Some politicians don't like bloggers. Doesn't matter what country or language or the political stripe.
Some don't like them because bloggers expose the politician's foibles. The latest example of that is a Belgian politician in a story related by Neville Hobson.
In another thread of criticism we find the likes of Hazel Blears, communities secretary in Gordon Brown's Labour government who warned that:
"Unless and until political blogging 'adds value' to our political culture, by allowing new and disparate voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and pessimism."
Blears was looking to explain why the public are becoming increasingly disinterested in politics or, at the very list why participation is in decline. She chose a couple of targets - not politicians themselves - but tore a strip from bloggers in particular.
In the process Blears merely displayed her profound ignorance. Blogging involves new and disparate voices, ideas, legitimate protest and, most of all, a challenge to whatever is the orthodoxy of the moment. That's exactly what some politicians find distressing - the challenge to their line. In Blears case, she singled out Guido Fawkes, a Conservative. Conservatives detest Liberal blogs and Liberals blogs of the Conservative variety. The only common thread is that the blog challenges their pronouncements and, as Fawkes has done, exposes misstatement, dodging hypocrisy and in some instances wrong doing.
In the spirit of these political alarums against blogs, Bond Papers joins with our Belgian blogging brethren by including a new animation in the right hand margin.
Reading Bond Papers could lead you to form opinions that differ from the pap you usually hear and read.
Don't say that you haven't been warned.
-srbp-
