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Chuffed

Sunday, August 03, 2008
As everyone knows, popularity contests and the like are utterly worthless until one wins one. The well-informed, discerning and cultured subscribers to the Witangemot Club site have voted in its blog awards thus:

Best Foreign Affairs (including Iraq and Afghan wars)
  • Croydonian
  • Harry's Place
  • Devil's Kitchen
I am rather pleased.



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How to lose friends and alienate people through blogging

Thursday, July 31, 2008
Catalan Green Socialist MP, Lluís Suñé Morales, has shown with this well thought out post on his blog that the squabbling, foot swallowing and so forth some manage in these parts is rank amateurism:

Extremadura is the poorest region of Spain, whereas his home turf of Catalonia is at the top of the economic tree. Draw whichever UK etc parallels you like. The post, which - fancy - he has now deleted suggests that people should adopt an Extremaduran child at a cost of €1000 per month. He claimed it was a joke, and merely a wry comment on regional subsidies. The Extremadurans are not best pleased. My very limited Spanish allows me to work out that in this item the Extremaduran authorities are going to sic their lawyers on him. Some English language detail is available at El Pais.

The coalitions and parties in Spain can be a tad confusing, but Morales flies the colours of Initiative for Catalonia Greens / United and Alternative Left, neither of which are parties I could imagine myself voting for.

The former has an 'ideology [that] looks to renew the left and is firmly against communism as practised in the former Soviet Union and against capitalism, as practised by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, but also against social democracy, which is only a lesser evil, but does not respond to the environmental and social challenges ahead. From the ecosocialist point of view, both communism and capitalism are two faces of the productivism "mode of production" (a marxist term), which should be phased out if our planet is to survive. According to this book, this ideology is also deeply feminist and pro "freedom of the European peoples".

The UAL has Communists in it, so further exegesis would be pointless.

Nice man, very green and very socialist.....

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New times....

Thursday, May 01, 2008
My man in Haringey & Enfield (hello Justin) tells me that we have been running a *serious* telling operation on Broadwater Farm.

Anyway, an entertaining evening engaging in a little light knocking up in Greenwich & Lewisham with Dizzy, followed by some drinking and breeze-shooting with the G&L crew including the man who, with any luck, will be the next AM. Stranger things have been known.

Early days yet, and I am deeply peeved about the London count being held over till the morrow - and no exit poll - but this does have the makings of the first British election I have really enjoyed since '92. Back then I was also in Croydon, and represented by the splendid, if outgoing, Bernard Wetherill. With my Essex connections, I knew that Basildon was the tipping point. Yes,really.

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Attention bloggers: blog better and read more blogs - the EU Infocom commissar demands it.

Friday, December 21, 2007
Oh yes she does:

"In a digital era, media literacy is crucial for achieving full and active citizenship," said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. "The ability to read and write – or traditional literacy – is no longer sufficient in this day and age. People need a greater awareness of how to express themselves effectively, and how to interpret what others are saying, especially on blogs, via search engines or in advertising. Everyone (old and young) needs to get to grips with the new digital world in which we live. For this, continuous information and education is more important than regulation."

Maybe all those degrees in media studies have a value after all.

Meanwhile, in a disturbing development my old sparring partner La Redding makes a comment I largely agree with, "I believe that especially with regard to advertising, promoting media literacy is a much more appropriate approach than advocating advertising bans, which I oppose". I am sure it will not happen again any time soon.

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A thousand years ago....

Sunday, October 21, 2007
Or technically, three months ago, I blogged about this photo:


And noted "This touching photograph by Reuters shows Nicolas Sarkozy with Maud Fontenoy, who has just been a made a chevalier of the National Order of Merit. She would appear to be a French equivalent of Ellen McCarthur, in that she sails solo. I hope for France's sake she whines rather less though".

And what do I discover in today's Sunday Times?:

"He was seen frolicking in a Paris nightclub recently with friends, among them Maud Fontenoy, an attractive yachts-woman whom he presented with France’s highest award, the Légion d’Honneur, in July in recognition of exploits that included a solo circumnavigation of the Antarctic". The print edition includes a photo of La Fontenoy, noting: "[she] is just one of the glamorous women now being linked to Sarkozy"


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Well, they didn't ask me. Or anyone else I've asked

Friday, October 12, 2007
Monday in international Blog Action Day. Oh be still my beating heart.

And surprise, sur-b***d*-prise, Monday's topic is the environment. I have absolutely no intention on blogging on the topic, so if I forget I expect to be mocked and jeered at length.

Apparently the EU Environment CommissarStavros Dimas is joining in, as judging from the comments is Commissar Wallstrom.

