Political Review - September 2007

It’s quite something to stick your neck out and call an election before it’s been called by the powers that be, but it’s difficult to see how this can be anything else than the point of no return.

David Cameron has played a masterful stroke to commit Gordon Brown, despite lagging behind in the polls, in forcing his hand. Brown had been careful not to drop the e-word once in his keynote speech at the Bournemouth Conference, instead setting out his stall with policy rather than pinning his heart to the ballot papers. Now, though, the Prime Minister is committed.

To shy away from a snap election now would quickly spell disaster for the Scot, who has alleged to have been hard at work behind the scenes in gearing up a team ready to make a manifesto, drum up support from ministers to backbenchers and still have enough time to craft some of those fancy red rosettes. The sum total of Brown’s withdrawal, however, will amount to backing off because of Cameron’s confidence.

Similarly, though, many hardcore Tory supporters are getting fed up with Call Me Dave’s shift towards the left, in particular his strong stance on green issues and climate change striking a dull note with Middle Britain and failing to cajole the environmentally-conscious towards a Conservative vote. Many supporters of the Conservatives want a leader that matches their ideology, and if Cameron fails to win an impending election he won’t be sticking around much longer.

Poor Sir Menzies Campbell. There’s no point hiding behind it any more, as much as he tells us the gulf between old and young shouldn’t make a blind bit of difference in politics, his age has rendered him unelectable. The Lib Dems are stuck in the same position on the polls, well off the pace from the big two. The election could also make or break the third party’s leader, as anything other than significant seat gains could well trigger a vote of no confidence.

With all three seemingly placing their trust in the hands of the electorate, it could turn out to be one of the most hard-fought snap elections ever seen.

Cold War Tactics From Highbury

Having set up two news arenas for two different areas of writing, my journals have operated in independent harmony, both providing similar format of articles in sportsitegeist, and the journal you’re reading now, websitegeist (thanks for visiting).

It’s hard to envisage a moment so early on in the infancy of both sites that their world of writing could collide, and I’m left with the dilemma of having to choose which site this article ought to go on.

The story, which is still bubbling under the surface at the moment and not yet uncovered even by BBC or major news websites, concerns that of the blog known as Chicken Yoghurt, who have broken the story on a number of fellow bloggers who have suddenly found themselves without an online mouthpiece. This doesn't concern your average Joe Blogg(er)s, even the blogs of Boris Johnson, MP for Henley and London mayoral candidate, have mysteriously dropped off the radar. And suddenly, Arsenal Football Club have become embroiled in the battle.

If this sounds like some postmodernist spy thriller (or even a spoof version), you may be surprised to hear it's very much true. Even more bizarrely though, it all concerns Alisher Usmanov, Russian oligarch billionaire who's just landed a princely stake in the North London team.

Now Usmanov has invested his wealth in a British asset, many bloggers have linked and re-reported articles suggesting that his previous dealings in the Russian empire are to be tarnished with the same murky brush as that of Roman Abramovich, accusing Usmanov of obtaining his wealth through the illegitimate and corrupt methods associated with the oligarchy under Gorbachev.

These accusations did not go down particularly well in the Usmanov camp, and least of all with his lawyers, who successfully campaigned to remove the blogs of anyone reproducing said story. The problem is now that the webhosts who quickly bowed to the pressures of legal action, and thus sanctioned the removal of blogs to cover up the story with 404-not found error messages, are facing something of a backlash. The word has quickly spread of the blogs which have been shut down without warning, and in a sterling protest for free speech, bloggers are quickly telling of Usmanov's attempts to silence the story, along with links to all other blogs running the story. The idea is that the lawyers will have to eventually file a case to shut down the entire Internet to save the story from getting out.

This will warm the hearts for anyone who's wanted to speak their mind using the Internet when everything in the real world seemingly doesn't care. While I prefer to report on the matter rather than join arms of the e-comrades, it's nice to know that websitegeist is now part of the number of sites Usmanov's lawyers will have to contend against to keep this story schtum.

