Iain Dale says, ‘let the Blog Wars cease‘ and then lets his supporters give Tim Ireland another beating in the comments.

Smooth.

Update @ 10.15am: Paul Staines insists he has a retraction of the Guardian article making assertions against him. He has made assurances that he will make copies of it available as soon as possible.

In the mean time, therefore, I’ve removed the post that was here.

UPDATE UPDATED 12/2: The post on Paul Staines’ blog where he brags of issuing ‘legal notices’ has now vanished. Am I allowed to airbrush my past as well?

UPDATE UPDATED UPDATED Who once said: ‘The libel laws in Britain have long been overly restrictive and frustrated Guido’s efforts.’ Yes.

And yes. And yes.

UPDATE UPDATED UPDATED UPDATED: Sunny gets another scoop.

If you’re not a fan of hot blogger-on-blogger action then you’re probably best advised to move on. There’s some jokes I wrote for The Friday Thing further down the page. Some of them I was quite pleased with. This is probably my last word on this subject, so let’s get on with it.

Not long after the piece I wrote for Martin Bright’s blog was published on Wednesday, I received an email from Iain Dale refuting what I had said about him in the piece. I took the time to write what i thought was a considered and polite reply outlining the facts as I saw them and making some observations about Iain’s behaviour over the last week or so. Since then, I’ve heard nothing. No acknowledgement, no ’sorry’, not even a ‘get stuffed’.

Iain asked that I keep his email confidential. He didn’t, however, ask that I keep my reply confidential. So I’m reproducing it here - I’ve kept to the letter of Iain’s request if not the spirit. One show of bad faith deserves another.

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See why here.

I’d quite like one as well, while you’re at it, Iain. For pretty much the same reason. Call it a two for one offer.

Martin Bright at the New Statesman asked me to write a guest post for his blog about the Tim Ireland/Guido Fawkes skirmish.

You can read it here.

UPDATE: The post is now reproduced below the fold.

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Tim Worstall’s Britblog Roundup #102 and James Higham’s Saturday Blogfocus - OUT NOW!.

Tim W’s Britblog Roundup #101 and James H’s Saturday Blogfocus are both out.

That’s the essence of the hype surrounding Guido, that he’s somehow ‘influential’ - he even made one of those tiresome newspaper list of the most ‘influential’ people in the media a short while back (in the low 40s, as I recall) which sound impressive until you looked a bit more closely and notice that Polly Pot was the winner - but come to think of it, just what can one actually point to in order to say that Guido has actually influenced anything?

read the rest

I make it a point of trying not to attack other bloggers but in one or two cases I will make an exception.

If you’re even slightly interested in blogging, particularly political blogging, I’d urge you to go and read Tim Ireland’s long, forensic but fascinating post about Guido Fawkes.

Today, I am going to ask you to help me kick things off by doing something positive for the political blogging community:

- If you currently link to Guido on your blog; I am going to ask you to consider removing him from your blogroll.

- If you’re one of those who are addicted to the gossip and rumours he spreads, then I’m going to ask you to attempt to quit the habit.

- If you’re one of his sources, please read on; there’s a little surprise for you at the end… and you’re not going to like it.

Older readers may remember Guido shooting his bolt (along with the now seemingly respectable Alex Hilton) in January of last year by attempting to claim a role in the outing of Mark Oaten (Guido and Hilton made some enlightened jokes about Oaten, conflating homosexuality and paedophilia, in one of their hilarious podcasts and then tried to get in on the scoop.) You can read more about the whole edifying saga here (which is also published in black and white in The Blog Digest).

Being one of the most prominent bloggers in Britain right now Guido Fawkes is held up by the more lazy elements of the mainstream media as being an exemplar of the blogging medium despite him being a personification of its worst traits, as shown in detail by Tim. (Although it has to be said that, while his blog’s comment box is a honeypot for assorted racists and homophobes, they’re not bothering anyone else.) As I’ve said before about him, however,

Holding Fawkes up as an example would be like eating a turd and then declaring your dislike of chocolate eclairs. Sure, they’re both long and brown but you’re the one who’s been eating shit.

This isn’t to overestimate Guido Fawkes‘ power or influence, however. If he was as influential as he thought he was it’s arguable someone would have sorted him out by now. For the time being, it seems he has yet to cross the line that would provoke someone with real power to go gunning for him.