Dimas is not lacking in ambition: "International Blog Action Day is an excellent initiative that will help to raise public awareness of the serious environmental challenges we face and to involve citizens in Europe and the rest of the world in contributing to solutions. This is also the aim of my blog". He has not seen fit to make stats available, but comments are few...

Meanwhile, I also discover that "Europa, the Commission's website, is now the largest public website in the world". I find that just a little hard to credit, and preliminary searches suggest it might be Yahoo, MySpace or Facebook.

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Tory Conference

Saturday, September 29, 2007
I'm off to (sunny?) Blackpool and will be blogging from conference over the next few days. Normal service will be suspended, with probably all posts until Thursday focused on conference and the fringe.

If anyone reading is also in Blackpool and fancies meeting up to breeze shoot and sink a few, e-mail me and I'll send my mobile number.

Meanwhile, Dizzy and I have set up an aggregated feed of conference bloggers at toryconference2007.blogspot.

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Obligatory complacency break

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I am honoured and delighted at my showing in the Blue 100 chez Dale, taking fifth place behind the big beasts that are Iain Dale, Dizzy Thinks, Guido Fawkes and Conservative Home.

While I was on the panel ranking the right-leaning blogs, I resiled from ranking myself......

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Iain Dale's Top Twenty Blogs

Friday, August 10, 2007
On the off chance that any of my readers are not aware, Iain is collecting votes for favourite political blogs. More details here.

"Just order them from 1 to 20. Your top blog gets 20 points and your twentieth gets 1 point.

The deadline for submitting your Top 20 to me is August 15th. Please email me your list to iain AT iaindale DOT com and type Top 20 in the subejct line...You don't have to send 20, but try to do 10 as a minimum".

I sent in my list a while back, but given that there are many more than 20 blogs that I think worthy of voting for, I am not saying how I voted.....

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Setting the bar a little too high?

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
The Malyasian Deputy PM is none too impressed with that nation's bloggers, and had reminded them of section 121b of the penal code: "Section 121b deals with offences against the authority of the king, ruler or Yang DiPertua Negeri and carries a maximum penalty of life in prison".

He added "In the name of freedom, these websites allow the broadcast of slander, lies and swearing, the use of harsh, degrading language and racial slurs without regard for the reader or those concerned". (Good job nothing like that happens on this side of the planet, eh?)

However, it is what the Deputy PM thinks blogs should be doing that is the interesting bit: "We want blogs to be clean, a place to obtain accurate information, a reference point for honest opinion, not a platform to abuse and slander people".

I would wish him good luck, but for the fact this seems to be more about attacking freedom of speech than trying to raise the tone...

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A further string to my blogging bow

Sunday, April 15, 2007
A few days back I was invited to contribute to a collaborative blog - The Astute bloggers - which operates out of NYC and I have just made my maiden post, on the Trotskyite candidates for the French presidency and their rather alarming poll ratings. I would expect most of my posts there to be cross-posts from here.

Anyway, the site's credo is this: "An international group blog - Highlighting under-reported news & views - Exposing leftist disinformation & propaganda - Promoting universal human rights & justice". It has posters from Oz, Israel and Scandinavia apart from the Land of the Free and I trust that many of my readers will be in sympathy with the blog's aims.

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A prototype bumper sticker...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

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Just how much time does the Mayor of London have on his hands?

Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Is it within the remit of the Mayor's press office to monitor blogs by borough councillors and then to smear those with opinions different to his own as being 'extreme'? Maybe it is, maybe it is not - but it happens.

Councillor Phil Taylor of Ealing Northfield ward blogs and has noted the cost of 'free' travel for the old and disabled as being £213m, and makes the perfectly respectable assertion that "that much of this resource should be re-targeted at the very old who can’t even physically get on a bus. There are few people who are in work or on good pensions who would strongly argue that they should be the recipients of this largesse".

This, plus a comment from the Deputy Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Roger Evans prompted a full blown shock and awe press release from the Mayor:

"This attack on the Freedom Pass is the latest of a series of threats to free travel schemes in London. Last month we saw a series of attempts to abolish my ability to guarantee the Freedom Pass. Amendments to my budget on the London Assembly sought last week to abolish the free bus and tram travel scheme for youngsters. The arguments used by those who are threatening the Freedom Pass are increasingly desperate and extreme.....Cllr Taylor’s call for the Freedom Pass to be “retargeted at the very old” is code for huge cuts which would hit hundreds of thousands of London older Londoners and disabled people, many of whom rely on the Freedom Pass to get to the shops and see family and friends".