It doesn't matter if it's true or it's an outrageous piece of libel, the point is that doing the rounds with a highly-paid legal team and intimidating the webhosts in to removing an entire blog amounts to bullying, scaremongering and the sort of propaganda coverups that, in the more extreme cases, lead to the end of Alexander Litvinenko. I'm certainly not trying to tar Usmanov with the same brush, but the dirty tricks campaign to get this off the Internet certainly doesn't rub well with Western culture.

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UPDATE: 27th September

Since running this article, Chicken Yoghurt has reported 291 websites which have carried the story, and Bloggerheads is now back online. The takeover attempt at Arsenal seems to fallen flat, with the club reporting ashtonishing £200 million profits, making them the second most profitable football club in the world, and hardly in need of a cash injection.

Political Review – August 2007

One of the main points of starting Websitegeist was to shift away from the blog culture and less of the first-person chatter. Not that blogs should ever be scorned; a lot of people have a lot of things to get of their chest, and it serves as a staple fixture on the Internet.

Some people are deeply unhappy with themselves and their lot, and thus their blog has turned in to a bolus of angst and, if poorly written, emotional ramblings. Others preferred to take only the good bits of their life and splash it across their blog, leaving out the bad bits to deal with themselves. There’s no problem with either of these extremes – pain and optimism are two of the things that make us all different. And for the most part, pain-blogs and optimism-blogs keep both parties content in their writing.

But how about writing about things that other people would like to think about? Thus WSG was born.

The problem with political writing is that it’s a little bit like a meal at a Japanese restaurant – rather than one big course to sink your teeth in to, there’s lots of little dishes to pick and choose. Which is why, rather than writing lots of mini-articles about small fry goings-on in Whitehall, our attentions are turned to the political spectrum once a month.

David Cameron’s had a rough ride of late trying to dampen the ‘Brown bounce’, which has lasted longer than expected. Finally it would appear he’s bringing round the Conservative press to convince them he’s a textbook Tory. Manifestos have been dropped slowly in over the past few weeks in to a melting-pot of ideas.

One of the most tantalising offers is the prospect of lower taxes. It’s certainly a juicy carrot dangling right in front of us as far as pledges go, but this was followed with the hint that it would leave families and married couples best off. For a nation with rising numbers of single parents, it makes you wonder how many people will take the bite.

Slowly, over the course of the month, other blurbs came out. Improvement in the armed forces. Tough crime control. Improved schooling.

It all sounds extremely appealing to the swing voter, and sees a definitive shift to the right from Cameron, and he’s done it with aplomb. The problem with Michael Howard’s pledges was he promised too much all at once – and promising tax cuts with a range of improvements in public services simply doesn’t add up in terms of budget.

Still, with a snap election still a possibility, the careful placement of Conservative values rather than ill-conceived soundbites is enough to have Gordon Brown on his guard.

Finally the new PM appears to have settled in at No. 10 and selected his personal favourite colour curtains (he kept them red); now time for action.

The choicest moment came when the thought of a Bank Holiday in November was proposed. In a shift away from his original British Day brainchild, he settled on the idea of celebrating local heroes. Not the way we all saw it; to us, it’s another day off. Everyone loves a treat from the government.

Elsewhere, though, things have been relatively quiet in the Brown camp. Armed forces remain in Iraq, and Brown has (quite sagely) kept mostly schtum on foreign policy where Blair would’ve been quick to stamp his mark on proceedings. We await further developments, but Brown needs to start picking up the pace as his bounce wanes.

Much more vocal has been Sir Menzies Campbell. For the poor Lib Dems, airtime can be scarce, and press coverage is really dependant on the mood of the editor’s scissors. However, they’ve done well to voice some pretty valid concerns. Problem is, it’s all they seem capable of.

Critical of future flood plans.
Critical of the gambling plans.
Critical of the prison strikes.
Critical of George W Bush.

Alright, I think I speak for all of us that we’ll grant him the last one, and their proposals for zero carbon Britain certainly hold a decent appeal to their electorate. But let’s hear some really practical solutions and we can start to listen to what they have to say rather than laughing things off whenever they run with their latest big idea. Coming up is the Liberal Democrat Blog Of The Year. Maybe we’ll see if my pain-blog / optimism-blog theory is right.