Recent Happenings

I am sorry for the recent lack of posts, there are three reasons: 1) I have been lazy, 2) I have been (quite) busy, and 3) I have not found anything suitably interesting to write about. Actually number 3 is not quite true, I was writing a lengthy post about Labour's election rigging credentials, but I accidentally deleted the whole thing and before I knew it the blank page was autosaved. The trials of being a new blogger! Perhaps somebody can tell me how to disable the autosaver?

Anyway, I thought I would pass comment on some of the recent squabbles on more well known blogs (it pains me to admit that Derek Draper is more well known than me, but it is a fact). Derek Draper proved himself to be a self-righteous, sanctimonious git with his posturing about Carol Thatcher's golliwog comment. (I had a golliwog as a child, I think it is a shame they are not readily available anymore). Anyway, Iain Dale poured scorn on Dolly (as Draper is affectionately(!) known), and was branded a "racist" for his pains. Next it was Guido Fawkes' turn, with a delightful picture of Gordon Brown with little brown children provoking quite a bit of comment on his blog. The comments on Guido's blog were, on the whole, very unfunny, which was a shame, because so much satire could have been teased out of the photo, but they provided another opportunity for Dolly to show himself up as an old windbag, which he duly availed himself of.

A link to Guido's blog will now appear on the right of this page, a fitting reward for successfully winding Dolly Draper up.

I will try to post some more in the next few days, so please don't desert me!

Not knowing their Right Hand from their Left

I have decided that it is time for me to wade into the furore caused by Iain Dale's calling the BNP left-wing. Iain was, of course, absolutely correct, and this is a point I have maintained for years, but some left-wing bloggers took it upon themselves to get very upset. In fact, so perturbed were some, such as Flying Rodent, that they posted a reply which, rather than bringing reasoned, logical arguments to bear, simply miscalled Mr. Dale for alarming them so. A reply to this nonsense was forthcoming, however, in the form of the eloquent verbosity of Longrider, clearly a force the leftists had not reckoned on encountering.

I see, however, that many organs of public information, such as wikipedia, continue to refer to the BNP as a "far-right" and "fascist" party. The charge of fascism may be quite competent, but to say that the BNP is right-wing is a hideous nonsense peddled by the BBC, the Guardian and organisations of their low ilk. A quick glance at the BNP's website will show that they are anything but right-wing. With statements such as "Globalisation ... is bringing ruin and unemployment to British industries" and "We further believe that British industry, commerce, land and other economic and natural assets belong in the final analysis to the British nation and people" the BNP shows itself to be almost as left-wing as Stalin himself. A statist, collectivist party which believes in mass-nationalisation and extreme market protectionism regardless of economic situation is in no sense right wing.

One organ which has repeatedly been refered to during these heated exchanges is Political Compass, which provides a two-dimensional graphic showing where it believes the main parties in the UK sit, this is displayed at the top of this post. I take issue with that graphic. It is wrong. The Labour party is much more authoritarian than shown on the graph, and is certainly not right wing. Labour should be in a position on the graph, slightly to the left of that which the BNP currently occupy. The BNP should also be a bit to the left of where they are, and in fact a bit to the left of Labour. The LibDems should also be on the left, and I would tend to place them above, not below the authoritarian line. The Conservatives should be about bang on centre on the authoritarian line, but are about the correct distance to the right. The Greens are the correct distance to the left, but are anything other than Libertarian. The Greens are among the most self-righteous, authoritarian, arrogant parties currently in existence.

So, I have now put right the two evils which are abroad in the blogosphere. The BNP are NOT right wing, they are LEFT wing. And Political Compass have NO CLUE about where to place the main parties on their graphic.