New Labour, New Media

Some fairly heavy shit on Guido's blog at the moment about the impact of new media on the relationship between politicians and the public, following some rather unwise comments by departing No 10 policy wonk Matthew Taylor.

Blaming the internet for fuelling the "crisis" between politicians and voters, Taylor said: "The big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years [is] basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, and mendacious politicians are."

As usual, New Labour is trying to have it both ways. After all, as my old lobby colleague Nick Assinder has noted, the Government is currently playing about with new media like an excited child who has just discovered computer games.

Environment Sec David Miliband has his famous taxpayer-funded blog, the Downing Street website has its new e-petitions functionality and Mr Blair this week staged an online interview, mediated by the politically-balanced pairing of old leftie Will Hutton and youngish Tory Anne McElvoy.

I don't blame Downing St for trying to harness the power of Teh Interwebs, but surely they should not complain when the public, and specifically political bloggers, do the same.

Mind you, up against twisted genii like Tim Ireland who are prepared to do this sort of thing, you can maybe see why they are so afraid.

Time to bury Milton Keynes?

Given the intellectual and political triumph of free market economics in the 1980s, I was always rather surprised that the Thatcher Government allowed the last of the new towns to be called Milton Keynes as opposed to Milton Friedman. Maybe now that the great economist has died, someone will suggest renaming it in his honour.

It wouldn't be the first time. Until the 1970s Milton Keynes did not actually exist as a place, being then three separate villages called Wolverton, Stony Stratford and Great Linford. There's an old family picture somewhere of my uncle standing beside the village signpost before it was swallowed up by the sprawl.

Justice for Mirza

Regular readers will know my views on the death penalty, so I was mightily relieved to learn that the death sentence imposed on British-born Mirza Tahir Hussain by an Islamic court in Pakistan has been commuted to life imprisonment.

This is almost certainly down to the recent intervention of the Prince of Wales, demonstrating that he has his uses in spite of the predictable sniping about him from those who seem to think now would be a good time to start dispensing with British traditions.

But a special mention should also go to Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads for this piece, entitled Bloody Darkies, highlighting the initial failure of the British press to report Mirza's plight.

It is probably the best piece of online journalism I have read on any blog over the past 12 months.

BlogGems

An occasional series dedicated to bringing the choicest comments from the blogosphere to a slightly wider audience.
No 1.

"The primary advantage of Labourhome over ConservativeHome is that LH is not dedicated to lining up the entire British working class and buggering them one by one."

Alex Hilton, owner of Labour Home and Recess Monkey, interviewed on the Mars Hill blog.

But whose Big Clunking Fist?

The next election contest, said Tony Blair yesterday, will be "a flyweight versus a heavyweight." He said of David Cameron: "However much he dances around the ring beforehand he will come in reach of a big clunking fist and, you know what, he'll be out on his feet, carried out of the ring."

He's right about Cameron, of course. The public will find him out before long and the Tories will discover that they have massively overestimated the impact that Blair's departure will have on their electoral prospects.

But did Blair's comments constitute the long-awaited endorsement of Gordon Brown, as seems to be the consensus this morning, or could it be, as The Sun suggests, that John Reid could still be the one to send the Boy David crashing to the canvas?

After all, as the commentator Peter Dobbie wrote a few years' back, the Home Secretary does have something of a reputation as a pugilist in Westminster circles.

What does seem to be clear is that Blair has endorsed Brown or Reid, as opposed to any other candidate - which is exactly how it should be. The two of them are head and shoulders above any other candidates when it comes to experience, gravitas, and the ability to command an audience, and if there is to be a contest, then those should be the two names on the ballot paper.

In other words, it's surely now time for Hutton, Milburn, Johnson and all the other John Major-alikes to crawl back under their stones and let the real men fight it out.

Reid still keeping options open

There has been much speculation in the blogosphere over recent days concerning John Reid's intentions towards the Labour leadership, for instance:

PoliticalBetting.com
Politaholic
The UK Daily Pundit
Guido Fawkes.

Two things appear to have kicked it all off - firstly Gordon Brown's rather ill-judged kneejerk reaction to Friday's acquittal of BNP leader Nick Griffin - which managed the not-inconsiderable feat of making Reid look like a liberal - together with a view in certain influential quarters that Brown will invariably end up becoming enmeshed in the loans-for-lordships affair.

I make no comment on any of this, other than to say that I don't believe Reid has ever ruled himself in or out of the leadership battle. As I wrote HERE ten days ago, "Gordon has the conditional backing of everyone that really matters. But they still reserve the right to challenge him if it all goes wrong."

Certainly this piece in yesterday's Guardian by Jackie Ashley - a journalist with close links to the Chancellor's camp - suggests that the Brownites are taking absolutely nothing for granted.

November 15 Update: Is the heavily law-and-order orientated content of today's Queen's Speech designed to help a Reid leadership bid? Mike Smithson thinks so.