Curly’s Corner Shop, the blog!

“Political blogs are written by people with disdain for the political system”

Via Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale

How can she talk a little bit of sense one minute and total bilge the next? The sure signs of a politician and a total twit.

Having rightly complained that there are insufficient MPs from the ‘ordinary’ walks of life she then goes on to have a right good go at the blogosphere, she plainly does not understand plain talk.

Her pre speech release to the Press Association said:

Ms Blears, who had a career as a local government solicitor before becoming an elected politician, will also complain about a “spreading corrosive cynicism” in political discussion. She will point the figure at political “bloggers” – accusing them of seeing their role as “unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy”.

So what is wrong with what most bloggers do then, voicing an honest opinion, whether our politicians like it or not? It helps keep them on their toes, helps keep them informed of opinion and reactions to their actions or inactions. We provide an instant publishing platform and a forum for thought and debate which many politicians appreciate and like, but many more view with horror!

Of course we are not all like Guido with a readership rivalling some of the online mainstream press, some of us have a small geographical nature, some of us specialise in one particular subject or area, and some offer views from a distinctly one sided political standpoint, but that does not detract from the interaction achievable with a blog. Perhaps this explains why a growing list of Blears’ colleagues in the Houses of Parliament have taken to blogging with their own websites – John Redwood, Ed Vaizey, Tom Watson, Richard Spring, Nadine Dorries, Austin Mitchell and South Shields MP David Miliband all come to mind.

Just what does she mean by expecting bloggers to “add value”? Guido answers the question directly:

Asking political bloggers to “add value” is to misunderstand the relationship between a free press and politicians. Take a memo Ms Blears, we are not here to “add value”, or do what politicians want, Guido has his own values and aims to hit back at political hypocrisy and lies. Politicians make laws, so they should be held to account, to a higher standard. The Nick Robinsons, Peter Riddells, Michael Whites and Steve Richardsons of the world don’t do investigative digging, they report back their impressions from their lunch meetings. They re-package and interpret spin from the party machines. That is how they “add value”. They are what Peter Oborne memorably described as the “client media”.

Some bloggers may well be cynical and corrosive, but surely that’s because politicians have made them that way with their attempts to control how we think, speak, and behave, and let me assure you Ms Blears that this blog has never been quite so cynical as others and the Leader of South Tyneside Council, the Leader of the Conservative Opposition group, Lib-Dem and Independent councillors have never been afraid to come here and defend themselves or voice their opinion.

Hazel Blears you are a complete twit full of Nulab speak (and you suck up to Dale), you ought to go get a blog!

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