Wrong Green Gurkha Bloggers In British Line Jobs

Gurkhas win the right to stay in UK. Where's the catch?

Keeping an eye on Matthew: Matthew Taylor is keen to organise political bloggers; he wants them to form a club with rules:

This goes towards strengthening the idea of the blogosphere as a place where people engage with other points of view and where writers develop their skills of argumentation and communication

There it is again, that automatic impulse to take control, to impose a vision, rather than allow people to exercise their own desires and get on with things.

British jobs for British workers: it just won't go away. Wildcat strikes were eventually called of at a number of British oil refineries after disputes over the employment of foreign workers.

The wrong green? A driver was arrested because police thought his MOT was the wrong type of green. No doubt they'll keep his fingerprints and photograph even though he is totally innocent of any crime.

Hermetically-Sealed Hazel

Hazel Blears, secretary for 'Communities', blames bloggers for the apathy over politics and the political system, in a speech to the Hansard Society:

"Perhaps because of the nature of the technology, there is a tendency for political blogs to have a 'Samizdat' style. The most popular blogs are rightwing, ranging from the considered Tory views of Iain Dale, to the vicious nihilism of Guido Fawkes. Perhaps this is simply anti-establishment. Blogs have only existed under a Labour government. Perhaps if there was a Tory government, all the leading blogs would be left-of-centre?

"But mostly, political blogs are written by people with disdain for the political system and politicians, who see their function as unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy.

"Until political blogging 'adds value' to our political culture, by allowing new 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 despair."

Couldn't be anything to do with the fact that our MPs are supine invertebrates with no discernible talent who acquiesce to any authoritarian idiocy emanating from No 10 or Brussels? Or who disregard democracy itself by entering office unelected, eg Gordon Brown (unelected Prime Minister; Lord Mandelson, unelected cabinet minister, etc).

Astonishingly, however, Blears cottons on to something true:

She will also warn that the development of career politicans is making ordinary people feel excluded.

"Increasingly we have seen a 'transmission belt' from university activist, MP's researcher, thinktank staffer, special adviser, to MP, and ultimately frontbench. Now, there's nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but it is deeply unhealthy for our political class to be drawn from narrowing social base and range of experience."

Unfortunately, her own career is hardly off the transmssion belt: graduating in law, going into practice then entering local government. Hardly an unusal career path for a modern politician. Hardly outside the hermetically-sealed world of politics, is it, Hazel?

If Blears wants to know why people are cynical all she need do is look in the mirror.