The Nether-World

Sorry For The Long Break

2008-06-14T20:16:00.004+01:00

Phew, has it really been over five months since I've written anything here? Well I'm sorry about the long break. I've missed blogging but a change in my employment circumstances has made it very difficult for me to write regularly. Basically, my current job involves me writing for eight hours a day about news and current events so when I get home the last thing I want to do is more of the same. I was over stretching myself in several directions and something had to give. I'd like to be able to say that normal service has now resumed but it hasn't so blogging will continue to be light to non-existent for a while longer.

I did however, need a break from blogging. Apart from work commitments I was getting very disillusioned with politics and I was in danger of starting every post with "Told Ya So!". Blog posts just seemed to be continually stating the obvious. Gordon Brown has turned out to be every bit the arsehole I predicted him to be (and then some); New Labour is just as cowardly, corrupt, immoral and incompetent as it was under Blair and in some cases more so. I could go on but I suspect any remaining readers will be all too familiar with this.

Over the last few months I've spent what little free time I've had re-engaging with other long-held but neglected interests like photography and trying not get obsessed with the unhealthy political climate we have. It has helped a bit but there seems to have been an acceleration in the decline of decent standards in the political sphere and once again it's getting harder to remain silent. I'm not going to give a recap of what has been going on, we all know and many other bloggers have covered the subjects excellently. There are some positive things on the horizon, America might well elect a president with more than one brain cell and something resembling a moral compass, which will change a lot of what has been going on. We can only dare to hope and envy the Americans for at least being given a clear choice.

For now I just thought I'd explain my absence and dust off the cobwebs on this site with a view to posting a little more regularly. There will be some changes. I'm not going to comment on every news article that annoys me or trawl through pages of different media as as I used to, I just don't have the time at the moment. But I will try to introduce some more varied content and I'll continue to post on topics I feel strongly about when I can. Hopefully I'll be able to find the time to post regularly enough to re-engage in politics to something approaching previous levels. At some point this site may well move to another platform if I can post enough to make the move worth while. In the meantime, here is something to do if you are at a loose end tomorrow.

Now We Are Two

2007-12-03T05:25:00.000Z

Today is the second anniversary of The Nether-World. Yup, I've been doing this blogging malarkey for two full years now and I have to admit to being surprised that I've stuck at it for so long. This year other commitments have prevented me from posting as much as I would have liked to, in fact posts for 2007 looks pretty scarce when compared with 2006. However, one thing I've learned from all this is not to become a slave to stat counts. I'm hoping to be able to post more often both here and elsewhere in the coming year but blogging will have to be balanced out with other things.

Despite the relative scarcity of posts here, it has been quite an eventful year. 2007 saw the long-overdue departure of Tony Blair from Downing Street. This followed a police investigation into dodgy donations to the Labour Party for which no one was charged (which took many of us by surprise). We now have a new Prime Minister and a new police investigation into dodgy donations to the Labour Party - so much for Gordon Brown's "New kind of politics". New Labour under Brown has continued with Tony Blair's themes of incompetence, unaccountability, autocracy, corruption and sleaze and will no doubt continue to do so until this discredited party is forced from office (not that I expect anything different from the Tories). The international scene has been dominated by speculation of an impending war with Iran which I still see as a distinct possibility if not a certainty. We've also had the on-going nightmare in Iraq and the intractable Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

This year has also been a year of campaigning. There is the on going campaign to get a proper inquiry into the London bombings of 2005, the campaign to persuade the government to do the decent thing for once and grant asylum in the UK to Iraqi employees who worked for British forces, and the campaign to stop the bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters in Burma. Closer to home, bloggers from across the political spectrum joined forces to bring a cyber-stalker to justice and to make a stand for freedom of speech when an Uzbek gangster tried to silence bloggers for daring to report the allegations against him using his team of shysters.

As well as unity there was division in 2007, numerous blog wars broke out which, for the most part, I stayed out of. I did however get into a scrap with a genuine card-carrying Nazi and Hitler apologist from across the pond which I'm happy to say I won when she was curtailed from spewing out her racial hatred and incitements to violence (clear abuses of free speech) by having her numerous blogs shut down on at least two platforms.

I intend to carry on blogging in 2008 and onwards when hopefully we'll see some more positive developments in Britain and abroad. Bush's time in office is nearly at an end and we can look forward to seeing the last of him in early 2009 (we can only pray that he doesn't do too much more damage before then). Around the same time (a little later probably) the people of Britain will pronounce their verdict on Gordon Brown. Whatever happens I want to be around to comment on it so many thanks to all the people who keep reading this blog.

Tags: Blogging

The Launch of Liberal Conspiracy

2007-11-05T07:01:00.000Z

Do you keep hearing that there is a vast liberal conspiracy running Britain? Well there isn't much evidence of one is there? In fact these days there is more evidence to support the contrary with right-of-centre sites like ConservativeHome, 18 Doughty Street, Stand Up Speak Up, Platform 10 and CampaignTogether.com.

As New Labour lurches ever more to the right using the Conservative 'opposition' as a repository of 'new' ideas, the British liberal-left is increasingly disenfranchised. Although there are plenty of left-wing bloggers, they rarely join forces. Most organs of the British liberal-left only have traditionally static websites or blogs attached to existing websites. So perhaps it's time to create a genuine Liberal Conspiracy. This is an idea who's time has come. In fact it's long overdue. Liberal Conspiracy is a new on-line project. It's more than a blog with a collection of bloggers, its aim is to foster an intellectual revival of the liberal-left and be better organised when campaigning. Its long-term aim is to help build national and local grass-roots organisations in order to re-connect with people. Along with bloggers, there will be input from think-tanks, media organisations, websites, analysts, academics and journalists.

Liberal Conspiracy is the brainchild of Sunny Hundal of Pickled Politics. Over to him:

As times change, so does the nature of politics. New generations grow up, global conflicts come and go, the world keeps evolving and technology turns everything topsy-turvy. But if there’s one thing remarkable about our generation in Britain, it’s how badly Politics has become a dirty word.
People are less interested in political parties than they have ever been. As old loyalties start to fray, people are becoming more passionate about issues rather than being on the left or the right. And as the world gets smaller and more accessible, they demand more from their politicians. And even if party affiliations don’t matter as much - values, ideas and beliefs continue to be popular.
And so a new Liberal Conspiracy for a new era is born today. We plan to do things slightly differently here.
We want to discuss and promote traditional liberal-left ideas and values than political parties. We want to challenge the old order, discuss where Britain needs to go from here and make it happen. We want to campaign and push for our values: more equality, a better democracy, better standards of living, social justice, eradicating poverty, promoting non-violence etc, to be higher up the political agenda.
And this is where the internet comes in - we want you to get involved in this Conspiracy. We want to pioneer a new de-centralised approach to discussion and campaigning for these liberal-left ideals. We want to take advantage of everything from blogs, Facebook and YouTube to grass-roots mobilisation and campaigning to change Britain for the better.
The title of the site is obviously a mischievous take on the constantly promoted idea that there is a vast liberal conspiracy running Britain. Of course there isn’t. But while we’re here, we might as well create one.

Liberal Conspiracy will have contributions from some well-known left-of-centre bloggers and writers including:
Aaron Heath, Alan T, Chris Dillow, Daniel Davies, Dave Hill, Dave Osler, David T, Donald Strachan, Garry Smith, Henry Midgley, Jamie K, Jess McCabe, Justin McKeating, Kate Belgrave, Natalie Bennett, Olivia Skinner, Padraig Reidy, Paul Linford, Robert Sharp, Unity and Sunny Hundal, Oh, and me.

Also contributing will be:
Cath Elliott, aid worker Conor Foley, online campaigner Paul Hilder, aspiring politician Kerron Cross and policy officer Zohra Moosa.

Media organisations taking part include:
The Guardian, New Statesman magazine and openDemocracy.

And there will be input from think-tanks including:
Demos, Fabian Society, Runnymede Trust, New Jewish Thought and New Generation Network.

Sunny Hundal will be on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme this afternoon discussing the project and there will be an article in the Guardian about it later in the week.

Liberal Conspiracy aims to be the network hub where other organisations sharing its ideals are promoted and their campaigns highlighted. Curious? If so, do check out the new site, link to it and spread the word.

Tags: Liberal Conspiracy, UK Politics, Democracy, Blogging

Alisher 'Capone' Usmanov And The Continuing Campaign

2007-09-28T13:40:00.000+01:00

Let's start by linking once again to the post which started this story and remind ourselves that there has been no legal procedure, so Craig Murray's allegations are nothing more than that (just as Alisher Usmanov's allegations that he's been libeled are simply allegations). I don't have much in the way of new information on the Alisher Usmanov affair at the moment. For the latest news the best place to go is Tim Ireland's interim blog which is dedicated to the matter.

Tim and Clive have been trying to get hold of the correspondence between Fasthosts and Schillings which led to the plug being pulled on their stable of websites. Both companies have ignored the requests. Tim is now looking for summaries of this story so if you can reduce this saga to about 200 words, do let him know. The campaign by bloggers to protect freedom of speech from the likes of Usmanov and his shysters has now reached as far as Japan (via Postman Patel). Anyway, while we await further developments, I thought I'd play with Photoshop some more.

Click to enlarge

The resemblance between Alisher Usmanov and Al Capone is striking don't ya think?

My previous posts on this issue can be found here. More and more people are posting and re-posting on this story and the cross-spectrum support really is unprecedented. Let's keep the momentum going. Justin has done an excellent job of collecting the links to the Usmanov affair but now the updated list of supporters has moved over to Bloggerheads so if you do post something on it, let Tim or Aaron Heath (tyger AT tygerland DOT net) know and be added to the list which is now over 300 strong. Don't worry about arriving late for the party, this thing is far from over and the more the merrier.

Tags: Freedom of Speech, Islom Karimov, Alisher Usmanov, Blogging, Arsenal

That Tom Wise Speech on Usmanov

2007-09-27T05:29:00.000+01:00

UKIP MEP Tom Wise did what other politicians should have done and didn't. I'm certainly no fan of UKIP but you have to give credit where it's due. By speaking out about the unsavoury Alisher Usmanov and his nefarious past during the Saryusz-Wolski report “Towards a common European foreign policy on energy”, Mr Wise managed to blow yet another gaping hole in the tactics used by Usmanov and his lawyers. This is what Shillings' intentions were:

Laura Tyler, of Schillings, said they did not intend to sue Murray directly because they did not want to give him a platform to express his views.

In other words they didn't want to go to court and risk Craig Murray's allegations being found to be correct so they managed to (temporarily) silence him without any legal process, merely by sending threatening letters to his web hosting company who duly pulled the plug (and in the process, took out numerous other websites, all except one of which had made no mention whatsoever of Usmanov). As we have seen, that tactic (predictably) exploded in their faces.

Tom Wise's short speech means that the allegations he made in the European Parliament can now be reported on (provided the MSM finds the courage to do so) as they are published under Parliamentary privilege. You can hear an MP3 of the speech by clicking on the button below (via Swiss Metablog).

