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Archive for Blog Review
A blog name to die for: Underdogs Bite Upwards
This post is about a new blog I picked up via Ian Whickham at Question That, which has a name every bit as good as the Harry’s Place slogan:
Liberty, if it means anything, is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.
The blog is Underdogs Bite Upwards.
I’m not going to waffle on about blog names expressing identity (that’s one of the things that Internet Marketeers and PR People are for - so that the rest of us can think about interesting stuff); I’ll just note that these elements all have to work together:
- Blog Name
- Blog Slogan (or “Quip” as my first template called it)
- Blog Web Address
- Blog Logo
- and the personality of the writer(s).
But … I’ve never thought before that biting upwards is the only thing that Underdogs can do. It literally comes down to this (with apologies to that great Roman Catholic reforming monk Martin Luther):
“Here I stand -
I can do no other.
Chomp.”
I think of a small vicious dog in Beano-style: a piranha fish on legs, gnawing happily on the seat of the pants torn from some poor politician’s Saville Row suit.
Think Tank Round-up…
Welcome to this weeks round-up - everything from drug abuse in prisons and ‘virtual caliphates’ to burying carbon and a dearth of ‘jocks’ on the news. As before please flag in the comments anything worthy you think I might have missed…
Right \ Libertarian Think Tanks
- The Centre for Policy Studies has a paper from Huseyin Djemil, a former heroin and crack cocaine addict turned Drug Strategy Co-ordinator for the seven London Prisons. ‘Inside Out: How to get drugs out of prisons’ tackles the fact that drugs undermine any attempt to clean up prisoners from pre-existing addictions and greatly increase the chances of recidivism. According to Djemil: “From a drug user’s perspective, the “dealer” can be an illicit trader or the state. Both harness the power of the drug to influence behaviour. The former says commit crime to get money to buy drugs; the latter says stop committing crime and we will give you drugs for free. Both want control. Neither offers freedom.”
- The CPS blog also picks up on a spat in Washington over their educational voucher program. The democratic congress has no appetite to extend it but students and parents groups have a different view.
- Reform this week highlights ICM research that suggests only 7 per cent of voters support the Department of Health’s ban on “top-up” payments by NHS patients. The research is part of the ‘Doctors for Reform’ campaign which aims to help patients who have been prevented from paying extra towards their NHS care in order to receive new drugs and treatments.
- I think this is a few weeks old but in light of Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon treaty it’s worth sharing anyway. The Bruges Group - the think tank effectively formed in honour of Mrs Thatcher’s Bruges speech in 1988 - carries a fascinating report by William Mason on ‘The Costs of Regulation and How the EU Makes Them Worse’. Mason concludes: “Good regulation is not easy. It will always be an art rather than a science but our leaders need to appreciate the probability that their quest for risk reduction has damaged and will continue to damage our culture and society. Politicians need to have the courage to implement radical changes if we are to survive as a free people.”
- The Centre for Social Cohesion have a new report by James Brandon entitled ‘Virtual Caliphate: Islamic extremists and their websites’. Brandon contends that “the existence of such websites run by UK-based individuals demonstrates that the government’s current approach to tackling online extremism is failing” and offers “a range of recommendations about how websites run by British extremists can be tackled”.
- The Henry Jackson Society believes Labour needs to reclaim the language of liberty if its to have any hope of reviving its fortunes. According to Tristan Stubbs “The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are coalescing over a shared liberal vision. A glance at the Labour party’s twentieth-century history reveals a gentler strand of liberalism waiting to be reclaimed. The Prime Minister and his government would be wise to take advantage of a narrative that is rightfully theirs, while they still enjoy the liberty to do so”
- Tristan at the HJS also has a good piece on ‘A Marketable Solution to Climate Change: Why The Polluter Must Pay’ - “At the moment, the costs of polluting the environment fall most heavily on the least guilty. This situation needs to be reversed”
- In a week when the government invited communities to consider hosting radioactive waste Policy Exchange has a comprehensive report called ‘Six Thousand Feet Under: burying the carbon problem’. The report looks at Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technologies and how difficult if will be for those technologies to evolve into a viable commercial industry without some sort of government incentive.
Left \ Liberal Think Tanks
- Almost a month old now but worth highlighting in view of David Davis’ crusade this week - Demos have a report entitled ‘UK Confidential’ exploring “the underlying challenges and realities of privacy in an open society, and argue for a new settlement between the individual and society; the public and the state; the consumer and business. To achieve this, we need collective participation in negotiating the terms and conditions of twenty-first century privacy”
- Theos*, the ‘public theology thinktank’ also weighed in on this issue with a good piece by Dr David Landrum - ‘Are we sleep-walking into a surveillance society?’
