With all the hoo-ha that's doing the rounds over our beloved council's plan to gag its elected members' blogs, I suppose I should step into the fray, being the premier blog on the island. The scheme is the deformed brainchild of Tory cabinet member Councillor/Doctor Simon Moores and is being cooked up in conjunction with the council's Chief Exec Richard Samuel. (Good day Dr M and Mr S. I know you are both avid daily readers of my febrile jottings!)Quite why Thanet Council should be spearheading a move which no other authority in the country has seen fit to even consider is beyond me. After all, the council's track record of spearheading anything is, er, not the best. And in the sphere of IT it seems to have a kind of reverse Midas touch. So much so that many refer to it as TDC's **IT department.
When the Tory leader and deputy leader have both troubled the standards people, and cost the council taxpayer tens of thousands, with their 'f*cking tosser' outbursts and petition-tossing shenanigans, it's ironic that the Blue Rinsers should now be considering a code of conduct for political bloggers. When I say 'political bloggers', what I suppose they mean is 'bloggers who don't concur with their politics', as I've yet to see Simon Moores or Ken Gregory, the only two blue bloggers on the isle, complain about their own or each other's blogs. Presumably it's the Labour bloggers - Cllrs Green, Harrison and Nottingham - who they want to gag.
In point of fact it's more than likely yours truly who they'd really like to strangle. Dr M has spent the best part of four years using all the techno-wizardy at his disposal attempting to uncover my identity in a vain hope that I might be that hairy socialist who represents Dingleberry Ward and who you don't see much at council meetings. Sorry to disappoint you Doc. As my old chum, the humourist and broadcaster David Quantick points out in one of his endless Grumpy Old Men books, this blog is 'essentially the diary of a boring bloke in Ramsgate with too much spare time on his hands'.
By the way, am I the only one who's getting grumpy about all the grumpy old books and spin-offs? At the last count there were 86 grumpy old tomes listed on Amazon along with 84 other items including one 'Beware grumpy old dog' gate sign. Surely it's jumped the shark? Time to consign it to '101 Uses For A Dead Concept' methinks!
Read about the proposal in the Gazunder
Grumpy old things on Amazon
14 comments:
Good to see Thanet's mass market blog enter the fray, still I think the action is over on Bignews Margate, do feel free to chip in!
We have Cllr Simon Moores on the menu currently.
Any from fannits qualitie finking mans blog good day!
any way from
'Chip' being the operative word there, eh Tone?
Annnnnnyhow, I've deliberately kept away from this topic, which definitely wasn't covered first in Bignews Margate, as I wanted to give it my, er, considered opinion!
As you will know, eastcliff I welcome your admiration and appreciation as one of those who strive to replicate my common touch with hard news.
Still I need to point out that the subject of censorship has been covered by me extensively since 8th September 2006 when I discussed David Greens run in with council censorship, on the same day we had you wittering on about your french holiday and hearing your dulcets on Radio Kent.
Now Now you two, please behave, we have had enough of this sort of stuff from Mark and the boy in short trousers whose name I forget. (who I might add was given far too much publicity by Tony).
On the subject of censorship, perhaps Dr M and Mr S would be better employed reading the East Kent Audit Partnership report and mopping up the messes made by TDC.
Oh come on Tony! You know full well I bore the brunt of Dr M's blog wars witch hunt in February last year.
And where were you? Er, munching burgers in New York I seem to recall!
And your slack posting on the Dreamland fire last year (despite the fact you actually live in Margate) only collared you four comments, while my timely and well-informed commentary bagged over a hundred!
Ha!
Blog wars
The New York days are well over but I seem to remember blogging in support from my luxury hotel suite, burgers I can still afford.
As to the slack posting on the Dreamland Fire, you will recall my emotive tear filled report on Youtube 4000 plus hits a thousand or so on night.
And whilst we're on the subject, another of you sneaky populist moves on your youtube was the video "Radio 4's Charlotte Green cracks up on air" 54,000 hits, before that I was ahead of the game, just because your smarter and more talented and popular.
of the hundred comments how many were from close family?
You just don't know how to lose gracefully do you?!!
E nuff bitchin for won day I think
Well I was going to Peter but your behaviour is freaking me out at the moment.
The minute I'm convinced you're harmless I'll be in touch. In the meantime, try to calm down a bit.
Yikes! this is exciting!
Oh! dear - we all know that the school summer holidays are the silly season but my main reason for blogging is because I believe in free speech. Anyone in the public eye, especially if they are supposed to be responsible for earning my hard-earned council tax, must expect to be scrutinised and criticised surely? If they are not happy they can always get off at the next station.
Oops! Should have said "spending" my council tax not earning it!
An interesting thing is that the government is actually encouraging civil servants to blog via Twitter and they will be joining many MPs who already do so. via BBC News.
Will there be new TDC guidelines on this too?
"With more and more citizens using the internet it's important that, as part of its communications approach, the government develops its capability to use digital channels effectively and that includes social media tools such as Twitter."
Surely TDC must instead promote blogging and microblogging then?
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