Click To Play

And, courtesy of England Expects (via), we have a transcript:

When the EU talks of a 'Common Foreign Policy' on energy, you need to be aware of exactly who you propose to do business with.
President Putin is on record as saying "The Commission should be under no illusions, if it wants to buy Russian gas; it has to deal with the Russian state".
Gazprom is not a private company; it is a state controlled tool of Russian foreign policy.
It is, moreover, in the hands of Putin's political henchmen, and allegedly organised crime.
Take for example Alisher Usmanov. This gentleman, the son of a Communist apparatchik, is chairman of Gazprom Invest Holdings, the group that handles Gazprom's business activities outside Russia. He is the man you will be dealing with. He is the man who cuts off gas supplies if client states dare to question Gazprom's demands.
Allegedly a gangster and racketeer, he served a 6 year jail sentence in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, his eventual pardon coming at the behest of Uzbek mafia chief and heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov, described as Usmanov's "mentor".
Usmanov bought the newspaper 'Kommersant'. 3 months later, the journalist Ivan Safronov, a critic of the Putin regime who just weeks earlier had been "vigorously interrogated" by the FSB, as the KGB is now called, mysteriously fell to his death from his apartment window still clutching a bag of shopping.
According to Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, it was Usmanov who ordered the cutting off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year. Please take note, Mr President, that the Kremlin has now refused to sanction the construction of a pipeline to the EU over Georgian territory.
These are the people you want to do business with. These are the people you are moulding your 'foreign policy on energy' around.
Mr Commissioner, good luck: You'll need it.

Marvellous stuff! Now what was that again about not wanting to give Craig Murray a platform to express his views Schillings?

More information about this story continues to emerge. Tim Ireland, now back on-line, has published a detailed timeline of the events leading up to, and following on from the closure of the websites which is well worth reading.

Tags: Freedom of Speech, Islom Karimov, Alisher Usmanov, Blogging, Arsenal

The Usmanov Affair: A Quick Update

2007-09-25T15:57:00.000+01:00

I'm still updating my original post but I thought this piece of information should have have its own post.

Tim Ireland is back blogging - not yet on his Bloggerheads site but on an interim site (hopefully Schillings-proof) set up to deal with this issue while the technical difficulties of getting Bloggerheads back on-line are resolved. This will obviously be a good source of information on the issue. Please spread the word and add this site to your blogroll: Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair. Thanks.

In other developments, the list of supporters is still growing fast. Among the latest links is a very good piece from Dan Hardie and another from Chris Applegate. Also The Committee To Protect Bloggers has an article. The mainstream media are still very slow on this story but The Register has covered it and Associated Press have too which might speed things up a bit.

I've just noticed that Bob Piper and Boris Johnson's sites have fallen off the net again. I hope this is just a temporary glitch. If anyone has any further information as to what happened or sees these blogs on-line again, please let me know in the comments.

*UPDATE*

I've just heard from Tim that the disappearance of Bob Piper and Boris Johnson's blogs is due to server demand...Phew!

Tags: Freedom of Speech, Islom Karimov, Alisher Usmanov, Blogging, Arsenal

Alisher Usmanov Bit Off More Than He Could Chew When He Tried To Censor Bloggers

2007-09-24T09:12:00.000+01:00

Mr Usmanov and his legal team's heavy-handed tactics against bloggers who dare to criticise him (first reported by Chicken Yoghurt) have backfired spectacularly. He must be feeling pretty sick now.

With sincere apologies to Monty Python

Meanwhile, with the absence of proper reporting by much of the Mainstream media (with a few exceptions), the blogging community is carrying the torch for the struggle to preserve freedom of speech in the UK.

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North, B3TA board, Naqniq, Yorkshire Ranter, The Home Of Football, UFO Breakfast Recipients, Moninski , Kerching, e-clectig, Mediocracy, Sicily Scene, Samizdata, I blog, they blog, weblog, Colcam, Some Random Thoughts, Bel is thinking, Vino S, Simply Jews, Atlantic Free Press, Registan, Filasteen, Britblog Roundup #136, Scientific Misconduct Blog, Adam Bowie, Duncan at Abcol, Camera Anguish, A Very British Dude, Whatever, Central News, Green Gathering, Leighton Cooke, Skuds’ Sister’s Brother, Contrast News, Poliblog Perspective, Parish Pump, El Gales, Noodle, Curly’s Corner Shop, Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft, otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder Dragon, Cybersoc, Achievable Life, Paperholic, Creative-i, Raedwald, Nobody’s Friend, Lobster Blogster, Panchromatica, Boriswatch, Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair, Dan Hardie, Chris Applegate, Committee To Protect Bloggers, William Bowles, Christopher Glamorgan, Spreeblick, Krusenstern, Skuds' Sister's Brother, Contrast News, Moon of Alabama, Back off, man…, Brendadada, Freace, Fork Handles, West Virginia Rebel’s Blog, Instapundit, Powerpymes, iDiligence Forum, Gizmotastic, Demos, Gary Andrews, Neweurasia , Never Trust a Hippy, sub specie aeternitatis, Bananas in the Falklands, The Sharpener, Virtual Light, Stu News, Scraps of Moscow, Danivon, As A Dodo, La Russophobe, PJC Journal, Mick Fealty’s Brassneck, dead brains don’t dance, A Comfortable Place, Bamblog, Robert Amsterdam, The Customer, No Longer at Ease, Rachel-Catherine, Humaniform, Mike Rouse, Chesus Yuste, anticapitalista (more than 292).

Tags: Freedom of Speech, Islom Karimov, Alisher Usmanov, Blogging, Arsenal

Bloggerheads And Other Top Blogs (Temporarily) Off-Line

2007-09-20T19:14:00.000+01:00

Note: This post is continually being updated. Please check back for updates.Image courtesy of Matt Buck under CC license

I am just returning from a blogging hiatus to help pass on this important message. The following is lifted from Chicken Yoghurt:

Public Service Announcement
Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads site is currently down after his webhost pulled the plug. You can thank the latest Russian (that should be Uzbek) billionaire to reach the UK.
Read on

This doesn't just affect Tim but also a family of websites that he and Clive look after including:

This action has left Tim without email so Justin is offering to pass on any messages by phone (you can find his email on his website). Hopefully some of these sites will be back on-line soon (about 48 hours inshallah). Tim and Clive are searching for a new web host for their blogs. Please pass this message on if you have a blog. With the access these bloggers have to the mainstream media, I can't help thinking that the possible future owner of Arsenal football club has scored an own goal.

For some background into this episode check out Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek oligarch who's trying to take control of Arsenal football club (warning: he and his team of shysters edit the Wikipedia entry). In the absence of the the aforementioned blogs, only Obsolete is left to give a clear picture of the slimeball behind this attack on freedom of speech. His posts on the subject can be found here, here and here. Suffice to say that Alisher Usmanov is close to Islom Karimov, the president of Uzbekistan (ally of the UK and USA) who gets his kicks from having his subjects raped with broken bottles or boiled to death. Given Alisher Usmanov and his legal team's enthusiasm for bullying anyone who has anything less than flattering to say about this wonderful person, I won't go into the allegations of criminality reported by sources far more reliable than Schillings. For now I'll just lament the apparent introduction of Uzbekistan's interpretation of the concept of freedom of speech here in the UK and wonder how this will affect a great British institution like Arsenal football club.

More bloggage on this from: Blairwatch, Curious Hamster, Ten Percent, Iain Dale, Pickled Politics, Arseblog, Devil's Kitchen, Pitch Invasion, Tim Worstall, Obsolete, Mediawatchwatch, Wonko's World, Mr Eugenides, Harry's Place, Dizzy Thinks, Cynical Chatter From The Underworld, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric, Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, The Cartoonist, Falco, LFCM: Casualty Monitor (also here), Forever Expat, Drink-soaked Trots, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia, Tom Watson, Reactionary Snob, Daily Mail Watch, Our Kingdom-Open Democracy, The Crossed Pond, Tygerland, Lunartalks, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, Modernity Blog, Rebellion Sucks, All About Nothing, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, An Englishman's Castle, Samantha Gordon & Me, Ordovicius, England Expects, Serious Golmal, The Perfect Pitch, Dave Cole, Lenin's Tomb, Politics In The Zeros, Nosemonkey, Blood & Treasure, PJC Journal, The Lone Voice, Identity Unknown, Beau Bo D'Or, Sinclair's Musings, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston, Graeme’s, Sim-O's Random Thoughts, Matt Wardman, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, Tampon Teabag, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, D-Notice, Kate's Blog, Tim Worstall (on his shiny new site), more from Ten Percent, more from Ordovicius, The Judge, Indigo Jones Blogs, Disillusioned And Bored, Poldraw, more from Drink-soaked Trots, The Exile, another great post from Obsolete, Spy Blog (recommended), Postman Patel, Political Penguin, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Error Gorilla, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, From The Barrel Of A Gun, Up North John, Nourishing Obscurity, Gizmonaut, more from Chris Paul, Dave Weeden, more from The Cartoonist, Journalist Und Optimist, The Armchair News Blog, The Fourth Place, Daily EM, Francis Sedgemore, Naqniq, Bristol Indymedia, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North, El Galés, Liberal Democrat Voice, e-clectig, Vino, more from Podnosh, Moninski, Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft, Samizdata, more from Swiss Metablog, Noodle, Kerching, more from Daily EM, Sicily Scene, I Blog, You Blog, They Blog Weblog, Colcam (also here), more from Random Thoughts, Can't Silence Us All, Alisher Usmanov, Rossinisbird, Bel Is Thinking, Transfattyacid, Atlantic Free Press (also here), Tailrank, UFO Breakfast Recipients, Registan.net, A Very British Dude, Slate, The Home Of Football, Lobster Blogster (also here, here, here and here),Boriswatch, Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair, Dan Hardie, Chris Applegate, Committee To Protect Bloggers, William Bowles, Christopher Glamorgan, Spreeblick, Krusenstern, Skuds' Sister's Brother, Contrast News, Moon of Alabama,... More links as I find them. This is ~~beginning to look like~~ an 'I am Spartacus' moment and the list of Spartaci (is that the right plural?) is still growing- and rightly so because this affects us all.

*UPDATE*

Unity at Ministry of Truth has some interesting thoughts on how to deal with Britain's pernicious libel laws.

*UPDATE 2*

It seems that the mighty Schillings aren't mighty enough to deal with Google Cache. Here is Tim's post on the firm. Oh, and Craig Murray's post on Alisher Usmanov is all over the internet. It will be interesting to read what Boris Johnson, a member of Parliament and London Mayoral candidate, has to say when his blog comes back on-line.

*UPDATE 3*

The Mainstream media have not yet covered this story but there is some recent background coverage which suggests that they may well pick up on this. The Independent, The Times and The Guardian have articles.

*UPDATE 4*

The Mainstream media is starting to take an interest. The Guardian has mentioned it and Sunny from Pickled Politics will be on More 4 News tonight (21 September) at 8pm speaking about this and freedom of speech on the web. Boris Johnson MP is not amused:

Mr Johnson hit out at the closure of his website, calling it "a serious erosion of free speech".

