The Golden Strawberry

I know, another post about Labour list. Please humour me, but this is truly wonderful. It’s the same cotent, but no moderated comments and a much better design. There is hope after all for Labour blogging!

Cory

Update: This may be even more hilarious.

You remember Labour List, of which I blogged yesterday? I logged on today just to see how it was going, and the front story on what calls itself “Labour’s biggest independent grassroots e-network” is an uncritical cut-and-paste job of an article written by…………..Gordon Brown.

Yup. That’s right.

Maybe I missed something, and Brown resigned as Labour leader and has returned to the grass roots. Independence my big toe. Draper seems to mean well, but seems to be well-meaning but crap, another New Labour tradition exhibited by figures such as Harriet Harman.

Still no posts from Piers Morgan though. Maybe there is a God, after all.

Cory

In the UK, the Conservative Party is winning the battle of the blogs, at least in terms of readership. On Wikio’s list Iain Dale, Guido Faukes and Conservative Home are the top three ranked sites. Liberal Conspiracy was formed in 2007 and has been a success, as a forum for those on the Left to discuss issues, find new blogs and organise campaigns. It’s currently at number four on wikio’s list, which is deservedly high, and I always visit it everyday.

LibCon is not, however, a pro-New Labour blog. True, it has Labour members who blog for it, but also Liberal Democrats, Greens, and those of no fixed party. It is an invaluable meeting point for all of ‘us’ on the Left. There is therefore a vacuum of pro-Labour blogs. According to wikio Labour Home is the highest-ranked pro-Labour blog, which is a jumbled, unattractive-looking mess. I can’t imagine it gets a great deal of readership outside the party faithful, nor is that influential on the party leadership in the same way Conservative Home can be.

In this spirit, bag-carrier-turned-therapist Derek Draper has launched Labour List, of which he is the editor, which hopes to be the space for Labour members to turn to. The project seems to have been in the offing for a while now, judging from Sunny Handal’s post here and Derek’s article for the Mail on Sunday, where he writes that Douglas Alexander offered him some work in the run up to the election that never was in autumn 2007.

I can’t say I’m overly impressed at first glance. The picture I got when I clicked on the site at first was one of Gordon Brown with Alan Milburn, with Brown smiling like a man who’s just remembered he has left the gas on. The layout looks OK at the top, but at the bottom articles seem to jumble into a heap, withnoformattingandnoparagraphssoit’sjustoneblockoftextandit’sbloodyhardtoread. (sic). An analysis of the site here suggests that it’s not based on a blogging format like wordpress, where people can just log on and post articles, so everything may have to go through Draper. Not a bad thing in itself, but the beauty about blogging is the speed you can go from idea to finished article.

As Iain Dale points out, ‘Draper has three problems - funding, independence and contributors’. The website needs labourites who will be allowed to be critical of the party if they want to be, and write attractively, informatively and engagingly. Look down the left hand side of Labour List and see who’s contributing: Peter Mandelson (hmmm…) Charlie Whelan (aaahhh…) Alan Milburn (oh!) and then you see the name of one certain Piers Morgan, and you throw your computer against the wall, and start weeping at the thought that civilisation has come to this.

Labour is not going to win the blog wars with Piers Morgan.

If you have summoned up the will to carry on, you’ll find Tristam Hunt and Ken Livingstone, the latter of whom Draper has mentioned as proof the blog will be independent of the Labour leadership. In his reply to Iain’s three problems here, Draper writes on the subject of independence ‘time will tell’. Which isn’t the equivocal drum-beating of independence I was hoping for. Draper is the editor, surely if he wants it to be independent it can and will be independent. Time is not and should not be an issue. On a happier note, he mentions that anyone who wants to write for the site can just e-mail him. If you fancy it, give it a spin.

On the subject of newer writers, he mentions one Sarah Mulholland, who comes in for a bit of a savaging from the Devil’s Kitchen. He can be a bit hit and miss, but he is worth reading on Labour List. On his advice, I read her article, which you can find here. Despite asking nine questions, by my count, about top-up fees, she does not actually answer one of them. I want to be charitable, and say that it’s nice a student politician can say some positive things about top-up fees in an even-handed fashion. But on a website like Labour List, I want a point of view. Something to engage with, to challenge or defend.  The article gives nothing of the sort, it’s like trying to have an argument in an empty room.

It’s early days, and I’m sure both Sarah Mulholland and Labour List will improve with time. I want a reason or two to renew my Labour membership. The official launch is on February 12th 2009, so we should reserve proper judgement until then at least.

Cory

I blogged earlier about having to choose between Neil Clark and Melanie Phillips. Thankfully there is a choice - Created In Birmingham. It looks like a very interesting site about culture from my adopted city. But more importantly - it isn’t a blog run by a raving lunatic. So vote for them now. Please.

Cory

So apparently the choice in the UK best blog award is between Neil Clark and Melanie Phillips

Now seems as good a time as ever to paraphrase Bernard Black from Black Books.

Oh, I dunno, Neil Clark, Melanie Phillips, it’s an impossible decision. I’ll just have to hope that when I flip the coin it somehow explodes and kills me.

Cory

Heck, it’s been a while hasn’t it?! I have been meaning to blog about all sorts of things, but events and computer problems have just got in the way. Now I have nothing to do but revision. So I’m obviously going to avoid that, and blog instead.

My curiosity has been awakened by this article on the New York Times website:

“A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment…
 
Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Kerron Cross has national security on his mind, obviously. It appears he has just received his new Parliamentary pass, so he thought that it would be a great idea to tell the world what his password is:

“I put in my own birthday. Which I’m pretty sure I got right. ;-)”

Isn’t it common sense not to write a lengthy post on the inner security workings of Parliament? I despair. As one of the commenters says:

“sweet Jesus you are a cretin sometimes…“

Well, quite.

