Commentariat

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Lib Dem Voice had an interesting conversation under the title What should political bloggers be trying to achieve?, where Brian Coleman was used as an example of a search term that had been targeted by the Lib Dems in Google. This was the relevant bit of the conversation about Brian Coleman AM, the London Assembly Member for Barnet (the Lib Dems think he is a bit thin up top) and Camden.

The story is that Brian Coleman was the one who had a go at Lynne Featherstone for calling the Fire Brigade when her boiler made a funny noise, and the Lib Dems don’t like him as a result.

I thought I’d have a test on Google to see how we get on competing for a term such as “Brian Coleman” with the Liberal Democrat blogs on their top rated story for Brian Coleman: “Brian Coleman AM and his taxi bills”

(Click on the title to read the whole article)

Everyone has heard of “Bushisms“, the often stupid remarks made by George W Bush - such gems as “It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it” - but, until now, Brownisms have been missed. What is a Brownism?
Definition of Brownism: (braun’i(z’?m)
1. (verb) The subtle art of combining of words into sentences [...]

one of the indulgences of the ‘nice’ decade has been the boom in vanity surgery. Men and women trained for years in medical and surgical skills put potentially life-saving talents, training and skill to use by…. giving breast implants to teenagers and trout pouts to ‘celebrities’. This is one market which is crying out for a recession.

A cartoon from ASBO Jesus.

The aim of the commentariat.org.uk site is to see how far the highly expensive paid for services for monitoring and analysing “comment” can be put together without charging any significant money.

So I’m starting an experiment with sending out a Daily Summary email of the Comment and Opinion from different publications.

Yesterday I looked at statements in Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s Independent column where I think she stepped over the line into simple racism against the “indigenous British” (as she calls them). This is a line-by-line examination of Ms Alibhai-Brown’s illogical leaps and bounds, with some statistics and citations.

Continuing his retirement thoughts, Mr Galloway wondered about becoming a wise old statesman in the House of Lords. Maybe he couldn’t afford to be one under the current government, and it wasn’t quite his scene.

Inspired by Friday Lolcats meme.

Flexible working is a good thing. It enables people to balance work and life - especially when they have children - and allows firms to keep talent and experience in the workplace.
But this new “right” over flexible working is nothing of the sort:

The right to request flexible working is to be extended to about 4.5 [...]

Cartoon: Gaping Void

This is an experimental site to help you monitor what the various members of the “Commentariat” are saying easily.
The aim of the site is to see how far the highly expensive paid for services for monitoring and analysing “comment” can be put together without charging any significant money.
Background
A few days ago I wrote about [...]

Wardman Wire
Natalie Bennett, Philobiblon:
http://philobiblon.co.uk/
Cabalamat, Amused Cynicism:
http://cabalamat.wordpress.com/
Jonathan Calder, Liberal England:
http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/
Chameleon, Redemption Blues:
http://www.redemptionblues.com/
Mr Eugenides:
http://mreugenides.blogspot.com/
Jackart, A Very British Dude:
http://brackenworld.blogspot.com/
Susanne Lamido, Suz Blog:
http://susannelamido.blogspot.com/
Matt Wardman, The Wardman Wire:
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s column from Monday’s Independent expresses stereotypes that I can only call racist. Ostensibly it is a column about the “eat local food” movement, but Yasmin draws conclusions that she applies to all “indigenous Britons”.

One example of a Yasmin statement: The country can’t stomach any more foreignness and wants old simplicities back again. Applying that sentiment to the whole population is no more acceptable than “all black people are stupid” or “the Irish are a race of bogtrotting terrorists”.

Time to stop, Yasmin.

There’s been a distinct whiff of the final stages of the Book of Revelations around Westminster this week, with the Gord forced to make expensive concessions to ensure the success of the Finance Bill, widespread criticism over the comrades’ campaigning tactics in Crewe and Nantwitch, and an outbreak of bitchslapping between a Cabinet Minister and a newly ennobled Awkward Squad member. In other news, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill continues its interminable Parliamentary progress as “Mad” Nad Dorries accidentally causes a hands-across-the-water alliance between bloggers from the feminist movement, the libertarian right, the museli knitting liberals, and the Labour left. And adding a touch of farce to the proceedings was Caroline Flint who learned - like Jacqui Smith before her, albeit in a different context - that it’s best to keep one’s assets under wraps at all times, and we all got treated to faaaaaaar more information than we ever wanted to about the horizontal jogging antics of the Blairs. That’s right folks, prepare to scrub your mind’s eye. With BLEACH.

A cartoon from Indexed.

I’m not a journalistic pessimist. Overall, I think the massive expansion of the media is a good thing. I also believe that truthfulness has a way of continuing to assert itself, if we are serious in attending to it. But that takes some hard work, and in the meantime there can be little doubt that modern reporting and commentary is frequently tempted to put passion well ahead of precision. A couple of recent items concerning religion might serve as an example.

Cartoon: Gaping Void

Yesterday I had a look at Monitoring the Commentariat for free. Iain Dale has translated that as:

“Matt Wardman thinks he can put Editorial Intelligence out of business.”

Now there’s another challenge. In the spirit of enquiry and to encourage enterprise (!) I thought I’d do a quick minute rundown of Editorial Intelligence’s services and a few of their potential free competitors.

Yesterday I had a look at Monitoring the Commentariat for free. Iain Dale has translated that as:

“Matt Wardman thinks he can put Editorial Intelligence out of business.”

Now there’s another challenge. In the spirit of enquiry and to encourage enterprise (!) I thought I’d do a quick minute rundown of Editorial Intelligence’s services and a few of their potential free competitors.

This wouldn’t have happened under Blair
Who’s ever idea it was to campaign in Crewe and Nantwich dressed up as “toffs” in tailcoats and top hats should immediately be sacked by the Labour party. Given that this is such a crucial campaign in fact, I am surprised that Brown has not intervened himself… then again I [...]

Cartoon: Gaping Void

Yesterday I said in passing that I thought that it may now be possible to deliver much of the value added by subscription services designed to help organisations “get to grips” with the published commentary relatively easily - based on the insight that the supply of news and comment is no longer an expensive commodity. I have had a go myself today, and this article is to introduce the results.

Yesterday I said in passing that I thought that it may now be possible to deliver much of the value added by subscription services designed to help organisations “get to grips” with the published commentary relatively easily - based on the insight that the supply of news and comment is no longer an expensive commodity. I have had a go myself today, and this article is to introduce the results.

This is an experimental site to help you monitor what the various members of the “Commentariat” are saying easily.
The aim of the site is to see how far the highly expensive paid for services for monitoring and analysing “comment” can be put together without charging any significant money.
Background
A few days ago I wrote about [...]

Cartoon: Gaping Void

A couple of days ago I drew your attention to a seminar to launch a report by Editorial Intelligence called “The Power of the Commentariat”. Or rather, they have launched half of it and expect the public to buy the rest from Amazon.

It’s an interesting document and I’d like to do a review of the whole thing. I have asked Editorial Intelligence for a review copy of the whole document. If one is not forthcoming, I shall review the half of the report that they have seen fit to release.

Listening to the podcast of the seminar, there are a number of moments of “Don Quixote” incongruity. However, if you want to skip the fun, and just hear what I think - then go to the next section.