"This is London, not Uzbekistan," the former Spectator editor and MP for Henley-on-Thames said.

"It is unbelievable that a website can be wiped out on the say-so of some tycoon.

"We live in a world where internet communication is increasingly vital, and this is a serious erosion of free speech."

*UPDATE 5*

More thoughts from Unity, this time on the methods used by Schillings.

*UPDATE 6*

The list of bloggers expressing their disgust at the antics of Alisher Usmanov and his pack of Rotweillers is growing at a fantastic rate with many of the posts including Craig Murray's original comments about this (alleged) Uzbek gangster. Now, bearing this in mind, how successful does this intimidation campaign against bloggers look? Has it protected the reputation of Alisher Usmanov or confirmed it? Here's another question: Do Schillings look like the "Leading Law Firm" they say they are, or do they more closely resemble a bunch of second rate ambulance chasers? If I was Alisher Usmanov I'd sack them.

*UPDATE 7*

There is now a Facebook group which you can join called 'Craig Murray's blog should return' Do feel free to join it. Let's see if Alisher Usmanov and his legal bullies manage to silence that.

*UPDATE 8*

I think now is a good time to reproduce the original post by Craig Murray which started this storm:

Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist
I thought I should make my views on Alisher Usmanov quite plain to you. You are unlikely to see much plain talking on Usmanov elsewhere in the media becuase he has already used his billions and his lawyers in a pre-emptive strike. They have written to all major UK newspapers, including the latter:
“Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.”
Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke “Gorbachev”, a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue.
Usmanov’s pardon was nothing to do with Gorbachev. It was achieved through the growing autonomy of another thug, President Karimov, at first President of the Uzbek Soviet Socilist Republic and from 1991 President of Uzbekistan. Karimov ordered the “Pardon” because of his alliance with Usmanov’s mentor, Uzbek mafia boss and major international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov. Far from being on Gorbachev’s side, Karimov was one of the Politburo hardliners who had Gorbachev arrested in the attempted coup that was thwarted by Yeltsin standing on the tanks outside the White House.
Usmanov is just a criminal whose gangster connections with one of the World’s most corrupt regimes got him out of jail. He then plunged into the “privatisation” process at a time when gangster muscle was used to secure physical control of assets, and the alliance between the Russian Mafia and Russian security services was being formed.
Usmanov has two key alliances. he is very close indeed to President Karimov, and especially to his daughter Gulnara. It was Usmanov who engineered the 2005 diplomatic reversal in which the United States was kicked out of its airbase in Uzbekistan and Gazprom took over the country’s natural gas assets. Usmanov, as chairman of Gazprom Investholdings paid a bribe of $88 million to Gulnara Karimova to secure this. This is set out on page 366 of Murder in Samarkand [hyperlink added].
Alisher Usmanov had risen to chair of Gazprom Investholdings because of his close personal friendship with Putin, He had accessed Putin through Putin’s long time secretary and now chef de cabinet, Piotr Jastrzebski. Usmanov and Jastrzebski were roommates at college. Gazprominvestholdings is the group that handles Gazproms interests outside Russia, Usmanov’s role is, in effect, to handle Gazprom’s bribery and sleaze on the international arena, and the use of gas supply cuts as a threat to uncooperative satellite states.
Gazprom has also been the tool which Putin has used to attack internal democracy and close down the independent media in Russia. Gazprom has bought out - with the owners having no choice - the only independent national TV station and numerous rgional TV stations, several radio stations and two formerly independent national newspapers. These have been changed into slavish adulation of Putin. Usmanov helped accomplish this through Gazprom. The major financial newspaper, Kommersant, he bought personally. He immediately replaced the editor-in-chief with a pro-Putin hack, and three months later the long-serving campaigning defence correspondent, Ivan Safronov, mysteriously fell to his death from a window.
All this, both on Gazprom and the journalist’s death, is set out in great detail here [hyperlink added]
Usmanov is also dogged by the widespread belief in Uzbekistan that he was guilty of a particularly atrocious rape, which was covered up and the victim and others in the know disappeared. The sad thing is that this is not particularly remarkable. Rape by the powerful is an everyday hazard in Uzbekistan, again as outlined in Murder in Samarkand page 120. If anyone has more detail on the specific case involving Usmanov please add a comment.
I reported back in 2002 or 2003 in an Ambassadorial top secret telegram to the Foreign Office that Usmanov was the most likely favoured successor of President Karimov as totalitarian leader of Uzbekistan. I also outlined the Gazprom deal (before it happened) and the present by Usmanov to Putin (though in Jastrzebski’s name) of half of Mapobank, a Russian commercial bank owned by Usmanov. I will never forget the priceless reply from our Embassy in Moscow. They said that they had never even heard of Alisher Usmanov, and that Jastrzebski was a jolly nice friend of the Ambassador who would never do anything crooked.
Sadly, I expect the football authorities will be as purblind. Football now is about nothing but money, and even Arsenal supporters - as tight-knit and homespun a football community as any - can be heard saying they don’t care where the money comes from as long as they can compete with Chelsea.
I fear that is very wrong. Letting as diseased a figure as Alisher Usmanov into your club can only do harm in the long term.

*UPDATE 9*

Did I mention that you can buy 'Murder In Samarkand' here or by clicking the button in the left sidebar?

*UPDATE 10*

From a comment by arsenews.com over at Chicken Yogurt:

If you find any IP addresses from the range
217.33.207.160 - 217.33.207.191
in your logs, they’re Schillings. Just thought you’d like to know that.
http://www.zoneedit.com/whois.html?zone=217.33.207.164

*UPDATE 11*

This story is no longer confined to the UK, it has now gone international. Here is a post from Switzerland and here is one from China, a country well acquainted with internet censorship. Way to go Schillings!

*UPDATE 12*

The Channel 4 News report (with video):

If Usmanov thought that was the end of it, it wasn't.

Over the last 24 hours it's become an internet cause celebre. Craig Murray has found some highly unlikely allies from across the political spectrum.

Over 100 high-profile bloggers have now posted on it and, as we found, some are brazenly posting the original Craig Murray article that started this all off.

Ahahahahahahahaha!!!!

More coverage from the Times.

*UPDATE 13*

Here are some of Craig Murray's last posts before his site vanished (via Google Cache). Scroll down a bit to find this...

Yet More Schillings Bollocks
On my article about Alisher Usmanov which so incensed his lawyers Schillings, let me ask this question. Has anybody seen an argument posted or published from any credible source to argue that what I say about Usmanov is untrue?

I ask the question because one of the edits to this log my webhost made at Schillings' behest was to say that my claim was "regarded as false by many people". I have altered that edit, because there is no justification for such a claim. I have yet to see evidence of anybody, not one solitary person, arguing that I am wrong about Usmanov, other than his lawyers. Who are these "Many people", and why are they peculiarly silent?

I am very sympathetic to my webhost having to change things for Schillings, but not to the extent of altering things to become defamatory of me!!!

...and a bit further down for this (unfortunately out of date and proved wrong - I'm referring to Fasthosts obviously)

September 13, 2007

Censorship
Just to make plain that I have great webhosts who have been extremely supportive in all kinds of circumstances, 24 hours a day. They have wider responsibilities and I have no problem with their taking down or amending my stuff when they get their umpteenth bullying letter from ultra well paid bluffers and extortionists Schillings.

In case it too vanishes, it's saved as a pdf file you can get from here.

*UPDATE 14*

You can now get some lovely blog buttons to decorate your sidebars. From Matt Wardman we have these (please go over there to get the code):

Mike Power has created these buttons (see the left sidebar under "Action Stations"):

Unity at Ministry Of Truth has created these:

Hmmm, decisions decisions. I'm spoiled for choice.

*UPDATE 15*

Unsurprisingly, it seems that Schillings are snooping around the blogs. I found this update on Francis Sedgemore's blog:

Update

Schillings is trawling the blogs via IP 217.33.207.164. Learned friends looking for more bloggers to bully?

That was pretty predictable, but more disturbing was this comment from Septicisle:

Thanks for the IP, added it to my stats labelling. They came to me via the Nether-World.

So the shysters have been snooping around this blog. Again, hardly surprising but sobering nonetheless. After checking my stats I found out that Schillings came to this blog via Cynical Chatter From The Underworld and hung around for a whopping 5 hours 41 mins 14 secs before pissing off to snoop on others. They did this at 9:56am on September 21st and they also checked out Politics In The Zeros (who blogs from the USA and is presumably safe from their bullying).

Well I'm still on-line so far. It certainly isn't inconceivable that this blog could get shut down but Google are big and Schillings will have a job doing it, not least because I haven't violated their Terms of Service. Of course if a large number of blogs get pulled then this story will become big news very quickly indeed, something even an incompetent law firm like ~~Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel~~ Schillings ought to realise. I'll make a back up of this post and put it on the mirror site I have reserved for such emergencies if it does mysteriously vanish. As we know, the last thing Usmanov wants is a court case where Craig Murray could get called as a witness.

For people worried about unwanted attention, it is possible to block a number of IP addresses so that the unwelcome visitor is redirected to a webpage of your choice when a blocked IP address is used (I'm thinking of using this one). Schillings IP addresses range from 217.33.207.160 - 217.33.207.191. Blocking them won't stop determined Rotweillers but it will cause inconvenience (time is money after all) and it's worth it just for that.

*UPDATE 16*

Bob Piper is back! Well sort of anyway. I read his post on Google Reader but when I tried to get to his page from there, I got a screen saying "Internal Server Error". I did manage to get to his site from my blogroll but I got the same error message when I tried to leave a comment welcoming him back. So if you're reading this Bob, welcome back to blogland. I'm sure these errors are just glitches that will disappear soon. Anyway, this is of what he has to say:

Well, I'm back! At the moment it would appear Boris, Tim, Craig and Clive are still down, but I know Clive has been working like a trooper since Thursday to back up all the blog files and move them to another server. If anyone is looking for a webhost then I would heartily recommend Clive at UK Today (Although you cannot get there at the minute). Anyway, it makes a change to be attracting attention for something I hadn't said.... although the Leader of Sandwell Council will probably have blown a gasket when he saw my name caught up in all of this.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the campaign for Tim and Craig, particularly Justin who kicked it all off. The list below is from Justin's site. Also many thanks to those who offered me webspace or to be a guest poster, the good folks at Blairwatch, Cassilis and John Hirst were particularly encouraging. As Tom Watson said, this Usamov creature must be one hell of a unifier if he can get Iain Dale writing in support of Tim Ireland's free speech.... perhaps now Iain will allow Tim back on his own comments in the new spirit of glastnost.

Let's hope Tim, Clive, Craig and Boris return soon.

*UPDATE 17*

No prizes for guessing what's the "Story of the Week" on the latest BritBlog Roundup (hosted by Liberal England).