Note that the Mayor has just opened up both barrels on his own foot in the final clause - 'many of whom' - an admission that there are users who do not rely on the scheme. It should be a matter of considerable concern that a well-funded press office is able to launch attacks on privately run blogs at London council tax payers' expense. I very much doubt that this will be the last time that the press office behaves in this way. Meanwhile blogger Tony Sharp notes that the Mayor has still not seen fit to comment on the surge in anti-semitic attacks against Jewish Londoners.

(Cross posted to Anyone But Ken)

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A curious e-mail...

Monday, January 29, 2007
I cannot say that I write a great deal about issues involving household pets and the like, although cats have had the occasional mention in comments threads.

However, I have received this e-mail:

Dear blog author,

We recently came across your site, croydonian.blogspot.com, while searching for bloggers who blog about Cat issues.

A small group of us have started a new site called Cat Bloggers. Our intent is to bring Cat bloggers closer together, and make a positive contribution to the Internet community.

Would you be interested in joining Cat Bloggers? Please take a few minutes to have a look at what we are trying to do, and if you are interested, there is a sign up page to get the ball rolling. We would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavour.

If you do not feel that your blog would be a good fit for Cat Bloggers, but enjoy this subject area, come visit us and one of our member bloggers. You can also check our FAQ Section to learn more about Cat Bloggers.

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you on Cat Bloggers.

Craig Cantin


I am, to put it mildly, mystified. The sole post a blog search brought up was on diversity in fire brigades where I referenced cats being rescued from trees.

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And bloggers are accused of not checking their facts

Jackie Ashley of the Guardian clearly believes in rigorous fact checking and advancing her
'argument' only after a careful examination of all the facts at hand, witness this:

"If Guardian sites are any guide, bloggers tend to be disproportionately young, male, angry and rightwing".

Erm, Jackie, bloggers are the people who write the piece that is commented on. If so, I am delighted that CiF is casting its net so much wider than the usual pool of bien pensant 'liberals'. Forgiving her that lapse, I can think of plenty of bloggers who are young (under 30), plenty who are male, precious few who are angry and plenty who are right wing. But all four?

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Bloggers' night on 18 Doughty Street last night

Tuesday, January 09, 2007
At PragueT's suggestion, I am making this a stand alone topic and splitting it off from the Kelly thread. However, before we drop Kelly for the day, let it be noted that she has just announced new powers to tackle anti-social behaviour. I wonder how far her imagination was wandering when drawing up the press release.

The show is now available as video on demand and is worth watching - go to 18DS and click on 'Doughty on Demand' (My blog appears in the opening credits, which is nice, if not on topic at the moment). While I am far from in agreement with Recess Monkey, he does deserve credit for managing to dominate the discussion, and he must have had at least half of the programme's airtime, including Iain. It is unfortunate that the tech chaps at 18DS could not get the show out in real time (my sympathies Mike), as I think it would have gained texture from input from the viewers. I was frustrated that I could not plague Iain with instant messages, and I believe Dizzy and PragueT feel the same.

As to the issue of bullying, flaming and so forth, I have not witnessed very much on the UK political blogs, as by and large bloggers of a feather etc etc. I do not spend much time on left leaning sites, as there seems little point in howling in the wilderness, and I suspect most of my ideological soulmates feel much the same, as do those on the Left. That the UK left is utterly demoralised at the moment must also be a factor, so I imagine they huddle together for warmth and engage in blamestorming in order to keep their spirits up.

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More meme-ery

Friday, January 05, 2007
I’ve been tagged by new blogger on the block Justin Hinchcliffe to do the five things meme. Can’t say I’m keen on these things, but it is probably bad karma not to play ball, plus he’s a friend of David A. And CityUnslicker has just tagged me as he’s a malignant so and so.

So, five thrilling little known facts about your host:

1 – Eating anything with ginger in it gives me insomnia

2 – I can date any political map of the world from the last 200 or so years to within five years.

3 – About once a year I grow a beard. For no good reason.

4 – I have won at Trivial Pursuit. In the French version.

5 – I quite like blogging.

And I'm tagging Akie Abe, the wife of the Japanese Prime Minisiter, who engages in a little light blogging at www.abe-akie.jp

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Signing in

Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year all.

One very late night and a PC disaster later....

Normal service will resume shortly.

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One bloggers' convention later...

Friday, September 29, 2006
Got to meet (in alpha) Alan (Prison works), Ellee, (Ellee Symour), Geoff (Geoff), Iain (Iain Dale),Prague Tory (Prague Tory) and Tom (Injured Cyclist and a splendid time was had. I look to be the first one to blog it, so I win.

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Comments now have names

Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Or so Dizzy tells me. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, this is going to work.

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