Dave Cole on Derek Draper: Plus Coming Attack Blog Backlash

(Written at 12:20 today. But I got busy.)

Thoughtful Labour blogger Dave Cole seems to have dropped the "Cole Not Dole" monicker, lest it be thought too whimsical or satirical perhaps in these days of thought crimes, and like LOL he's out to see Derek Draper Drummed Out of our hair. Dave gives the extracts from the rules that could see Draper and McBride flung out of the party.

Seems to me the mistake being made by the fabled "Labour Blogging" meetings of 1 December 2008 and beyond was not -> discussing all the main genres of political blogs. That's fair enough. Though mapping the "existing" properly might have been an idea.

One could line up Labour Home or Bloggers4Labour or Liberal Conspiracy (or invent Labour List) to counter Conservative Home; and line up Tom Harris MP, Cllr Kerron Cross, Hopi Sen, Rupa Huq, Cllr Bob Piper etc etc (or heaven forfend completely fabricate a Frankenstein personality blogger in Derek Draper) to tackle Iain Dale's Diary; and then there's the attack/satire/investigation of Recess Monkey, Sadie Smith, LOL, Ministry of Truth etc etc (or ignore all that and insinuate The Red Rag onto the scene on the QT) as a counterpoint to Guido Fawkes' Order-Order.

The mistake was thinking that any of these "types" could usefully be started up from scratch, be parachuted in AND be controlled from the centre.

And I don't have any problem with attack blogs per se. Now there's a surprise. Within limits. Limits that I sometimes like to test myself. But it is obvious really that while such blogs may contribute to a cause they cannot be official or controlled or answerable to the centre.

Clearly the Red Rag affair provides several opportunities.

First, it provides an opportunity for anyone willing to trade in tittle tattle, gossip, satire, even investigation, to consider where the boundaries are or should be.

Second, it provides an opportunity for opponents to smear political bloggers and investigators willy nilly. Even if we stay within the limits of provable truth, fair comment, putting reasonable questions to accountable persons and institutions.

As mentioned in update to McBride excommunication post. We'll be back to this before long.

UPDATED 23:32: Links added and minor re-writing.