*UPDATE 18*

Isn't it interesting how little coverage there has been in the mainstream media of this issue? Apart from More 4 News, The Times and The Guardian there has been silence while this controversy has raged across the internet. I hope this changes soon. By increasing the coverage in the blogosphere we can hopefully force the MSM to do its job despite the bluffing by Schillings. The BBC have been useless on this. It can produce a lengthly piece about Usmanov increasing his stake in Arsenal without even obliquely referring to the controversy surrounding him.

*UPDATE 19*

Boris Johnson is now back on-line. Welcome back Boris! I hope the prominent MP and London Mayoral candidate will have something to say soon about Mr Creosote, his pack of shysters and the cowardly Fasthosts. Until he does decide to comment, we have the statement he made at the start of this saga:

"This is London, not Uzbekistan. It is unbelievable that a website can be wiped out on the say-so of some tycoon. We live in a world where internet communication is increasingly vital, and this is a serious erosion of free speech."

Tim Ireland still isn't on-line just yet but his Bloggerheads site is displaying a test message which is encouraging. No sign of Craig Murray and Clive Summerfield yet.

*UPDATE 20*

I meant to blog this earlier today but didn't.

Interim Statement from Clive Summerfield and Tim Ireland:
We’d like to thank you all for your support and let you all know just what the hell has been going on, but we beg your patience as we continue with the practical measures required before we can fully and confidently speak our minds about this matter.

Our immediate priority is the restoration of the websites involved; this has been greatly complicated by the sudden closure of the entire account (as opposed to, say, the suspension or closure of the two websites directly involved in the Usmanov dispute). This total - and totally unexpected - withdrawal of service requires us to restore many websites with differing individual circumstances and formats. The removal of email used for the majority of these accounts has also further complicated matters, as the most immediate form of communication between many of the parties involved is no longer available.

Bob Piper is already back on deck, and we expect Boris Johnson’s weblog to be up and running shortly. Special arrangements are being made for Craig Murray as we speak.

A full statement is likely to follow the restoration of Bloggerheads and/or The UK Today, as it is at one of these websites that we would wish to host a full statement and manage the expected response.

*UPDATE 21*

Some more media coverage to add to these: More 4 News, The Times and The Guardian. The Register has produced a couple of articles, this one and a much more in-depth one here with some glorious fighting talk from Craig Murray (via):

Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray has vowed to carry on making allegations against billionaire Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, despite attempts to silence him and his supporters.

Murray told The Reg: "If the man believes he was libelled then he should take me to court."

Well, quite! The article ends with:

The new hosting has been arranged separately from the rest of Summerfield's sites - Murray believes that Usmanov's lawyers are trying to make him back down by attacking others.

We asked Murray if he intends to stay on Usmanov's back. He replied: "There is room on Usmanov's back for an awful lot of people. You could get even more on his stomach, and possibly lose some under the overlap of his chins."

We think that's a "yes".

Fantastic! Associated Press has also covered the story which means it's now found its way into the Moscow Times. I wonder if that publication has received threatening letters from the shysters. Now it looks like Mr Creosote and his clumsy law firm have another problem. From PJC Journal and England Expects, I'm hearing that the allegations against this (alleged) gangster will be heard in the European Parliament.

Tonight, during the Saryusz-Wolski report "Towards a common European foreign policy on energy" the Euro realist MEP Tom Wise will use parliamentary privilege to spell out the allegations against Alisher Usmanov. He has been talking to Craig Murray to ensure that the allegations are accurate and to the point.

The purpose of the debate is to discuss the creation of a single energy policy for Europe controlled by an European Energy Minister (or in Eurocratese a "High Official").

As Mr Usmanov is in the words of Murray who "who ordered the cutting off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year" this is extremely relevant to the debate.

Under the rules governing parliamentary privilege, any news organisation can repeat what has been said in the Parliament chamber, allowing the MSM to circumvent the legal threats being thrown about by Usmanov's lawyers Schillings.

Is that the sound of toys being thrown out of prams that I'm hearing?

Tags: Freedom of Speech, Islom Karimov, Alisher Usmanov, Blogging, Arsenal

We Can't Turn Them Away - Blog Banners

2007-08-17T18:08:00.000+01:00

Unity from Ministry of Truth has created some excellent blog banners for those who support the campaign to grant asylum to Iraqi employees of the UK armed forces. There is a choice of banners with different wording in both vertical format (for blog sidebars) and horizontal for individual blog posts. Why not pop over there now and get one for your blog?

How you can help:

The campaign is gaining momentum now and more stories are appearing in the media. It is a matter of urgency to get a solution to this issue. As our government contemplates what to do, these people are DYING NOW.

Tags: Middle East, We Can't Turn Them Away, Iraq, UK Armed Forces, Asylum, Refugees, Iraqi Translators,UK Politics

Out Of The Tunnel - A Review

2007-07-07T17:41:00.000+01:00

I've just finished reading Out of the Tunnel, the first book by Rachel North in which she describes her experience of the London bombings of July 7 2005 and subsequent recovery. Because today is the second anniversary of that atrocity, I thought this would be a good day to review the book.

In short, it's excellent. I couldn't put it down and had to put other things on-hold until I had finished reading it. It's not often I can say that about a book. Rachel describes the horror and confusion of July 7 in vivid detail. She also describes her struggle with the inevitable Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that followed the bombings. Three years prior to being blown up on the London tube, Rachel had been viciously attacked, raped and left for dead in her home and this horrific episode is woven into the narrative. She was reading her own account of this assault in a magazine when her carriage exploded.

In fact I found the description of that attack one of the most moving parts of the book and I was wincing as every blow was recounted. Much of the book though is about Rachel's coming to terms with both of these traumatic events and the title, Out of the Tunnel is very apt. As the story progresses we see how these life-changing events transformed Rachel from helpless victim to strong campaigner and author. Rachel used the medium of blogging as part of her therapy and from this discovered and then honed her talent as a writer.

One of the things this book does well is highlight the problems of PTSD which are not well known. Rachel was fortunate enough not to suffer serious physical injury on July 7 (unlike 800 other survivors of that attack) but the survivor guilt and the flashbacks had a detrimental effect on her job, her personal life and general well-being. If Out of the Tunnel helps people to better understand PTSD, then that alone is a valuable service.

This is a book I would recommend to anyone. Despite the awful experiences described, the overall message is positive. I was moved to the verge of tears on several occasions. Oddly, the times when I found my eyes welling up were when reading about the numerous acts of kindness from people either after the rape or in the aftermath of the bombings.

I urge people to read this book and I challenge anyone not to be moved by it. Out of the Tunnel is published by The Friday Project and should be available in most bookshops from next week as well as from Amazon (UK).

You can purchase the book from here by clicking on the link in the left sidebar.

Tags: Rachel North, Out Of The Tunnel, London Bombings, 7/7, Books

See This Book? Catch!

2007-06-29T14:07:00.000+01:00

The cyber-stalker who has been harassing Rachel and so many other people was sentenced yesterday at Thames Magistrates Court. Felicity Jane Lowde (FJL) was handed the maximum sentence possible in a magistrates court, six months imprisonment. In other words, the judge threw the book at her and seemed to regret that the book flying in FJL's direction was insufficiently large and heavy.

Judge Malcolm Read told her that she had struck at Ms North's "terrible experience and trauma" as a victim of the London bombings with a "vicious, vitriolic and vindictive" campaign.
She then "aggravated" the situation by breaching her bail conditions and continuing to persecute Ms North even though police were involved.
Mr Read told Lowde: "The offences, I would say, are at the very top end to be taken in a prosecution of harassment and therefore have to be dealt with at the top end of my powers."

The judge also told FJL "In your case, I do not think my powers are adequate".

FJL was convicted under the 1997 Protection From Harassment Act and this was an interesting test case for including use of the internet in harassment. On top of the six-month sentence, FJL is subject to a restraining order and an ASBO in order to protect Rachel and other victims from further abuse. These victims include FJL's former defence team, and the investigating police (who she accused of corruption), and the CPS lawyer who was conducting the prosecution.

It was an interesting experience watching justice being done. I attended the hearing to offer moral support to Rachel (Note to Thames Magistrates Court: Please get those seats fixed). Also present were Not Saussure, Andy Ramblings, Hendo and Daniel Hart (another victim of FJL's abuse). We watched the proceedings just a few feet away from the dock as the case unfolded. None of us were sure what would happen until the judge told Miss Lowde to stand up and then commenced his summing up. It was damning and demolished the defence lawyer's mitigation. He dismissed the need for a psychiatric report as he didn't believe it would help. He noted that FJL had been found guilty, had failed to turn up at her trial, had also failed to provide the court with a good reason (or any reason) for not turning up at any time, had continued to harass Rachel in breach of her bail terms and was indeed arrested while in an internet cafe writing further abusive posts. I almost felt sorry for the defence lawyer who didn't have any kind of credible argument to present. The sentence shows clearly that Rachel has been completely vindicated and the matter can now be layed to rest. For a more detailed account of the hearing, read Rachel's post on it.

The sense of relief after the sentencing was palpable and we left the court to be met by a small throng of reporters and photographers. Rachel had a prepared statement which she read out and we then went off for much-needed drink at the nearest pub.

FJL intends to appeal the conviction. It is the only weapon she has left to try to inflict further stress on Rachel who may have to face her in court yet again and give evidence. I hope it doesn't come to that. FJL lost and will lose again if she tries that tactic. It would be nice to think that Rachel, Daniel and the other victims of FJL could get on with their lives in peace. If on her release from jail, she breaches the terms of her restraining order and/or ASBO, she will be facing up to five years in jail. The positive aspect of all this is the part played by so many bloggers in securing this conviction so a big shout to all of those who helped.

Media Coverage

Bloggage

More as I find it.

Tags: Cyber-stalking, Felicity Jane Lowde, Blogging

Rachel's Stalker Finally Locked Up

2007-06-08T17:05:00.000+01:00

Some good news. Felicity Jane Lowde (FJL) who has been harassing and stalking Rachel North and others, has at last been caught and dealt with by the authorities. I didn't want to post on this news until Rachel herself commented on the proceedings. Now that she has, I feel I can join with the other bloggers who have already expressed their relief at this sorry episode coming to an end.

After well over a year of harassment which involved hundreds of abusive e-mails and comments on blogs, extremely hurtful (and false) allegations and numerous attack blogs, and after having been arrested, bailed, breaking the terms of her bail and then absconding from the court (which tried her and found her guilty in absentia), FJL was tracked down in a cyber-cafe and arrested. She has now been remanded in custody until the end of June pending psychiatric reports. Hopefully after returning to court she will be sentenced and given the help she obviously needs.

This saga is too long to go into in any great depth here but for the background into this case, here is a good starting point. An interesting aspect of all this is the contribution made by so many bloggers in bringing FJL to justice. Once Rachel asked for help, the British blog community rose to the occasion and helped in various ways - putting buttons on their websites, and some by logging the IP address of the computer FJL used when posting comments and passing it on to the police. Devil's Kitchen and Mike Rouse deserve praise for creating the blog buttons. Unity over at Ministry of Truth also deserves particular praise for his help and also for writing a very informative post on the possible personality disorder that FJL might be suffering from (Narcissistic Personality Disorder or NPD). I heartily second what Unity says in his post on FJL's capture:

If there’s a message in this that people should take note of its that whatever our differences in opinion and outlook, we Brit Bloggers look after our own when the need arises.

