Happy Easter first of all.
Not a hugely important point, this, perhaps, but it is one, in the maelstrom of smeargate this morning, which the mainstream media seem to be either missing, or willfully ignoring.
I heard Lance Price at the start of that dreadful Radio4 Sunday morning 'current affairs' programme, in between the bells and whistles and garbled poetry with which R4 treats Sunday news reportage, saying that the Right dominates the blogosphere because Labour are in government. Several other commentators have made much the same point. The implication is that once the purveyors of filth at No.10 are ejected from office, the British blogosphere will henceforth be dominated by the Left, by a process of some sort of critical osmosis.
They're partially correct, I would guess, of course, but there's something else, something quite important, which I think the Left are congenitally incapable of understanding. And if they do grasp the concept, they are incapable of implementing its practical consequence. It is that the British blogosphere - dominated by Guido Fawkes (I bow), Iain Dale (hurrah) and, of course, our own dear ConservativeHome - while certainly favouring a centre-right worldview to various degrees, are utterly independent of the entity called 'The Conservative Party'.
Guido was as much an attack dog to the Tories over Caroline Spelman's nanny as he has been over the much more serious McBride affair. Iain has written, I think, that his political career may have suffered by the candour with which he reveals his political thinking. And ConservativeHome, the gift to the centre-right, was started by Tim (I believe) as a reaction against the moves by Michael Howard to disenfranchise party members. All these Goliaths (in terms of readership and influence) are, in the Establishment sense, more akin to David, speaking for themselves come what may.
If they understand this point intellectually (forgive the application of that adverb to people such as McBride and Draper), then they still fail to be able to implement it practically: this is at the heart of smeargate, remember - McBride wanted Draper to establish a 'deniable' blog, redrag, which could be used as the conduit for his filth. Not a forum which leftleaning readers could populate with their own thoughts (like this one), nor one posited deliberately to seek out corruption on the right (like a distorted Guido) nor the sincere and honest thoughts of a left-leaning commentator (like a mirror to Iain).
Sorry to make this point, because it's so obvious that it almost hurts. Labour fail at the blogosphere for the same reason they fail at everything else - they cannot bear to see organic growth of any kind, because organic growth in an organisation or society is messy, pluralistic, and off-message, even when it's broadly supportive. (It's no surprise that the best centre-left website is the Guardian's often howlingly off-message CommentIsFree). Any of the machines which Labour has unleashed upon Britain - the Tax Credit Machine, the Thought Crime Machines - exhibit the same behaviour. There is one message & one truth. Deviation will not be tolerated.
Well. Thinking of Guido as David, and No.10's Strategy Chief as Goliath; this made me think of slings, which make me think of slings and arrows, and the question we all face at times about whether or not to take action, or turn the other way and pretend not to notice some outrage or other. So. I'd like to finish by thanking Paul Staines for facing down the threats, the smears, the lies and the tittle-tattle which Labour have spent the last few months emptying over the virtual Guido's head. I don't know the man at all, but I can't imagine he embarked on this important work without at least a moment of concern, about what Labour might do to him in return. Remember Rose Addis (a 'racist', according to Labour), remember David Kelly (a 'Walter Mitty character', according to Labour), remember the Paddington Train survivors ('Basically, are they Tories?' asked the Labour smearmonger). But Mr Staines did not back down, and the result today is an improved space for public discourse. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.