Unfortunately though, all bloggers are being lumped in with Guido Fawkes in the minds of the mainstream media and by extension, the mainstream media consuming public. We’ve already seen prominent figures close to the centre of power expressing their ‘concern’ about blogging’s contribution to debate. There’s a chance that, if/when somebody does come gunning for Guido, blogging as a whole might get caught in the crossfire.

Blogging isn’t a mass movement or hive mind. It isn’t an invention and plaything of the Right, despite what some would have you believe. It’s a wide-ranging medium like all the rest. But, right now, thanks to the likes of Guido Fawkes and complicit bone-dry, bone-headed and bone-idle journalists, the medium and his message are, almost inextricably, mashed together.

If you care about blogging, whether reading or writing, or just plain old-fashioned common decency for that matter, then read Tim’s piece, think about it and act on it.

Update: A thoughtful, alternative, response from Nosemonkey.

Davide, the great big bastard, has passed on the ‘What are the seven best things you did this past year?’ meme. It’s spreading faster than the clap at the Sun’s Christmas party.

Anyway, it’s going to be difficult to do this without sounding horribly smug and self-congratulatory so I might as well just get on with it. In no particular order…

• Getting asked to write for these guys. Like having Jim fix something for me.
• Getting asked to curate this.
• Getting an apology from former Tory leader Michael Howard. (He bumped into me with his bag at Victoria tube station.)
• Teaching my two kids to sing ‘French Foreign Legion‘ by Frank Sinatra by the simple expedient of subjecting them to it at every opportune moment. Now, a truncated troop of Von Trapps, we entertain ourselves by sweetly braying the crooning monster’s finest moment. (obligatory ‘I love my family’ entry)
• Oh, I don’t know. I found a forgotten fiver in a jacket pocket.
• Breaking the bank at Monte Carlo.
• Helping to kill this meme by not passing it on.

Update: I’m offering a new service: Meme Killer. If you have any annoying memes which you feel obliged to pass on but in fact hate, send them here and I will drown them like superfluous kittens.

Update update: Nosemonkey also nominated me. He’s an even bigger bastard. He insists I come up with another seven. Here goes.

• Having a go on Nosemonkey’s mother. Seven times.

I like this idea a lot.

Blogs are like newspapers in, at least, this one respect: the most popular aren’t necessarily the best. I read quite a few blogs whose writing makes me want to spit (they’re so good) but their visitor stats make me want to weep (they’re so poor).

Although, as has been said before, when it comes to blogs it’s largely a question of who is reading them rather than how many (the other writing opportunities that Chicken Yoghurt has brought me are inversely proportionate to my visitor figures, for instance), wider exposure doesn’t hurt anybody.

I hold the - possibly naive - view that, with blogging being a peer-reviewed medium (via linking, comments, trackbacks etc), the quality will, generally, out. Blogpower is another way of helping that process along.

Paulie over at Never Trust A Hippie gives a rather good response to this post of mine about Alastair Campbell and the idea of a blogger’s code of conduct.

Update: On the same subject, this is very, very good.

Tim Worstall’s Britblog Roundup #94, Mr E’s Swearbloggers Roundup #9 and James Higham’s Blogfocus.

I did a little rooting around in the 18 Doughty Street archives and found the Vox Politics show that I appeared on this week.

Watch me here (windows media) in all my fat glory. The lager and sausage roll diet is clearly not working.

‘…covers everything from abortion to Zinedine Zidane, taking in bears, corpse robbers, Danish cartoons, elderly care, foot fetishists, golf, Hegel, irreducible complexity, Elton John, the Khmer Rouge, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, memes, Newsnight, Mark Oaten, Jon Pertwee, a brace of Rooneys, speed-dating, toilets (inevitably), the United Nations, vaginas (Noreen’s, inevitably) and wasps…’ - Philip Challinor

‘The perfect Christmas present, then, although as I have noticed that both D[evil's] K[itchen] and Mr Eugenides have articles in there, not one that I’d leave lying around the lounge when granny comes to visit on Boxing Day’ - Ministry of Truth

‘The book’s an excellent read, and a great synopsis of the year that’s gone by. The blogosphere has definitely churned out very decent comment, and I’d be interested to see if anyone could codify opinion from the MSM in the same period which would be as good as this.’ - Osama Saeed