Of course the question as to whether this really is the end of this story is still a matter of debate - there is still a possible appeal hearing to go through. The maximum sentence FJL can be handed for this crime is six months imprisonment or a £5,000 fine, although Unity does point out in his comment thread that the Mental Health Act provides further options and also that the court can use CRASBOs (Criminal ASBOs) which could mean five years imprisonment if they are breached. I think it is fairly evident that FJL is suffering from some sort of mental health problem. The thought that nags me is the old dilemma of putting people with mental health problems in prison as opposed to a more suitable institution. Because FJL breached the terms of her bail and went on the run to continue her abuse shows that some sort of custody is necessary and merely banning someone from using the internet is clearly unenforceable.

For the moment, however, we can be relieved that FJL is, for the time being at least, unable to continue her sustained campaign of abuse against Rachel and others who can now hopefully get on with their lives in peace. FJL's delusional lies about being an innocent victim stalked by Rachel and "her mob" have been shattered along with her other frankly laughable claims. We can only hope that the relevant authorities recognise her need for treatment and provide it while keeping her away from the internet.

There is also one more aspect to this and that is the role of the companies who host abusive blogs*. This is a tricky issue because of freedom of speech concerns and what is regarded as abusive. Google are always reluctant to shut down blogs which others claim to be abusive. If they did so at the drop of a hat it could lead to the shutting down of blogs being used as a weapon by warring bloggers. However, if someone has been tried and convicted by a court of law for using their blogs (in part) as way to harass and abuse their victims and ordered to stay away from the internet by a judge, then it doesn't seem to me to be impossible to have that blog (or blogs in this case) removed, especially when preventing access to the internet is unenforceable and the continued blogging seems to exacerbate a possible personality disorder.

I'm not sure I have the answer to this but I do know that Google have shut down blogs when they have been shown to be full of deeply offensive racist content and incitements to violence and racial hatred, for example. And I would prefer bloggers and their hosting companies to act rather than see clumsy and heavy-handed legislation imposed on everyone by legislators who have no idea about how the internet and blogging work and which would have extremely dangerous consequences for freedom of speech and diversity of opinion. As I say, it's a tricky issue (not least because of the different laws in the USA and UK) but in FJL's case (and others like it) where criminal activity has been legally proven, shutting down the relevant blogs should at least be an option if it helps.

* By abusive blogs I don't mean blogs that swear or use colourful language to make points, or that mock or insult politicians or other opponents, that's just part of blogging and this blog is just as likely as any other to do that. What I'm referring to here are blogs that are used as part of sustained campaigns of harassment against undeserving individuals (as in FJL's case) or blogs that are used to loudly call for the extermination of an entire race. I think there is a very clear distinction here but one I wouldn't trust governments to make.

Tags: Cyber-Stalking, Blogging

Riverbend Is Leaving Iraq

2007-04-29T10:13:00.000+01:00

I suppose this was predictable as Iraq becomes more and more dangerous. Riverbend the Iraqi author of the excellent Baghdad Burning blog is leaving Iraq along with her family (via Blairwatch).

On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?
Since last summer, we had been discussing it more and more. It was only a matter of time before what began as a suggestion- a last case scenario- soon took on solidity and developed into a plan. For the last couple of months, it has only been a matter of logistics. Plane or car? Jordan or Syria? Will we all leave together as a family? Or will it be only my brother and I at first?
After Jordan or Syria- where then? Obviously, either of those countries is going to be a transit to something else. They are both overflowing with Iraqi refugees, and every single Iraqi living in either country is complaining of the fact that work is difficult to come by, and getting a residency is even more difficult. There is also the little problem of being turned back at the border. Thousands of Iraqis aren't being let into Syria or Jordan- and there are no definite criteria for entry, the decision is based on the whim of the border patrol guard checking your passport.
An airplane isn't necessarily safer, as the trip to Baghdad International Airport is in itself risky and travelers are just as likely to be refused permission to enter the country (Syria and Jordan) if they arrive by airplane. And if you're wondering why Syria or Jordan, because they are the only two countries that will let Iraqis in without a visa. Following up visa issues with the few functioning embassies or consulates in Baghdad is next to impossible.
So we've been busy. Busy trying to decide what part of our lives to leave behind. Which memories are dispensable? We, like many Iraqis, are not the classic refugees- the ones with only the clothes on their backs and no choice. We are choosing to leave because the other option is simply a continuation of what has been one long nightmare- stay and wait and try to survive.
On the one hand, I know that leaving the country and starting a new life somewhere else- as yet unknown- is such a huge thing that it should dwarf every trivial concern. The funny thing is that it’s the trivial that seems to occupy our lives. We discuss whether to take photo albums or leave them behind. Can I bring along a stuffed animal I've had since the age of four? Is there room for E.'s guitar? What clothes do we take? Summer clothes? The winter clothes too? What about my books? What about the CDs, the baby pictures?
The problem is that we don't even know if we'll ever see this stuff again. We don't know if whatever we leave, including the house, will be available when and if we come back. There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends… And to what?
Read the whole post

I can't begin to imagine the horrors that Riverbend and all Iraqis have had to put up with since the illegal invasion and subsequent catastrophe. I hope that wherever she ends up, she and her family will be safe and either be able to return one day or find a better life somewhere else. I've been reading her blog regularly over the last few years and it always provided a unique, personal insight into the tragedy that Iraq has become. I'll miss her posts from Iraq but getting the hell out of there seems like the most sensible thing to do. Wherever she ends up I hope she keeps writing as she has a real gift for it. Good luck Riverbend.

*UPDATE*

Ten Percent has an interesting post on how hard it is for Iraqi refugees to enter the United States (Britain isn't taking many in either).

Tags: Iraq, Blogging

Fun and Games Baiting Nazis

2007-04-16T03:06:00.000+01:00

*UPDATED* *UPDATED* (see below)

If I was to say that Nazis don't have much of a sense of humour, I doubt that many people would disagree. Recently I found myself in a position to test this idea and the Nazi I confronted is as humourless as she is gormless.

About a month ago I published an article on Blairwatch entitled America And Britain Asked Poland To Host Secret CIA Gulag. The content of the article is pretty much described by its title. A day later the article found its way onto the Global Research web site with full linkage back to its origin and nothing changed. Fine, no problem. So, a few days ago, while looking at who's been linking to Blairwatch, I was shocked to find a link with this title: White Trashmericans and Jews Wanted Poland to Host Modern "Gulags". It was the entire article published with the title changed to reflect this nutcase's views and changing the context of what I wrote. I was even more angry when I saw that under the title, in smaller text was the original title with a little addition before my name appeared.

This worried me because in a Google search, for example, this hate-filled crap could end up like looking as if it was my opinion.

The name of the blog that published this is (ready for this?) Adolf Hitler Research Society. I mean WTF? I'm trying very hard not to link to it obviously - I don't want to provoke any more responses from this fruitbat, nor do I want to give her site any more traffic. This blog has nothing at all to do with proper research and is just a vehicle for its owner, a Verohnika Clark, to spew out some of the most hate-filled anti-Semitic bile I've ever seen, and to deny the Holocaust and adulate Adolf fucking Hitler. Here is a quick example of the sort of crap you'll find on this blog from a post entitled "A Case Study: Africans and Naziism":

Jews are subhuman shit-trash.
There. I said it because no one else has the gonads. Would I ever call for a genocide against Jews? Well, if I was President of Los Estados Unidos, then, “Yes, I would.” I would bomb the living sh*t out of Tel Aviv and cut off all funding to all Jews. I would string up their circus leaders—Chertoffsky would dangle from a rope. So would Bush, Levy, Feinstein, Feingold, Boxer, Schumer, Lieberman, Clinton, and all the other Jewish and crypto-Jewish rat-bags in the Jewmerican government.

That's a pretty common example of the guff she writes. Naturally I left a comment outlining my disgust at her twisting of one of my posts. I was as polite as I was able to be:

I'd like to make it clear that despite you using one of my articles to support your Nazi and anti-Semitic views, these are views that I do not share and I'm appalled that you used something I wrote and twisted the context in this obscene way.
My article is about Polish and British collaboration with the CIA in its rendition and black site program, and in it I make no mention at all of Jews or "White Trashmericans", neither of which have anything to do with the topic I was writing about.
I am a fierce critic of Israeli and American policy but that doesn't make me anti-Semitic. In fact I'm part Jewish so that alone is enough expose your conspiracy theory as the rubbish it is. One of the reasons I criticise Israel and the American neo-cons is because I find their policies and actions to be similar to those of the Nazis (whose ideology disgusts me) and I hate all forms of racism whoever is behind it.

She did change the post putting in the correct title. I thought that was going to be the end of it but she then posted a piece called "Open Rebuttal to David Simonetti" Which started off with the hilarious:

I find your bigotry to be extremely affronting to my docile and sensible nature. I am not an anti-Semite.

Right, I see. After proclaiming her love for Persians and Palestinians etc, there then followed an anti-Semitic rant. The post ended with the frankly bemusing:

I'm ready for your response. Oh, I might like to add that you appear to have a vagina between your legs from the pussified manner in which you write. That's typical of white men in America these days. They have to be feminine for their 'masters.' That's fine. So do I. So, let's argue like the two civilized women we are, shall we?

How could I refuse to respond to that?

Verohnika,
Thank you for changing the post, it is slightly better in its current format. I started writing this response before you changed your post. Incidentally, I have a screen grab of your original post and my comment on it.
I'm not going to get into an argument with you over your confused rantings [unfortunately that's what happened]. As I've already said, I have criticised what I see as Israeli crimes. Unlike you though, my criticisms are restricted to the government of Israel and the IDF rather than a whole people which you (in your docile and sensible nature) describe elsewhere on your blog as "vermin". You are entitled to your views (as repellent as I find them). The issue I'm raising with you is different. By taking an article that I have written which is about a completely separate topic and entitling it "White Trashmericans and Jews Wanted Poland to Host Modern "Gulags"" after publishing it in its entirety, you were altering the meaning of what I have written. Legally, that was a prima facia case of defamation. It affects me because people using search engines such as Google may well see the bit at the top of your post which has the following:
America And Britain Asked Poland To Host Secret CIA Gulag [Typical Jewish stunt. Jewmerica has, indeed, devolved into a nation of worthless Jew-ridden sh*t!J
by David Simonetti
That means that it would be easy for readers to assume that your references to "Jewmerica" and "worthless Jew-ridden sh*t!" (again your docile and sensible nature in evidence) are in fact my views which emphatically is not the case. All I was asking you to do (as politely as I could) was to clearly disassociate your views from mine and my views from yours in order to avoid confusion. That's wasn't too much to ask was it?
Oh, and you're wrong on a couple of other things too. The last time there was a vagina between my legs it was someone else's, not that I see what this has to do with this dispute. I am definitely masculine and I have no master (what is this obsession Nazis have with masters?) If you think my writing style is feminine, well, again, that's your opinion. It's the first I've heard of it. Also, I'm not American, in fact I've never even been to the USA.

