable is that all these people are supposed to be public servants. They are paid out of our taxes. That's your money and mine. They work for US - not the other way round.

Back to the Future

I don't normally comment on political issues, but the events of the last twenty-four hours in the UK should not pass without someone saying that the government is embroiled in a horrendous spectacle of political hubris. Gordon Brown in his desperation is taking his party and the country back into the very morass of Blairite spin, corruption, and control-freakery from which HE was supposed to be the salvation.

The country was fed up with news-manipulation, lying, and croneyism that dominated the last years of Blair in power - and everyone thought that the one-eyed son of the Manse would be the answer to the problem. Sadly not. He now appoints the same old team of self-serving aparatchicks to try to dig him out of the hole he has got himself into.

Just look at them - Mandelson, Draper, Campbell, Wheelan - not one of them elected by a single voter - and every one of them involved in some sort of shady dealing, corrupt practice, news bending, and political chicanery in the past.

It's just possible that the electorate will have long enough memories to register this roll call of sleazemongers from recent times - and deliver Gordon and his supporters the death blow they deserve.

Masters of the Universe

It's amazing to realise that even in this leafy Manchester suburb, one lives surrounded by experts in economics, global politics, and the finer details of stock market trading. No sooner had the US senate thrown out Henry Paulson's 'rescue package' last night, than my local was full of people with the solution to world economic chaos - as well as the best quality advice on investments, brokerage, and options.

People whose conversation is normally concentrated on football match injustices, transfer fees, and overdue traffic light repairs on the A6 were confidently offering on-the-spot analyses of where Hank had misunderstood the mood of the House; overviews of inter-bank lending forecasts; and strategies for protecting portfolios by switching to the Asian markets - which would be open in a few hours after closing time. Suddenly the names of Ricardo, Keynes, and Alfred Steiglitz were on everybody's lips - as if they were regulars in the back room. And short-trading tips were being touted by punters who haven't got a pot to piss in.

If the problem hasn't been solved in the next couple of days, all the boys on capitol hill need to do is call in for the last pint in the Nursery. There'll be no shortage of top quality insight. And there's even a raffle at weekends.

Politics and new media

Political bloggers have come under a lot of fire recently - particularly from conventional print and broadcast journalists who feel threatened by new media. There was even a BBC 4 profile of Guido Fawkes last week which tried pathetically to rubbish the exposes and campaigns he runs against government corruption and malfeasance. The bloggers will succeed because they can act faster, because they dare to take more risks, and because if they're well enough informed, they can also reveal the manipulation which goes on in political life and news coverage of it. This is the 'good day to bury bad news' syndrome. They are good at knowing who is connected to whom; they know which hard questions to ask; they dare to ask why newspapers (and particularly the BBC) don't run with important stories - because it turns out the editor's wife is connected with ... and so on. That's certainly why I read Guido and Iain Dale each morning and throughout the day. And that's why some bloggers are doing a good job - because they are covering the parts other journalists cannot or will not reach.