- The IPPR was the source of the stories this week about media imbalance post-devolution. They commissioned a paper from Douglas Fraser, Scottish political editor of The Herald, which found that “The UK is badly served by a media which fails to reflect the regional and national diversity of the country. Too much of our national conversation is mediated by people who don’t get out of London enough. It is easy to dismiss these issues as more whingeing from the Jocks, but there are important issues here about Britain understands itself as a nation”. Full report here.
- Nick Clegg spoke to The Kings Fund on Tuesday night on his vision for the future of the health service. “He called for more devolution of power from Whitehall, including directly elected ‘local health boards’, for patients with long-term conditions and mental health problems to be given more control over personal budgets, and greater incentives to keep GPs in deprived areas”. Speech extracts and more details here.
- The Joseph Rowntree Foundation responded to the disappointing poverty figures released this week.
- Daniel Korski at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) addresses what he sees as Ireland’s creative destruction in rejecting the Lisbon treaty. “The Irish voters have to be respected, but the EU must find a way to accommodate this respect with equal amounts of respect for the clear will in many other countries for the Lisbon Treaty and the EU’s machinery to improve”
- Neal Lawson’s been busy at Compass as always. First up he highlights ‘a paradox at the centre of modern politics’ - “Social liberals recognise the complexity of modern life. They want diversity, experimentation and localism so that people are more engaged in key decisions. But they want fairness, and as much equality and universalism as possible, which can only come from a strong centre. This creates the central paradox of modern politics, as diversity and equality conflict.” Neal also urges Labour to pay more attention to the unions.
- Finally, also at Compass, Lucy Wake from Amnesty asks if gender based violence remains the greatest barrier to equality.
* I’m still not sure about the classification and my decision to put Theos under ‘left/liberal think tanks’ was an accident of construction and not a deliberate provocation!
Mr Robert Mugabe’s Election Photo Album, and Sokwanele
This post is about Robert Mugabe’s campaign to win an election by violence in Zimbabwe - and it is shocking. This article highlights some of the physical violence used by those working for Mr Mugabe and his friends in their campaign to retain power in Zimbabwe. Not pleasant - but neither is Zanu PF’s campaign.
I picked up a link to the Sokwanele “This is Zimbabwe” website from Paul Canning’s blog:
Sokwanele - Zvakwana is a peoples’ movement, embracing supporters of all pro-democratic political parties, civic organizations and institutions in Zimbabwe. Sokwanele and Zvakwana both mean ‘enough is enough’ in the vernacular.
The website is an attempt to chronicle what is happening, and to campaign in support of a full democratic system in Zimbabwe.
The photo on the right is Manyika Kashiri, 55, an MDC activist from Chigumbu village in Uzumba, who had his foot smashed by an axe when militias stormed into his shack at midnight on Tuesday (I think May 6).
Kashiri woke after a bang at his door and rocks smashing against his windows. When he emerged, he was hit with a log by one of the militias and another tried to chop off his right foot with an axe in front of his grandchildren, one of whom was just four.
The second on the right is of a Member of Parliament - the Honourable Nelson Chamisa, MP, MDC (Tsvangirai), Secretary for Information – attacked at Harare International Airport, March 2007 by State Agents. He was to attend the EU/ACP summit in Brussels. He sustained fracture of orbital skull and deep facial lacerations.
The West cannot realistically intervene militarily, any more than we can do so in Darfur. But we can still continue to point to events, and it is media attention in the outside world that will persuade the surrounding countries to take proper action in the end.
There is even an appropriate place waiting for Mr Mugabe - since Idi Amin’s old retirement villa in Saudi Arabia has been free for some years.
For the next few days I will be running a Flickr Photostream from Sokwanele on the front page of the Wardman Wire to add my extra bit of publicity. If you have a blog, please consider reporting this crisis once again.
The posts below are quoted from the This is Zimbabwe blog. I acknowledge the copyright in the text and the photos. If you quote any of this material, link back there to give it more attention.
Zimbabwe Election Violence
Three year old child assaulted
This is little Samson (3 years). He was beaten on Golden Star farm, Shamva. His parents are ex farm workers who remained living on the farm after their white employer was evicted.
His parents were beaten on 21st April by militia who were saying “Whites left you on this farm, you are MDC, you want whites to come back and look after you”. Their houses and everything they owned was burned.
The mother is at the hospital with Samson; her husband and other two children are still somewhere in Shamva. She does not know where.
Three Score Years and Ten: A Blog to Enjoy
Via Bob Piper’s post “Never Mind the Width” I (memo to self: spend an hour a week “wasting time” surfing new blog), I found a new and interesting blog from Dronfield, which is in my area, Three Score Years and Ten - with the excellent tag-line:
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” - Søren Kierkegaard
Harry Barnes was Labour MP for North-East Derbyshire for the years 1987-2005. He writes about local life (especially Sheffield Football Club - the world’s oldest club founded in 1857), Iraqi and Iranian events. Here are some a quantity of posts that I enjoyed reading from the last couple of months years. You have to navigate the blog via the archives or search facility, as Harry does not use labels or categories.
