Anthony Barnett (London, OK): The great Sunny Hundal of Pickled Politics has just emailed to say he has "teased" me in his latest CiF post. It's called "Bloggers of the Left Unite!". I hope we don't. "Unite", that is. Such an obligation will demand a correct line etc, etc. Sunny is preparing the ground for a new initiative, that I will warmly support when it is suitably launched on Guy Fawks night. Now, by way of early stimulation no doubt, he suggests I was wrong to ask some time back why Britain's rightwing blogland is so much more lively than the left's. Wrong, because, he says,
None of the popular political blogs on the left obsess about Westminster (unless they are by people in politics) as many do on the right, which explains why Anthony Barnett can't find them pouring vitriol over the latest government announcement.
Well I'm not looking for them to obsess about Westminster - one of the things that is most progressive about UK politics at the moment is what is happening in Scotland, Wales and in London's Livingstone government. Where is the on-line debate about this in England outside OK? A recent article by Iain MacWhirter attacked Compass and like groups for their "stunned silence" on what is happening in Scotland. This would be a fair point if he had also had the generosity to salute OurKingdom's metropolitan insistence on the connecting to the earthquake north of the border. There is a left/liberal incapacity to to be open and positive about each other when this is deserved. In his own way MacWhirter shadows ye olde sectarianism, bash your own side to show how good you and only you are.
Nor was I looking for vitriol. On the contrary, I'm looking for intelligent judgements. Sunny has them. The right often does not. But there is often a positive energy between Iain Dale, Guido Fawkes, Conservative Home, The Spectator Coffee House, Dizzy thinks, and that draws in readers. (It is not always positive, example: their response to the Gummer/Goldsmith Quality of Life Report was damaging to the Conservatives as well as to thinking about the environment in Britain.)
Anyway, the main point Sunny is making is that civil society organisations add up to a lot less than the sum of their parts. This is spot on. Let's do something about it!