Cory

It seems that everyone is on Facebook nowadays. Even Oxford Dons. The Times reported that:

Staff at Oxford University are searching the website, collecting photographs of students who they say have broken rules on post-examination celebrations, and handing down fines. The student union has branded the move a “disgraceful” intrusion into privacy and has e-mailed every common room advising how to prevent dons viewing the photographs.

I have some sympathy for the students. However, surely you don’t simply assume that university authorities will ignore your drunken escapades if they are posted on one of the world’s biggest social networking sites? It is bizarre that university employees had the time and the motive to search through the Facebook accounts of thousands of students just to find a few incriminating photos (though you have to admire their dedication).

Now that Facebook has morphed from being mainly populated by students (as it was when I joined in November) to housing thousands of other non-studenty types, even politicians and journalists, it seems foolish to post every silly drunken photo and assume it’s only your student friends will see them. As the Times article continues:

A survey of 600 British companies revealed that one in five had logged on to Facebook and other networking websites to vet potential employees. Jacqueline Thomson, from public relations firm Brands2Life, said that she had turned down one applicant after learning that he had used Facebook “to criticise previous employers and discuss company information”

I also really like this one:

Brad Karsh, a US career consultant, turned down a job applicant after reading on Facebook that his interests were “smokin’ blunts with the homies” and “shooting caps into whitie”

That must have been a rather easy decision to make. Either what the applicant said was true, in which case you may not want to share a desk with him, or he had a very bad sense of humour, which is surely an equally viable reason to refuse the “blunt smokin’ homie” a job. I also remember seeing another article in which an employer checked a prospective work experience candidate’s profile, only to find he was naked in his profile picture. Nice.

The moral of the story must be: remove any incriminating evidence from your profile. If you have to do silly things, don’t broadcast it to the rest of the world (and any potential employers, for that matter).

Cory

Hello all,

apologies for the lack of posts. Compared to university, working 9-5 is rather stressful and tiring. Add to that scoring at the weekends, and I haven’t had a day off for three weeks. Not good for constructive blogging, at any rate. And as can be seen, there is enough dross out there in the blogosphere without me adding to it.

For now, here are the three latest people to add us to their blogroll, and it’s only fair we reciprocate:

Tom Hamilton at let’s be sensible, who is also a contributer to the strangely dormant (of late) Fisking Central. Hope we see some more fisking soon.

Rob Thompson at Rob’s Place

And last, but not least, The Liberal Republican.

Happy hunting,

Cory

I looked at technorati to find out who linked to us, in order to re-jig the blogroll. I discovered this Meme from August, in which we were tagged by Baby Washington. Well, better late than never. So here are my choices:

1. One book you have read more than once

Jennings goes to school by Anthony Buckeridge. Fossilised fishhooks! I loved the Jennings books between the ages of about 10 and 15; marvellous ripping yarns that have informed my writing style since. Recommended to small inky-fingered children everywhere.

2. One book you would want on a desert island

Orwell In Tribune by George Orwell. It’s so damned fantastic, and has articles on everything from communism to toads to second-hand books. To think that he was writing these columns weekly, whilst writing 1984 and Animal Farm, almost makes me want to throw my laptop across the room in frustration. Inspirational would be a better word to describe it though.

3. One book that made you laugh

Incompetence by Rob Grant. You may recognise that name - he created Red Dwarf along with Doug Naylor. Either this or Colony is guaranteed to make you chuckle too often in public. Incompetence is set in “a Europe of the near future, in which nobody can be sacked on the grounds of age, sex, race or incompetence”. I took this on holiday and read it three times in two weeks.

4. One book that made you cry

I honestly don’t think any have. This isn’t because I’m macho, I just usually avoid sad books which will make you cry. Instead, I re-read Incompetence.

5. One book you wish you had written

1066 and all that by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman. This is the sort of alternative history I would love to write, but would probably lack the means - and the talent. Mostly, this is a parody of student’s mistakes and malapropisms, such as ”John was so bad that the Pope decided to put the whole country under an Interdict, i.e. he gave orders that no one was to be born or die or marry (except in Church porches).” My favourite-ist part of the whole book is:

THE INDUSTRIAL REVELATION

During these Wars many very remarkable discoveries and inventions were made. Most memorable among these was the discovery (made by all the rich men in England at once) that women and children could work for 25 hours a day in factories without many of them dying or becoming excessively deformed. This was known as the Industrial Revelation and completely changed the faces of the North of England.

6. One book you wish had never been written

Any by Richard Littlejohn. Do I have to pick one? Well, OK then.

7. One book you are currently reading

Peter Rex’s biography of King Edgar, which is worth a read even if you aren’t as unhealthily obsessed with tenth century Anglo-Saxon England as I am.

8. One book you have been meaning to read

The Future of Socialism by Tony Crosland. I know it’s one of the intellectual cornerstones of modern leftish thought and all that, but I just haven’t felt in the mood to really get stuck into it.

9. One Book That Changed Your Life

Has to be Reasons to be Cheerful by Mark Steel. It taught me many, many things. It told me that you can be funny and make a political point, and that being left-wing was the way to go. Although my views have evolved since reading the book, and re-reading it now I can see a few problems with what Mark Steel has to say, it would be stupid and wrong to play down the effect this book had on my life. And it, along with the Jennings books, my parent’s puns and Red Dwarf, was probably among the main inspiration for my own particular sense of humour. Mark Steel may not have found another convert for the revolution in me, turned me into a political animal with his own lefty blog. And for that I’m eternally thankful.

10. Now tag five people

Hmmm…. how about Pub Philosopher, Don’t Trip Up, Doctor Feelgood, Mission: Ramble and Adam. Enjoy!

Cory