The Understanding Iranian Politics Series:
- Regional Context : Part 1 of “Understanding Iran”
- Internal Make-Up : Part 2 of “Understanding Iran”
- Democratic Sham? : Part 3 of “Understanding Iran”
- Factors Shaping Politics : Part 4 Of “Understanding Iran”
Sheffield FC:
- (sort of) Abramovich: Eat Your Heart Out
- Football’s Coach and Horses (Sheffield FC owns a pub)
- Eat Your Heart Out (on Sheffield FC arriving down the road)
- 150 years and 2 days old.
- When is second best? Anniversary of the oldest football fixture in the world (1860) on the same ground as the original.
- Official: the Best Team in FIFA. Visit of Sepp Blatter.
- Signing Pele. What it says on the tin.
And a selection of others:
- The Female Chartists of Iran.
- Baghdad’s Picasso.
- On the Thinking Person’s Thoughts (book review of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes (Yale Nota Bene)
A gent for whom I would gladly buy a home made pie and a beer in a village pub somewhere in Derbyshire for the pleasure of the conversation.
Enough. A feed of political blogs awaits compilation. If my new alternative blog front page beta version is not out today it is half Harry’s fault.
Tags: Harry Barnes, three score years and ten, labour, bob piper
In Praise of Zaftig
Ruthie Zaftig writes one of the personal blogs that I enjoy most.
Her latest post is a straight quote from Thomas Jefferson:
“Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.”
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Quite.
And Here’s a Ruthie Friday afternoon Grab bag:
- How not to be a crappy driver.
- At the mall.
- Phonic alphabet.
- Synesthesia.
- XKCD Web Comic.
- Halloween.
Pop over and visit - you won’t regret it.
Tags: ruthie zaftig, blogpower
[tags]ruthie zaftig, blogpower[/tags]
The new Welsh Wagstaff blog and a Nasty Shock…
A nasty shock when this appeared as a Google advert in my right hand sidebar:
Leaving aside the eminently forgettable service name that falls neatly into the middle of the triangle formed by Diageo, Consignia (do you remember the “vanishing down the plughole” logo), and a nursery rhyme engraved in my memory along the lines of “The Big Ship Sales on the …”, it may be a good service (apparently they do “Professional Networking”). If anyone likes it, do comment!
On a different note, there’s a new Welsh blog that gets the bit between its teeth in Welsh politics called “Miss Wagstaff presents…”, and goes for the detail. In a Welsh Assembly Government that may turn out to always be a set of rotating coalitions, it may be that bloggers can be a force to keep politicians’ behaviour at least vaguely transparent.
The blog motto:
Analysing the ‘One Wales Agreement/ Government’ and whether it is serving the people of Wales or merely a convenient way for Labour to stay in power and for Plaid Cymru to gain ministerial experience.
Underrated Political Blogs - My Current Picks
This morning people are posting about underrated blogs.
I only have three currently that I would point you at that are relatively new discoveries for me.
In his blogging “retirement” after 600 posts Prague Tory has switched from politics to reflecting about Political Blogging. And he’s doing a good, thoughtful job over at A Year of Political Blogging. It’s probably one to read via RSS as he is only posting occasionally. One for beginners.
And two cartoon blogs:
Matt Buck’s blog has his recent experiments with “animated cartoons” (example - he doesn’t like these posted elsewhere). I can post this, however:
(Note: Matt emailed me to add: “There is one small correction to what you say about me, I am fine with links to my animated and still work as long as attribution is made to the work to the publication it appeared in. In the case of the still drawing you are using here, it was a commissioned piece for Eurobusiness magazine. the animation you link to was published first by Channel 4 News”.)
I found another good cartoon blog called Indexed via the Thunderdragon. It has dozens of whimsical graphs. Examples below:
Tim Worstall reaches 10,000 posts
One of the most prolific UK (but Portugal Spanish based) blogs that covers parts of politics blogs is Tim Worstall.
He just passed his post number 10,000 :
I am returned from the fleeting visit to the clan gathering and don’t really have all that much to say except that I note this is the ten thousandth post on this blog since it was started.
An average of 8 or so posts a day. An awful lot of words and opinions given away for free (and they are of course worth exactly what people are paying for them) and fortuitously they’ve acted as advertising to editors and the like who employ me to write as Dr. Johnson would approve of.
Whether or not this will continue to be an option I have no idea but certainly the apocryphal advice to scribblers manque has worked for me: You wanna be a writer? So, write!
His style is the wry comment or raised eyebrow - several times a day, with the occasional longer article or fisking.
He always makes me think of Phil Donohue’s “wtf” look.
Blogrolled. Full review pending.
Tags: tim worstall, wtf, witty blog, ten thousand posts, ukpoliblogs, political blog[tags]tim worstall, wtf, witty blog, ten thousand posts, ukpoliblogs, political blog[/tags]
