Links and Finks

Apologies for the relatively light bloggage this week which was due to the need to finish off an important project at work. Just time before I clock off for the weekend to tell you about the latest new links on the blog and to highlight a couple of interesting new initiatives on the blogosphere.

The first of these is Daniel Finkelstein's long-awaited "best of the blogs" aggregator on Comment Central. It's called Web Grab, and it's easily the best thing of its kind to be found on any national newspaper website.

Unlike Comment is Free, Web Grab is genuinely seeking to reflect the diversity of stuff on the blogosphere, owing its inspiration to Tim Worstall's peerless Britblog round-up. I was fortunate enough to get a mention in the first Web Grab, in the shape of my post a week ago on the devilishly clever John Reid.

The other thing that's caught my eye recently - and I'm a bit late with this as Dizzy had it a while back, is the New Constitution blog, which is, at its name suggests, an attempt to write a new constitution via the blogosphere. I don't necessarily agree with all the content - it's anti-monarchist for a start - but I like the general idea.

As for those new links, welcome aboard Luke Akehurst, one of the best Labour bloggers around, PragueTory, a blog that many people predict is going to be big in 2007, and The Psychiatrist, an interesting health and politics blog from Dr Michelle Tempest.

Like most bloggers I have a general policy of linking to any site that links to mine so if I have missed yours off, please let me know.

BlogGems

An occasional series dedicated to bringing the choicest comments from the blogosphere to a slightly wider audience.
No 5.

"I think it can be safely assumed that when this century's Presidents are graded, George W. Bush will feature at the bottom. If we ever have a worse one then mankind is unlikely to survive for such a survey to be realised."

Campbell Waterman, commenting on Danny Finkelstein's Comment Central blog.

History repeating itself?

"Our troops will have a well-defined mission, to help Iraqis clear and secure neighbourhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs."
George W. Bush, 2007

"Our numbers have increased in Vietnam because the aggression of others has increased in Vietnam. There is not, and there will not be, a mindless escalation."
Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966

Who is the most persecuted minority?

I am not one of those who believe that incessantly banging on about homosexuality does the cause of Christianity in this country any great favours. Indeed I am notorious among my circle of Christian friends for my oft-repeated view - not shared by all of them - that if the church got half as worked up about injustice as it does about gay sex then maybe it would have more credibility.

Nevertheless, in the context of what is essentially a political row about a piece of anti-discrimination legislation, the question that sticks in my mind is who is now the most persecuted minority - homosexuals, or Christians?

In my own profession at least, the answer is clear. To have had same-sex experiences is practically de rigeur in some sections of the media. To be a Christian, by contrast, is deeply unfashionable and tends to engender deep distrust on the part of colleagues and, occasionally, employers.

If I were to come out as gay, I doubt very much whether I would lose any readers on this blog or be denied any employment opportunities. I know for a fact that both of these things have happened to me as a result of my being a Christian.

Update: The debate on this now appears to have migrated to Caroline Hunt's blog.

A follower, not a leader

Disappointing though it is for those of us who have argued fairly consistently for something to be done about the environmental costs of air travel, I cannot say I am hugely surprised by Tony Blair's latest comments about the issue in an interview published today. My main criticism of him as a politician down the years has always been that he is essentially a follower, not a leader, and his refusal to seek to lead public opinion on the question of climate change is entirely typical of his cretinous style of political "leadership."

"You know, I'm still waiting for the first politician who's actually running for office who's going to come out and say it - and they're not," he says. Wrong. His own environment minister, who unlike him is actually running for office at the next election, recently called for curbs on shorthaul flights and branded Ryanair the "irresponsible face of capitalism."

Blair would like to think that his comments show himself to be in touch with the great mass of ordinary people. In actual fact they show him to be increasingly out of touch with what has become an emerging political consensus on the air travel issue.

Ten months ago, I described this on the blog as an issue mainstream politics was ignoring. To be fair, it is ignoring it no longer. But the fact that the Prime Minister seems determined to do so only serves to demonstrate once more the extent to which he has outlived his usefulness.

Cruddas leads the way

My ongoing, totally unscientific but possibly quite representative poll on Labour's deputy leadership shows Jon Cruddas leading the way over Hilary Benn with the rest moreorless nowhere, which I think by and large presents a fairly accurate picture of what is really going on.

I have gone with my readership and plumped for Cruddas in my latest podcast previewing the race which is now live. For the benefit of those who can't be bothered to listen or subscribe, the full text is available HERE.