‘…eloquent knowledge of a type that you won’t find in the MSM…’ - Devil’s Kitchen

‘The Blog Digest has lots of variety; all of the writing is good; and seeing it in print, with links as footnotes and all, makes it fresh.’ - Charlie Whitaker

‘All human life is there. Wit, wisdom, righteous anger, sleuthing, revelations, compassion and yep, love. The love of writing, and the joy of sharing it with others - blogging is unpaid, unadulterated, and unequalled as a communication opportunity. Dive in.’ - Rachel North

‘McKeating does an excellent job of why the blogosphere has been doing so well in terms of media coverage. It’s not because it’s new and shiny, it’s because it has the quality necessary to be worth reading.’ - Ken Owen

‘He’s done the hard work of tracking down many intelligent, poignant and witty bloggers, which should save you the trouble.’ - Flying Rodent

‘If the blogger in your life already has an anorak, this would make the perfect present.’ - Mr Eugenides

‘…I can categorically say that it compares very favourably indeed to standing up to your arsehole in mud…’ - Larry Teabag

So anyway. A few months ago the good people at Friday Books asked me to curate an anthology of some of the best of this year’s British blogging - much like Tim Worstall’s excellent 2005:Blogged.

Well, it’s nearly here - The Blog Digest 2007. It goes on sale on this Friday, December 1. You can get it online at Amazon, Politico’s, Waterstones, and in all good books shops. It features a hundred(ish) posts from some of the UK’s best bloggers (and me) and a cover and cartoons by the estimable Matt Buck (The cartoon that heralds the chapter on sex is truly something to behold.) I’ve had my copies back from the printers and it’s looking really rather ace, if I do say so myself.

The book is in themed chapters this year (unlike Tim’s which was ordered chronologically) - Culture & Media, Sex, War, Politics, Activism, Work & Play, Death and Sport. I’ve tried to create a broad collection so, as well as some of my favourite blogs, there are quite a few excellent ones in there that I hadn’t read before researching the book. I can’t remember just how many blogs I looked through but it was loads and loads.

Hopefully, it’s a rounded collection if not a particularly balanced (politically, at least) one. Strange as it sounds for a collection of other people’s work but I hope it reflects my own personality to some extent. There’s outrage and anger and my sense of humour - many of the pieces are in they because they made me laugh out loud - in there.

I tried also to make the book as accessible as possible for people with little or no knowledge of blogs (maybe someone will buy Matthew Taylor a copy). Hopefully it showcases some of the fantastic writing that you can find out there.

Any plugging of the book would be gratefully accepted. Obviously I stand (hopefully) to make some money out its sales but it’s also a shop window for some real talent that deserves wider exposure. (Advertising the book on your blog via an Amazon Associates account might be worthwhile - an ad for Tim’s 2005:Blogged bought me a couple of DVDs this year.)

Thanks to everybody who made this possible - the Friday Books gang and, of course, all the contributors who gave permission for their work to be included.

Needless to say I’m very excited. I shall of course be hanging round all the bookshops in Brighton saying ‘Oh, this looks excellent, I think I’ll buy ten copies’ in a loud voice. If anybody spots the book in the wild or sees any reviews please let me know.

Update: As of ten days ago, David Blunkett had only shifted 1,000 copies of his memoirs. For Christ’s sake, at the very least, please help me do better than that. If/when the Blog Digest reaches 1,000 sales, I’ll let everybody know and we can have a good old laugh. So, buy the Blog Digest and help rub David Blunkett’s nose in it.

Update update: Anybody tempted to buy the book from Amazon but put off by the message ‘Availability: Usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks’ should ignore it - Davide received his copy from them in 24 hours.

To Donald and his partner Lucia, a baby girl, born yesterday at 12.46pm weighing in at three kilogrammes. Mother and baby both doing well.

It seems, at least in the higher echelons of what pass for New Labour’s ‘foremost’ ‘minds’ these days, that blogs are inciting something of a moral panic. First, last week, we had Tony Blair’s senior policy adviser Matthew Taylor* telling us that blogs and bloggers were undermining the relationship between public and politicians.

Now we have no less a figure than Alastair Campbell speaking of his concerns.