Verohnika's response was to suggest I read some of her so-called 'research', all of which comes from discredited historians, Nazis and Holocaust deniers. She delights in telling people that she has a B.A. but won't say what in or where she got it - I suggested it was in Holocaust denial which didn't go down to well (It can't be in history because a first year undergraduate knows more about source evaluation). Suffice to say her 'research' wasn't an enlightening read. I don't know what possessed me but I decided it might be worth refuting some of her ridiculous claims, particularly regarding the Holocaust (in retrospect that was a mistake, I probably should have just ignored the idiot). It really isn't that hard to do. I blew away one falsehood after another with easy to find evidence that is far better sourced.

Thing is, each time I did this she'd write yet another post directed at me with even more bollocks (the funniest was one called "Mr Simonetti... Damn you"). But the content was always the same old crap. Every post I commented on was instantly buried under a plethora of others. She tried moving the goalposts by saying that evidence from survivors was inadmissible (because they were Jews). So, I supplied her with testimony from some of the SS who were very informative in how they committed these crimes and tried to cover them up. She then refused to acknowledge that saying they were testifying after the facts (huh?), their memory was flawed and that there were plenty of SS people who didn't confess and those who did were tortured (they weren't). All the photographs and documents had to be forgeries. She wouldn't accept anything from Wikipedia because it was "dominated by Jews". On and on it went until it became utterly tedious and pointless.

I decided to change tactics and make the argument more amusing by taking the piss. Her blog doesn't accept anonymous comments (for obvious reasons) so I invented a few characters to post on her blog (I realise this goes against current thinking on 'netiquette' but in this case I thought an exception was called for). I thought that she'd instantly see it was me (it's not like her blog gets many visitors) but amazingly she didn't, nor did she delete the comments... at first. Here is an example from a typical example of her guff taken from an equally repellent source which I hesitate to link to (I will because it demonstrates her cherry-picking):

Click to enlarge

Typically, she responded to this with yet another post directed at me entitled "Appeal to Humor Won't Work". I then noticed that amongst all her garbage-filled posts was a simple one informing the world that she has changed her e-mail address and here was the new one.

Not the cleverest thing to do when what you write is such offensive, extremist trash, I thought. Anyway, I couldn't resist a last little prank before leaving her to sink in her sewer. Judging from her response I don't think it went down too well.

Here are a couple of comments that didn't make it onto that post (not in the best possible taste):

SS Obersturmbannführer Otto Von Lebensraum said:
Mein Gott! This is outrageous. Who could do such a terrible thing? This is even worse than the terrible things we did (not that we did them, of course). Oh, meine leibling, these untermenchen are running rings around you. If ever we needed proof of a vast Jewish conspiracy against us, then this is it. Gott in himmel, have they no shame? As soon as General Wenck arrives with the Twelfth Army and saves our Thousand Year Reich (it can't be long now) then the Gestapo will investigate this heinous crime and there will be some more gassings...oops! This is an affront not just to you but also to the memory of our glorious Führer who will one day return to restore peace and tolerance in the world as he did before... Oh no, Nurse is coming with the medication again...
Rabbi Schickelgruber said:
Oh dear, it seems you have easily fallen for a prank. How could this happen? Surely someone with such a keen intellect as yours wouldn't have been stupid enough to write a post with your e-mail address on it after spewing out such racist bile... Oh, you did? I see. I guess the master race isn't all it's cracked up to be. Oh well, we live and learn. I must say though, whoever did this must have a wicked sense of humour and it seems to have got you a bit rattled.

She has now finally discovered comment moderation so she'll only accept comments from fellow Nazis now. She's also deleted every post with reference to me and with any of my comments on. Some of her guff has been reposted (without comments, of course). So I guess she finally twigged. Anyway I wouldn't bother visiting, it really is a sewer over there. Unfortunately (in cases like these) the First Amendment guarantees her right to spew out this bile while in the rest of the world more laws are coming in to stop this sort of thing. This is why the nastiest and most hate-filled web sites are (more often than not) found in America. However, I too believe in freedom of speech so this presents a bit of a problem. I've flagged her blog as offensive and I've contacted blogger.com and asked them to put up a warning page in front of it, and if enough people do that then they might be compelled to act. It would definitely be an improvement. Incidentally, Verohnika mentioned in one of her comments that Google pulled her last blog (God knows what was on it if this incarnation is a toned-down version or, more likely, it's the same old rubbish and Google haven't realised it yet).

There is a serious reason why I mention all this. I do often criticise Israeli policy and doing so sometimes gets me into confrontations with idiots who call me a Nazi without any evidence to back up the accusation. I find that insulting, especially when, as you've seen, there are genuine Nazis out there. Being called one, as well as being wrong and offensive, weakens my arguments against people like Mad Mel. I consider it an honour to be despised by people like Verohnika and her hatred of me does me no harm at all. Verohnika thinks she has removed all evidence of our little spat - she's wrong on that point too. This post will serve as proof. Anyway, after all that I think I need a long bath.

*UPDATE* April 18

A Victory of Sorts

It looks like Blogger.com has responded to my complaint and maybe those of others. To those who have complained, thank you.

click to enlarge

The above warning screen now appears for anyone accessing the site for the first time. I just hope the warning screen stays there. This is a positive development and a good compromise; Verohnika's freedom of speech has not been affected and she is still free to spew out her hatred for now, and unaware first-time visitors are now warned that they may find offensive content if they enter the site. If you do continue and enter the site, however, the warning doesn't come back unless you clear your cookies. If you want to see this cesspit for yourself, I won't link to it in case it bypasses the warning but paste this into your browser: http://hitlerresearch.blogspot.com/ (if you do decide to visit and you agree that it's excessively offensive, please flag it as such using the button on the Blogger.com bar at the top of the page or contact Blogger.com). I imagine Verohnika (or SS Adjutant Handstein, as she now signs her posts) will be spitting nails now. Oh well, she'll be spitting even more nails when she sees this.

*ANOTHER UPDATE* April 18

Could this be an another victory? I thought I'd have a look and see what Verohnika Clark (a.k.a. SS Adjutant Handstein) has been up to and imagine my surprise when I found this:

click to enlarge

Well, it's possible that it might just be one of those glitches that happens from time to time, but then it's also possible that someone with some authority actually had a look at what she was writing and the blog got pulled. I can't help feeling a degree of satisfaction even though I was content with the warning page (okay, I admit it, I'm punching the air). The last posts I saw in that cesspit of hers were about the recent tragic massacre in Virginia and they really were beyond the pale. Perhaps I should have taken screen grabs but then again, her guff has had quite enough publicity. Those last posts I saw were frankly disgusting and I'm not going to go into what was in them. So hopefully Verohnika Clark and her cesspit of a blog have fallen off the internet. I'd like to think that she's gone for good but somehow I'm not so sure she won't return. I know she posts her crap on other Nazi sites like Stormfront and her utterly ludicrous Adolf Hitler Research Society (AHRS hole) exists elsewhere on the internet as a web site. However if her blog has gone, then I think that can be chalked up a small victory. Here is the last e-mail I sent to Blogger.com a few hours before the blog vanished:

Hi Blogger Team,

Thank you for your reply. I understand that Blogger does not remove allegedly defamatory, libellous, or slanderous material from Blogger.com or BlogSpot.com. Actually, this is something I'm inclined to agree with in general as I too strongly believe in freedom of expression. My main concern was that there should be some sort of warning for readers before entering the site. It appears that you have put up such a warning and I thank you for that. I believe this is a vast improvement as well as a good compromise; no one's freedom of speech is affected and unaware readers are now warned that there may be content they might find offensive. This was really what I was hoping for.

I have had some dialogue with the author of the blog in question, using the comments feature but she will no-longer accept comments from me and continues to write content that I'm sure many people would find extremely offensive. In our discussions, this individual told me that Google has already pulled one of her web logs. This was something I discovered after I first contacted you and if it is true then I'm certainly not surprised judging by the extremist content on her current blog.

Anyway, thank you once again for replying and, more importantly, for putting up the warning page, as I say it is a vast improvement and I hope that it stays there.

Yours sincerely

Davide Simonetti

The lesson here is that yes, freedom of speech is vitally important but when someone is loudly calling out for the extermination of an entire race then maybe the platform should be removed. I hope that this is what eventually happened. We shall see. If this is the case then I'll delete the spoof blog I made to highlight what this idiot was doing.

*YET ANOTHER UPDATE* April 19

Well, I think it's more or less confirmed that Verohnika Clark (a.k.a SS Adjutant Handstein) has had her blog pulled by Google. I found this furious and barely comprehensible rant at the front page of one of her other websites http://www.adolfhitlerresearchsociety.org/ (which now also seems to have gone down for the moment, hmm):

Halten! AHRS Requests Authorization
This site now requires authorization from Verohnika Clark. I apologize for this inconvenience, but, there have been repeated attacks against my server and my personal blogs by Jewish supremacists and free speech violators. The username and password have both been changed. If you do not e-mail me for the new set, then you will not be allowed to view this web site. E-mail: webmaster at adolfhitlerresearchsociety dot org or AdjutantHandstein@hotmail.com. Another one of my 'offensive' web blogs was flagged and deleted by Google and their Jewish minions. Actually, I think it was just sabotaged to the point where I couldn't post to it or view it any longer. Strange, because I couldn't view it or post to it from either of my computers, but other people could still view it. I suspect they sabotaged my login or something. Kewt! So, I have started another new blog and the two official AHRS web sites will be password protected from here on out. Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler! We Love You! 4/20/1889 Do not use VerohnikaSS@hotmail.com any longer. It was also sabotaged by Jewry. They signed me up for ADL and Simon Weaselbag online. Please use AdjutantHandstein@hotmail.com. Oh, and they did something to my webmaster account, so, I can only receive mail. I can?t send it from that account. UPDATE! I received two e-mails today [4.18.2007] at my old e-mail address, from anonymous e-mailer, informing me that I had "been warned" that my blog would be 'sabotaged'. Apparently, this Jewish clown was able to get Google to sabotage my own login procedure. I am going to be out of town starting tonight [4/18/07]. So, I will not be updating my blog or the two sites for a few days. I had to give Adi an early "Happy Birthday." Make a German chocolate cake for him and light a candle in commemoration of his life and light in a time of nearly unparalleled Jewish darkness.

So, my first reaction to this has to be: Ahahahahahaha!!! Just how fucking stupid can she be? she gets burned by publishing her new e-mail address (after her old one was suspiciously "terminated") and so what does she do? She publishes another new one so the same thing can, in all probability, happen again. This little rant also tells us that she hasn't got a clue what is happening to her other that the vast Jewish conspiracy is out to get her (interestingly, though, it seems that I'm not the only one with an axe to grind). She's gone off to sulk for a few days so we can be thankful for a brief period of rest before she comes back with a new blog to carry on her mission of disgusting the planet. Unsurprisingly, she's learned nothing from her recent experiences (hey, I did say that she's gormless). I don't have the time or inclination to keep a constant vigil on her activities. I will keep my eyes open though because neither her nor her knuckle-dragging Nazi friends can be trusted, but as long as they are as thick as they seem to be, I don't think there's a great cause for concern.

