blogosphere

An OurKingdom conversation [History: Jeremy Gilbert > Rosemary Bechler > this post > Rosemary Bechler (part one; part two) > Jeremy Gilbert]

Tom Griffin (London, OK): Over at Liberal Conspiracy, James Graham announces the launch of a new blog carnival in support of the Convention on Modern Liberty.

As an online companion to the Convention, it is intended to help promote debate on civil liberties on the blogosphere over the next few weeks. Fundamentally however, it is also intended to spur both bloggers and their readers into action.

I will be producing the first edition this Friday on Liberal Conspiracy. Over the next couple of weeks it will move to OurKingdom and Unlock Democracy and then we’ll be looking for volunteers to host future editions - what about you? (email offers to modernliberty *at* quaequamblog *dot* net).

If you have an article you would like to be included in the first edition you can submit it either by following this link or emailing modernliberty *at* quaequamblog *dot* net. The deadline is 4pm on Thursday 22 January (if you miss this it is no problem as it will simply carry over to the next week’s edition). We are particularly looking for articles on the following sub-topics:

Tom Griffin (London, OK): It was only to be expected that the blogosphere wouldn't take kindly to Hazel Blears' attack on it and so it has proved. Blears told the Hansard Society:

Mostly, political blogs are written by people with disdain for the political system and politicians, who see their function as unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy. "Until political blogging 'adds value' to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.

That got short shrift from Guido Fawkes, who Blears accused of 'vicious nihilism':

Tom Griffin (London, OK): It seems that OurKingdom has picked up a couple of mentions on the nominations thread for the political blogging award at Northern Ireland's premier blog, Slugger O'Toole. Many thanks to Chekov and O'Neill for these fulsome recommendations:

Our Kingdom: “Fair Deal is one of the very few bloggers delivering a DUP standpoint in a thoughtful manner.  I rarely agree with what he says, but he’s always worth reading. Damian O’Loan is an excellent new addition, writing coherent and temperate analysis from a liberal nationalist perspective.  An encouraging indication that moderation is not dead.” And “Fair Deal, Damian O’Loan, Tom Griffin, Patrick Corrigan and (very occasionally) Ian Parsley all are delivering thoughtful and coherent articles analysing different areas of political life here.” 

Nominations close in mid-September. It's well worth checking out some of the excellent blogs that are in the running so far.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): In a generous post last week, the prime orchestrator of the UK's blogland, Iain Dale of Politco's Bookshop and now Iain Dale's Diary - the only man to have made a success of two enterprises with apostrophes - wondered if OurKingdom would become "the first left of centre blog to make a breakthrough" (I think he means into becoming a blog that matters and has some influence). He noted that it is "fast becoming a daily read for me" and we will do our best to get ourselves inscribed in his blogroll of honour, "Dale's Daily Reads" (that apostrophe, you can't escape it). The reason for the post itself was a response to my speculation about class war inside the Tory party, which came into public view when Ancram broke cover and crashed like a fat, noisy grouse into Cameron's hunting party just when they were looking for the Labour fox. Dale tells a funny story about class consciousness in the Labour Party but that was local rather than at the national level. His first comment came from a reader who reminded us of the saying that the Tory party was "once the party of landed estates but is now the party of estate agents".

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Over on ConservativeHome there is a reader's interview with Matt d'Ancona, editor of the Spectator and orchestrator of its brilliant Coffee House blog. In one exchange Matt responds to a question on how bad things are by telling his questioner to cheer up , after all, who are on the intellectual offensive? "Look, for instance, at ConservativeHome and the Right’s spectacular intellectual dominance of the blogosphere".