Former Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell, who chaired the session organised by the Commission for Racial Equality, said blogs were “perceived as a positive development” but added that “some of the most offensive stuff” comes from them…

Most offensive? Well, it’s a cheap point and no less valid for that, but if you amalgamated all seven million UK blogs together and measured their collective offensiveness, it would still only be around one or two millicampbells. Devil’s Kitchen (for example) may be impressively foul-mouthed and therefore of dubious taste to the small-minded but I’m pretty sure that he hasn’t yet orchestrated a propaganda offensive (in both senses of the word) that contributed to the deaths of 655,000 people. What’s more offensive, a sweary blogger or a Deputy Prime Minister who can’t keep his hands to himself?

How many blogs has Campbell read in order to form this conclusion? Maybe he has someone like self-styled blogging superstar and Westminster watchdog Guido Fawkes in mind which suggests Campbell hasn’t ventured very far into Blogistan. He’d be guilty of a gross category error. Holding Fawkes up as an example would be like eating a turd and then declaring your dislike of chocolate eclairs. Sure, they’re both long and brown but you’re the one who’s been eating shit.

To think that Campbell once consorted with princes and presidents and now he’s slagging off bloggers for whatever slim living it affords. I think I have an erection.

Speaking at the same conference Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin said he’d like to see a voluntary code of practice for bloggers much like the one we already have for newspapers and magazine. Needless to say, many bloggers have told Mr Toulmin what he can do with his Blogger’s Code.

It’s self-serving nonsense and ultimately unenforceable. I was once at a talk given by a PCC representative who closed the lecture with the words, ‘I know a lot of people think the Press Complaints Commission is toothless, but…’. They then refused to answer questions afterwards.

The laws of libel and contempt of court apply to bloggers as much as they do to journalists. Unlike newspapers who only admit to mistakes when what laughingly passes for PCC sanction is applied, blogging is a peer-reviewed medium where factual inaccuracies in post can be pointed out in the comments. It’s already self-policing. The best bloggers already unspokenly adhere to a code. Only the lowest of the low delete comments pointing out their mistakes and that kind of censorship tends to get flagged anyway. As for redress, as Robert Sharp says:

My comments box is open, and I respectfully invite you to redress yourself there. My readers shall consider your point-of-view, and if they agree with you over me, then I shall probably lose credibility with one or both of them.

And the rest is dictated by common decency and accepted social mores. (Messy, I know, but it’s my experience, with one or two exceptions, that if you want to be successful in Blogistan, being a total wanker will not get you very far.) And the fact that, like television, if something isn’t illegal but you don’t like it, then turn it off and go and find something more to your tastes.

* It’s to be wondered just how close Taylor was close to the formulation of Blair’s contemptuous attempts to establish formal social contracts between government and public. Taylor’s assertion that…

…certainly betrays a line of thinking that says the public should be singing louder for its supper ‘beyond paying taxes and obeying the law’, as the Prime Minister’s policy review puts it.

Tim Worstall’s Britblog Roundup #93, Mr Eugenides’ Swearblogger Roundup #8 and James Higham’s Blogfocus.

Clive Nosemonkey has a new address and very nice it looks too.

Tim W’s Britblog Roundup #92, Mr Eugenides’ Swearbloggers Roundup #7 and James Higham’s Saturday Blogfocus.

…being fitted for an orange jumpsuit have been greatly exaggerated. After a slight server hiccup, I’m back.

While I’m here, I might as well alert you to the current rash of blog roundups requiring attention. Tim Worstall’s Britblog Roundup #91 and Mr E’s Swearblogger Roundup #6 are now available for your viewing pleasure. Also out is James Higham’s Blogfocus offering a perusal of the graphic images bloggers use.

So I turn my back for five minutes and suddenly we’re executing Saddam?

I’m almost afraid to go on holiday, there would be nothing worse than getting home to discover everyone had spent the whole time I was away holding Kim Jong Il’s head down the toilet and pulling the flush.

Still, I see that the news has gone over well with those whose fierce commitment to universal human rights flops like a stiffy in a scissor factory the moment we, the Americans or the Israelis rev up our war machines to unleash some kick-ass whizz-bang upon lunatics and civilians alike.

read the rest…

Tim Worstall’s weekly Britblog Roundup and Mr E’s Swearbloggers Roundup.

Gary Marshall’s article on British blogs from September’s .net magazine is now available online. Some familiar faces are featured.

There’s also a handy del.icio.us list of the blogs featured in the article including one or two other familiar faces.