It's interesting that all this happened just before her hero's birthday. It's not something that occurred to me, but then why should it? That piece of shit is, thankfully, long dead.

*FINAL UPDATE* (hopefully) April 20

I think and hope all this can be laid to rest now. The AHRSholes web site is back on line and Verohnika Clark is back to blogging her usual crap. The difference now is that the only way to access her new blog is to register with the main Nazi mothership (AHRSholes) for a username and password. This is much better because people can't accidentally stumble upon this dishonest, extremist rubbish any more, you have to be a Nazi (or just determined) to get to it. So, I think it was worth all the hassle even though it now seems I'm on the Nazi shit-list... Oh well, I think I'll get over it.

click to enlarge

Leaving aside the hilarity of the people who brought us the Gestapo complaining about their free speech and privacy being violated, this just isn't the case. As you can see, they are doing exactly what they did before (they've just been forced to crawl back under their rock to do it) so their free speech isn't really affected. And as for privacy, well if you plaster your "private" e-mail address all over the internet then it's hardly private is it? This seems to have finally sunk in, so even Verohnika will have to acknowledge that she's been taught a lesson.

Addendum

I've just been reading a very interesting post by Unity over at Ministry of Truth (via D-Notice). It's about new legislation being brought in by the EU to make denying the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide a crime but not the Armenian genocide (for entirely political reasons). Like Unity, D-Notice and DK, I'm completely opposed to this. Clumsy and ill-thought out legislation like this makes having a different opinion a thought-crime and is counter-productive as, like Unity says, it drives these ideas underground instead of defeating them with better ideas. In his post, Unity uses similar arguments to the ones I made about a year ago when I defended the right of the pseudo 'historian' David Irving to make a complete prat of himself without getting locked up for it. I mention this because it does have a bearing on the above story - In Europe Verohnika would certainly fall foul of this law.

My spat with Verohnika Clark started when she twisted the meaning of a post I wrote and developed into an argument about her erroneous ideas and extremist language (such as calling for a genocide on Jews). When I refuted her arguments and mocked them, she felt it necessary to delete not just my comments but several posts with my comments on them. Eventually I did call on Google to put up a warning screen on her blog because it was misleadingly called Adolf Hitler Research Society which means that genuine researchers and students might have gone there thinking that the site contained real scholarship only to find page after page of hate-filled anti-Semitic rants, adulation of a mass murderer and Nazi propaganda.

It's stuff like this which is driving a demand for more legislation to control the Internet, so if self-regulation could be demonstrated to work, I had hoped that it would hold off such legislation. A warning screen wouldn't have affected Verohnika's freedom of speech but would have alerted visitors to the nature of the content. As it was, Google decided take away her megaphone, as it did before (despite what Verohnika says, I haven't a clue what happened to her other sites which also seem to have disappeared). At no point did I call for her to be prosecuted for what she had written - she couldn't be prosecuted anyway because in the USA the First Amendment guarantees her right to say what she likes. I'm fairly certain that after a short break Verohnika will be back spreading her lies and hate (she's said as much). But what this shows is that in some cases at least, it is possible to deal with Internet hatred without extra unnecessary legislation. Bringing in laws like the ones proposed (however well-meaning, and I'm not that sure that they are) lowers us to the level of the book-burners we want to defeat.

Tags: Nazis, Holocaust Deniers, Blogging

Playing Fair In Blogland

2007-01-23T09:14:00.000Z

Tags: Blogging

Over the last week or so I've been following the recent spat between Tim Ireland and Guido Fawkes. I haven't commented up until now because I wanted to follow the argument rather than contribute to it and make my own mind up before commenting instead of just wading into a flame war. There have been some very good posts on the issue, notably from Justin, Septicisle, Nosemonkey and Unity as well as Tim of course and I'm glad I read them before commenting as they all make very good points. Strangely, apart from some witticisms there has been little substantial counter-argument from Guido who has left his acolytes to attack Tim.

Why comment? I think the issues Tim raises are important and worthy of debate. I broadly agree with Tim and tend to fall on his side of the argument, but I do read Guido's blog from time to time and occasionally link to the odd good story and I'll probably continue to do so. The dichotomy for me is balancing the freedom of the Internet which, obviously, I support, with a need for honesty, accountability and the freedom of others not to be abused (unless of course they're asking for it), as well as plain good manners. What made me decide to comment however, wasn't so much Tim's post but this piece by Unity which for me shows that Tim has a very valid point. It highlights an outrageous abuse of someone's on-line identity.

Although I wouldn't call myself a 'newbie', I have nothing anywhere near the level of technical expertise of Internet veterans like Tim and Unity. I am however somewhat familiar with 'netiquette' (a term I knew about long before I started blogging) and on the whole I've always tried to adhere to those protocols that I was aware of. They are basically common sense and tend to make life more civilised for on-line communities. I don't feel that netiquette restricts me in any way, I still say whatever I want to say.

Unlike many bloggers I choose to write under my own name whether I'm posting or commenting. I understand the reasons why some people choose to write under pseudonyms or remain anonymous, but I wanted to be completely open and avoid any possible 'outing' later (also I tend to get tired of a pseudonym after a while and want to change it). The main issue that Tim raises (as far as I'm concerned) is the one of 'sock puppets', where some people leaving comments take advantage of a flaw with Blogger.com and easily assume someone else's identity. Needless to say, for the person whose identity has been hijacked this is annoying at best and harmful at worst. Anyone familiar with Guido's site will know that the comments section of his posts are full of such identity thefts.

This raises the thorny issue of comment deleting. I don't like deleting comments or making it tricky for people to leave comments. On this blog apart from the odd bit of spam I've only deleted a few comments. The last time I did it was when an obnoxious stalker of Rachel tried to reveal her 'real' identity. My policy is to allow as many comments as possible even if they consist of little more than ad hominem attacks and I have on occasion come under attack from bullies. A main motive for blogging is to engage in debate and on this blog I've been fairly lucky, commenters tend to stay on-topic and this blog isn't exactly huge so there are usually few comments anyway. However there are times when it is wise to delete comments. I think one of those times is when sock puppets are used. I strongly believe in freedom of speech (unless it infringes on the freedom of others) but the owner of a blog has an on-line reputation and inappropriate comments can adversely affect that reputation and thus their freedom. An example of this can been seen at the NO2ID site where the administrators are trying to raise a very serious issue which became diluted by visitors posting comments on their pet 9/11 or 7/7 conspiracy theories. There was a danger that the site's message would be taken less seriously by the influential people who read it so those comments had to be moderated. Over at Blairwatch we had a similar problem (involving in some cases the same conspiracy theorists posting off-topic comments).

Of course the owner of a blog also has the right to allow or delete comments as he or she sees fit, but deleting comments that disagree with their point of view or that expose inaccuracies in their post, whilst at the same time allowing comments that make unsubstantiated accusations or hijack someone else's identity, says something about the blogger. And if that blogger also deletes an offending comment and replaces it with an edited version under the original name or pseudonym without indicating that the comment has been edited, that says even more about that blogger.

These are the issues which I consider most important. If a blog is merely a repository of gossip or holds views that I and others find offensive or goes on ad nauseam about its stats, I don't really have a problem with that. I have the choice to read it or ignore it just as I choose not to read The Sun or The News of The World. On Tim's point that Guido's blog might attract legislation that restricts all bloggers, well, maybe, but I think that considering the antics of the shower in power at the moment, further legislation affecting freedom of speech might well come anyway with or without Guido. I don't believe he's as influential as he makes out (I don't think any one blog can have that much influence). What is more likely attract legislation against us is the constant exposure of government dishonesty, corruption and sleaze by political bloggers of both sides of the political divide and I hope that continues.

For the moment I'll leave my comment settings as they are. They are already time and date stamped and I want it to be easy for people to leave comments and engage in discussion. However as soon as I suspect that sock puppets (or IP spoofers) have being commenting, I'll reconsider that decision (because I'm not much of a techie the only way I'll be able to decide is if the comment is obviously different from the usual views of the person). I'm aware that by writing this I might well be inviting such an attack, but if some unscrupulous bastard tries to hijack my identity, at least my real views are recorded here as a guide for others (another motive for writing this). I agree with Tim that this really is something that Blogger.com should sort out, and it's another good reason for getting a domain name and moving over to WordPress. Tim's taken a lot of flak from Guido wannabes and acolytes for exposing these deceits. I know he can take it but I wanted to show my support. Tim and Unity have done bloggers a huge favour be exposing these dangers.

Computer Virus Warning - Attention Bloggers

2007-01-21T00:46:00.000Z

Tags: Computer Virus, Blogging, Small.DAM, Trojan

I don't usually post about anything about computer viruses and worms, but this should be of interest to anyone who receives news alerts via e-mail. Many bloggers are likely to be affected by this malware. There is a nasty virus going about which comes in e-mails with fake news headlines in the subject line.

Storm chaos prompts virus surge
E-mails claiming to contain details of the storms that battered Europe contain a malicious virus, security firms warn.
The e-mails with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe", can leave computers vulnerable to attack.
The messages were first detected as the storms, which have killed at least 28 people, continued to rage.

Fortunately for me I don't often blog about the weather and I use a product called Mailwasher Pro to check my e-mails before I download them. However, no system is completely foolproof. I receive a lot of news articles via email and it would be easy to accidentally download a virus or worm if the subject line was different. Today I deleted an e-mail from an unknown source entitled "Russian missile shot down USA aircraft". That is the sort of thing I'm likely to download and it was only the sender's e-mail address that made me suspicious. A quick look at the source code confirmed my suspicions, it contained an attachment called Full News.exe.

The new virus, called Small.DAM, was spread through emails with a variety of subject lines purporting to be news. Other variants included "British Muslims Genocide" and "U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza..."
The virus is a trojan - a program or message that look benign but contains malicious code - that is installed when a user opens the e-mail and clicks on an attachment. The attachment could be called Video.exe, Read More.exe, Full Clip.exe or Full Story.exe.

So this is just a word of caution to bloggers and other news junkies. Be careful what e-mails you download and keep your anti-virus software up-to-date (I'm sure most of you do).

*UPDATE*

The Register has more.

New Year, New Look

2007-01-10T19:54:00.000Z

When the Nether-World reached its first birthday, one of the things I hoped for in the following year was a different template. What I wanted was a three column template because of all the stuff that was crowding the side bar, but Blogger Beta didn't have any on offer. There were various hacks but nothing using the rounders theme which is harder to do because of the curved corners, which I rather like.

Anyway today I found one so I've been backing up all the stuff from the old template and I'm now transferring it to this new template. This will probably mean a few gremlins will be around until everything is sorted. This new template seems to have some interesting features which I'll be exploring a bit later. Please be patient while I put back all the links and buttons etc. Oh, and let me know if you think it's an improvement or not.

