More Dorries

A breathtaking bit of Dorries insanity from her Twatter feed:

In Politics, Twitter is the sewer of the social networking medium, in which on line bullies live and talk to each other, over and over

I want us all to pause for a moment and take in the wonderful irony of complaining about Twitter on Twitter. Ahhh. Excellent stuff. The image of Twitter as a sewer is brilliant, since it allows me to picture Nadine complaining about a sewer while standing in one. I rather think that if you don't like the sewer, you should get the hell out of it.

Yet in this incredible tweet we have another level of irony - a bully complaining about other bullies. Because the only reason why Dorries doesn't talk to the other bullies "over and over" on Twitter is because she tends to call those who don't agree with her "stalkers" or "nutters" and then run away.

The reality is, Nadine, that this could all go away if you admitted you were wrong to lie to constituents 70% of the time on your blog and showed a little humility. Unfortunately, that seems to be beyond you. However, the more you dig and the more you throw insults around, the worse you will look. And every intervention that you make that isn't an apology will simply keep this story going.

The biggest flaw of Twitter

So I recently joined Twatter. Actually, it has been far less painful that I thought it might be. It requires remarkably little effort on my part (an absolute must) and I’ve managed to find some decent links on there and some tweets that are amusing. I’d prefer it if the link between my blog and Twitter worked consistently – unfortunately, Twitterfeed can take more than 24 hours to transfer a link onto Twitter. If it bothers at all, that is. However, over all, Twitter is more useful than I though it could be.

Yet there is one massive flaw with Twitter and, of course, that is in its unique selling point – namely that the maximum number of characters for a tweet is 140. That is a more than enough for sharing a link or a quick quip but for anything more meaningful, it is woeful at best.

Let me give you an example – someone on Twitter this week shared a link about the “voluntary” sector. Others on Twitter disputed his understanding of the word “voluntary”. Almost immediately this descended into those in the “debate” claiming that they knew what voluntary meant and the others didn’t. That was the “debate” – basically, playground banter – calling the person you can’t agree with stupid. What was missing was an analysis of what the words meant and why different definitions were being disputed.

Of course, political debate often is reduced to the level if name-calling – there’s nothing new in that. But the problem with Twatter is that it reduces all political debate to the level of 140 characters which, in the age of government by soundbite, simply advances this debasement of political debate. That’s why we see so many politicians on Twatter – it is the perfect medium for them. They can say stuff without having the space to explain or defend what they say.

Twatter has its uses, but it is well worth being aware of its limitations as well.

Twattering

In a u-turn quicker than a Nu Labour minister facing a bit of tabloid pressure (given my comments on Friday), I'm now experimenting with a Twatter feed. Rest assured, I remain heartedly unconvinced by its usefulness and whether I can really be bothered with it, but in the interests of at least being a bit open-minded I'm willing to give it a go.

I'm going to attempt to put each post from this blog on to Twatter. I did try doing the same with my Facebook group, but I grew bored of that remarkably quickly. Therefore, if anyone knows of a way to link this blog to Twatter so all posts here are automatically be published there without an iota of effort from your humble author, please let me know in the comments sections. Oh, and please tell me how as well.

Right, enough of these new(ish)-fangled methods of t'interweb communication. Back to "normal" blogging.

Against McCarthy, Against Dale

Dale's got a campaign going:

Over the next 12 weeks I will be highlighting Labour's Dirty Dozen - the twelve Labour MPs I'd most like to see kicked out of Parliament at the next election. Only 12, I hear you ask? Well, I'm going to concentrate on those who have majorities in excess of 5,000 and encourage my readers to help the Conservative candidates in that seat to win - either by making a small campaign donation or helping their campaigns in other ways.

Fair enough. Tory blogger launches a campaign to unseat Labour MPs - hardly a ground-breaking or particularly controversial proposal there, then. Until you consider who the first candidate for attack is:

I'm starting off the Dirty Dozen with Labour's self styled Twitter Czar, Kerry McCarthy.

See, I reckon I'm someone who knows quite a bit about UK politics, and here's what I know about Kerry McCarthy:

1. She's tedious
2. She's left-wing.

Which is hardly surprising, given her status as a Labour MP. She's not the person I would ever want to get to know in any way, but equally she's hardly the worst of the Labour MPs in the current parliament. Which does beg the question of why Dale has selected McCarthy for the first target in his Dirty Dozen campaign. His reasoning is there, but it is hardly convincing:

Kerry McCarthy has demonstrated that she isn't fit to be an MP. All you have to do is follow her online acitivites, especially on Twitter, to see why.

For those of us who couldn't give the first fuck about Twitter (which, mercifully, remains most of the population), complaining about activities on there is a lot like complaining about bad behaviour at some specialist internet club for geeks. Most people don't care about the club; of course they aren't going to care about people's conduct with in it. Yes, you can argue that how someone behaves on Twitter is a good indicator of how they behave in real life, but as soon as you mention Twitter to anyone who can't be arsed with it, they've stopped listening.

See, I think there is another reason as to why Dale has selected McCarthy as his first target. And I think it might have something to do with his recent online spat with her. Which is a perfectly understandable reason for targeting; however, we should be honest about the reasons behind the campaign. It isn't about getting the Dirty Dozen, it is about Dale pursuing a personal vendetta with the help of his readers. And I hope they have fun with it, but it leaves me cold.

As irritating as McCarthy appears to be, the truth is that there are no shortage of MPs to target in this Parliament - which does seem to have a bumper crop of bastards within it. And it isn't just Labour MPs who should be targeted; there are Tory MPs who are just as bad as those in the ruling party. Before targetting someone like McCarthy, I would want to see someone like the terrible Nadine Dorries lose her seat. But a Tory like Dale won't target someone like her; at heart, there is a (possibly understandable) party political bias to his selection criteria. Therefore, a genuinely independent campaign to cull the worst of the current ruling elite is something I could get behind; this campaign against McCarthy is something I most certainly cannot support.

I mean, my good golly gosh, how does this class as a story?

Stephen Fry has made online peace with another user of the micro-blogging site Twitter who called his posts "boring".

I don't know whether Stephen Fry's Twitter post is boring - what little I know about both the man and the medium suggest that there is probably a heady mix of tedium and mildly diverting banter. But honestly, the fact that Stephen Fry has made peace with a man who called him boring online is beyond boring. I sets a new benchmark for mindless tedium, and leaves me wondering what is wrong with those embroiled in this farcical row, Twitter, and the whole fucking world.

Nick Clegg's Twinterview

I'm not a big fan of Twitter. So when I read that failing newspaper The Independent is going to do a Twitter interview with failing Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, I struggle to be that interested. Maybe I'm wrong - maybe this is the inauguration of a great new way of holding politicians to account. Although I can't help but think that, as leader of Britain's third party at a time when that party should be readying itself to become the main party of opposition in the UK, that maybe Nick Clegg should have better things to do with his time that hang around on Twitter.