Excalibur is the name of a sword – a mighty (and probably heavy) bejeweled sword wielded by King Arthur who did his Round Table bit in and around Wales (or so it has been mytholigised). Unfortunately, it is also the code name of the NuLabour attack dog team who in the early days of the reign of King Tony were used mainly against the Tory Press and Media. But they are now back, unmuzzled, online and out of their kennels with political bloggers in their sights.
The UK’s two main parties are frantically developing fresh blog strategies in a battle to dominate the political agenda.
PRWeek can reveal that the Labour Party is exploring plans for an online rapid rebuttal unit, designed to kill off damaging stories circulating in the blogosphere.Source: PR Week
We at Cambria Politico know where they can stick their rebuttals.
Up their buttals.
Comments
It sounds like a good idea to me. What’s wrong with a political party rebutting nonsense , lies, half-truths and prejudice written on blogs about them?
I would not get too worked up Clive, if I were you.
No one reads the crap you write, so I doubt very much the Labour Party had you in mind when they thought up this initiative!
Well you, for one, are reading ‘this crap’, Mr.Bowen.
Our statistics are telling us that many others are too, notwithstanding the fact that most people don’t understand about blogs and their role in the political process. Yet.
We must be doing something right as this blog has been voted no.7 in the Total Politics all Wales blog list after only 3 months (some blogs have been going for years with miniscule traffic and not much to say apart from reiterating what others have written).
As for the ‘rebuttal unit’ set up by Labour, well in principle yes it may a good idea to combat misinformation on the Internet. But that implies that they abide by principles and history shows us that this is not the case. Also, it will be unworkable in practice. Blogs are not newspapers or TV. Although government and the ‘powers that be’ would dearly like to ‘regulate’ blogs in the current surveillance society, it is the only effective medium for expression of views on topical issues that matter to ordinary people. OK we have the vote but how often does that come along? Every 4-5 years. OK we have so-called referenda, but we all know how these are manipulated to deny a vote (cf.Lisbon Treaty) even if promised by manifesto.
You are right that the Labour Party did not have us in mind in setting up their unit – they want to rebutt blogs like Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale’s Diary and other ‘right wing’ or libertarian blogs. In the scheme of things, CP is small fry (except in Wales) but that should not deny us the opportunity that blogging allows to have our say.
There are alot of things to ‘get worked up’ about, Mr.Bowen.
Phil Bowen. What!!!, the Political parties don’t give out lies, half truths and prejudices!….. the list is endless. Try telling it to the public without having to stand at least two yards away from them or while they laugh in your face. The more the politicians will be protesting to try and put the record ‘straight’ the more us, the cynical public will disbelieve them.
What you are realy saying of course, is that a Political party (The Labour Party ) want censorship to be a part and parcel of a democratic society.
I know this Government are underhandedly trying to take away all our liberties.
now we have somebody saying it is official policy.
We think you are great CP
Ouch! I obviously touched a raw nerve there Mr. Betts.
You really have a very high opinion of yourself and your badly-written little blog, don’t you?
When you talk about blogging having a role in the political process, are you referring to the frequent character assassinations you personally indulge in on this blog? Is that you mean?
If so, you must enlighten your readers as to how such irresponsible, half-baked, half-truth nonsense, helps the political process in anyway whatsoever. I, along with your other half dozen readers, will be fascinated to read your answer.
As for how ‘popular’ CP is, I couldn’t give a stuff about your ‘statporn’ Mr Betts. If you want to ‘get-off ‘on how many readers you have, that’s your prerogative.
As for comparisons, this blog is nothing like Iain Dale’s Dairy. He is intelligent, witty, political and worth a daily visit.
As for Guido? You and him are well suited – both a complete waste of cherished bandwidth, in my opinion.
Phil Bowen
Hmmm… I think the Welsh blogosphere needs a Guido ap Fawkes. It is already too insipid and amateurish at the moment.
We are sincerely flattered to see that Mr.Bowen thinks ‘Guido and CP are well suited’!
Methinks Mr.Bowen is either already or would like to be part of Labour’s Rapid Rebuttal Task Force! If so, piss off and bother someone else.
Roger:
Thanks for that. You sum-up the blogosphere (God, how I detest that dreadful word!) wonderfully. You are not only completely paraoid, you are also barking up entirely the wrong tree, as to where my political support lies.
I would have thought my praise for Iain Dale would given a slight clue but it obviously went straight over your head didn’t it? You poor chap.
Now, Mr Betts:
How you call yourself a ‘journalist’, I have absolutely no idea.
You must have discovered the loosest definition of the word in the dictionary, cut it out with a pair of blunt scissors, glued it on your forehead and declared: “I’m a journalist!”.
I noticed you completely failed to answer my central question to you about how blogging (and more pertinently your uniquely odious form of blogging) has a role in the political process. All I ever seem to read here is bile and invective.
So do you have a answer to this or would you like a couple of days to think about stringing a few words together into a sentence. As long as it vaguely resembles the Queen’s English, I am sure your readers will get the drift of what you are trying to say.
Now where did I put that NUJ phone number………….?
Phil Bowen (no relation)
I think you are being rather harsh on Mr Betts here, considering he didn’t write this particular blog post!
Phil Bowen.
Because I am such a poor chap and obviously do not have your inteligence, things do tend to go over my head. Being a person of such inferior inteligence and quite used to having more superior people look down on me, I have learned to accept my lowly position in life, which is why I ultimately tend to completely ignore such small minded and petty people, who have to resort to the personal abuse of a bully, when they have no logical answer to what they know is the truth but goes against their own personal prejudices.
As the Labour Party nears the end ‘ in the bunker’ Brown is angry and blaming everybody else – witness this recent recording of his ‘fury’ over the SNP win in Glasgow.