*UPDATE*

Well, I've added everything I had before and it all seems to be working. Many thanks to Protesto over at iMessenger.com who gave me clear instructions on how to edit the template so I could adjust the sidebar colours without also changing the colour of the main posting area (I was having real difficulty with that). So apart from tweaking the colour scheme a little the new look is more or less complete.

BTW if anyone knows of an easy way to put quotes in a box, please drop me a comment with instructions. I've been experimenting with Pullquote boxes on my test blog without much success.

Tags: Blogging, Three Column Template

Aaaaarrrgghh! I've been tagged

2006-12-23T03:50:00.000Z

Yes, it's happened again, I've been tagged (by Rachel) and this time I'm going to respond after having studiously ignored previous memes (well, seeing as it's Christmas and today is my Birthday...). So, the meme is "What are the seven best things you did this past year?". Hmmm, tricky! I don't think 2006 will go down as the best year in history. In fact it's been crap on numerous levels. Anyway giving it some thought, here are seven highlights of the year in no particular order.

Getting a cat: Sad but true; I've always been a liked cats but after my last cat mysteriously disappeared when I moved back to London, I was reluctant to get another one. Anyway ten years later I did just that and although he's a destructive, greedy, self-centered, attention-seeking furry little hooligan, he's also a lot of fun and very cute. He's a ruthless killer when he finds a mouse, and I discovered when playing with him that he's a better goalkeeper than Paul Robinson. Also, whenever people come to visit they go all gooey over him...especially girls. Enough cat blogging Ed.
Contributing to The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze: This was a fun project organised by Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale. The idea of a book being written by at least 50 different bloggers is something of a first and the subject matter made it something I wanted to be part of. It was the first time anything I had written appeared in print. I was at a party for the contributors the other day and learned that there is going to be a second edition called "THE BIG BOOK OF NEW LABOUR SLEAZE". I'd better get writing.
Writing for Blairwatch: Blairwatch is the blog that inspired me to start a blog. From there I discovered many of the other blogs I now read on a daily basis. So I was delighted when I was asked if I wanted to contribute. Team blogging is a lot of fun. There is less pressure to come up with something every day and because it has more readers than this blog, there is plenty of feedback and lively discussion in the comments.
Discovering I'm actually a pretty good student: No one was more surprised than me about this. Deciding that I needed more mental stimulation, I chose to do a Humanities degree with the Open University a couple of years ago. I was spectacularly unacademic at school and college and couldn't wait to leave and get a job. But after 20 years away from studying, I found that I now really enjoy it (I suppose it helps if you study things that actually interest you). The really surprising thing was that I'm actually good at it. I get high scores for my essays (90% on several occasions) and I've just passed an exam on Classical Greece and Rome at Grade Two despite having dreadful handwriting and not having been anywhere near an exam hall in decades. So I shall be continuing my studies even if it is rather time consuming.
Meeting other bloggers: This is definitely a highlight of 2006. When I started blogging it didn't occur to me that I'd end up striking friendships with other bloggers so it was a very pleasant surprise to meet some of the people I read regularly. Outside blogland, most of my friends roll their eyes when I discuss politics so it's refreshing to be able to talk to informed people on current events. Hopefully there will be more of this in the future.
Watching Blair's credibility drop to zero: Anyone who reads this blog and Blairwatch will know what I think of Blair and New Labour. I can't think of a more sleazy, dishonest, dangerous, unprincipled, and ill-advised Prime Minister. He has betrayed his Party, the country and the wider world. He has eroded our democracy and is removing our civil liberties at an alarming rate. His reckless rush to war with the American neo-cons and his seeming determination to cause even more damage despite the evidence of his policy failures being plain for everyone (except him apparently) to see, fills me with disgust, as does watching his sycophantic fawning over the Bush administration. So to see Blair being the first Prime Minister to be questioned by the police in a corruption enquiry; to watch Labour Party donors distance themselves from him; to see his poll ratings plummet and to learn that he has no influence whatsoever with the White House brings some grim satisfaction. The sooner he's gone the better. I'd be even more satisfied if he was to be held to account for his crimes.
Watching Italy winning the World Cup: I'm not really a football fan or in any way 'sporty'. The only time I enjoy watching football is when the World Cup tournament is on. And because most of my family are Italian I tend to support Italy when they are playing (we either have family get-togethers where we collectively shout at the TV, or go to Italian bars and collectively shout at the screen..."Eeetalia!", along with expensive mobile phone calls to relatives and friends back in Italy every time a goal is scored, missed or disallowed). The Italian team is undeniably entertaining to watch when it's on form and this year was no exception... Oh how we laughed when Zidane was sent off. My only regret was not being in Italy for the celebrations. I was in Italy in 1982 when the team beat West Germany in the final in Madrid and there followed a week of non-stop partying (starting off with most of the village rushing into the sea).

Anyway there you have it. Now the problem is, which poor sods do I foist this meme on to? Sincere apologies to the following (I promise I won't make a habit out of this): Justin, ., D-Notice, Devil's Kitchen, Rimone, Andy Ramblings, Bob Morris over at Polizeros. Anyway, merry Christmas, Yule, Winterval, Saturnalia, Chanukah etc. [Delete as appropriate] and a happy New Year.

*UPDATE*

I forgot to wish Muslims a happy Eid, which falls on December 31 this year (thanks Osama for the reminder). That was remiss of me. I actually thought Eid came at a different time, but then there is Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha So I must have got confused. Please excuse my ignorance. Anyway, happy Eid too.

Tags: Memes, Blogging

The Nether-World's First Birthday

2006-12-03T06:29:00.000Z

It's been a whole year since The Nether-World ~~burst~~ tip-toed onto the blog scene. When I started The Nether-World I was barely aware of what blogging actually was and wanted to find out more about the phenomenon. After 267 posts here, others on Blairwatch and Politics In The Zeros, I think I now have a fairly good idea. My main motivation was a desire to have an outlet for the anger and frustration I felt (and still feel) over the many injustices in the world where voting, not voting, writing to MPs, demonstrating and signing petitions haven't helped. Of course the problems haven't been solved but ranting about them has certainly been cathartic and it's helped formulate my arguments more coherently. Hopefully I've also helped spread some useful information. One thing I have discovered over the last year is that I enjoy writing and hope to get better at it.

It's been an interesting year. This is still a very small blog but it is currently 45 in the top 200 blogs measured by Technoranki. There are 465 links to The Nether-World from 128 other blogs and it is read regularly in several countries. Since starting the blog, I've attended political conferences and met politicians, contributed to a book, talked on American radio, made friends with other bloggers, been included in Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging in the UK (just), been nominated for a blog award, come under attack from Israel's state sponsored cyber soldiers (and saw them off), helped leak numerous documents that the Government tried to suppress, twice made it onto Tim Worstall's Britblog round-up, been involved in campaigns, reported on several large demonstrations, been invited to contribute to other blogs, had some interesting debates, discovered lots of really good blogs, and generally had a lot of fun. I've gained a far better understanding of political issues and current events than I would have if I'd just sat in front of the TV news stations or restricted myself to one or two newspapers.

Not bad for a first year. I wonder what the next year will bring. Hopefully it will bring more readers, a move to a dedicated host with a decent template and also some better writing. I wonder if I would have started this blog if I'd known how addictive blogging can be but I intend to carry on, so many thanks to all the people who have visited The Nether-World and all those bloggers who have inspired and informed me including those who I often disagree with.

By a neat piece of synchronicity, Justin's Blog Digest landed on my doormat yesterday, so I shall celebrate The Nether-World's first year by reading some of the best output by other bloggers over the last 12 months. How's that for being obsessed?

Tags: Blogging

The Blog Digest 2007

2006-12-01T10:58:00.000Z

Justin from Chicken Yoghurt has put together an eclectic selection of the best blog writing of the last year. Themed in chapters - Culture & Media, Sex, War, Politics, Activism, Work & Play, Death and Sport, it’s a rounded collection of the posts that appealed to Justin and so promises to be an entertaining digest of the year.

It should be available in all good bookshops and of course on Amazon (you can help out this poor blogger by ordering it from the link in the side bar). I've just ordered my copy and I'm looking forward to a leisurely read.

Here's a review from the Amazon page:

Emma Kennedy
'The only book I've ever read that covers mint sauce and the war in Iraq. Genius.'
Book Description
From Bristol to Baghdad, from sex workers to ambulance drivers, it seems like everybody, everywhere is keeping a 'blog'. At least that's what the media would have you believe. But with millions of blogs in the UK alone (and many millions more worldwide), it would take you more than a lifetime to read them all in search of the best of the bunch. Which is where this book comes in. The Blog Digest is the ultimate anthology of blog writing from the last twelve months. From searing topical commentary to hilarious musings on modern life - no matter whether you're a seasoned blogger yourself or just want to know what the fuss is about, there's something here for everyone.
Synopsis
Charles Kennedy's resignation, Lib Dem sex scandals and the election of a new leader, Ariel Sharon's stroke, the Danish cartoon protests, the Winter Olympics, Gary Glitter, Dick Cheney shooting a man in the face...2006 is already shaping up to be a huge news year. Bloggers - for the uninitiated - are amateur online journalists who post real-time reports of major (and not-so-major) stories on their websites. Famous bloggers like Belle du Jour and the Baghdad Blogger have already secured lucrative book deals thanks to the quality and vibrancy of their writing. But there are literally tens of thousands of bloggers who have not yet made the move to print. "The Blog Digest" provides a complete round up of the way the blogging community covered the major events of the year. Collected and presented within a range of themes, this entertaining and opinionated guide features the very best writing from the rising stars og online journalism.

It'll probably make an excellent Christmas present or stocking filler.

Tags: Blogging

Matthew Taylor: Hypocrite

2006-12-01T07:53:00.000Z

Last week Matthew Taylor, Tony Blair's outgoing chief strategy adviser, provoked uproar among bloggers by attacking their tendency to criticise politicians.

"What is the big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years? It's basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are."
Source

Well now he is in the news again, this time doing exactly what he accuses bloggers of doing.

One of Tony Blair’s closest advisers has issued a devastating critique of the Prime Minister’s time in power, confessing that the Government’s arrogance undermined public trust.
Matthew Taylor, who was Downing Street chief of strategy until last Friday, has admitted that No 10 “liked the image of being brilliant media operators” and found it hard to make the transition from opposition to government in 1997. This meant that there was a “certain amount of creativity” with the truth when dealing with the media in the early years. [My emphasis]
Source

So the question I have is this: How come it's okay for Matthew Taylor to criticise the Government but not bloggers? Could it possibly be that Matthew Taylor, as well as being an arrogant, patronising, condescending twat, is also a complete hypocrite?

Tags: Blair, NuLabour, Blogging, Matthew Taylor

Git of the Week #1 (of an occasional series)

2006-11-19T22:12:00.000Z

I meant to comment on this earlier so by now it's already all over the blogosphere, but this story does need to be recorded here too. Actually "git" is probably too polite a word to describe Matthew Taylor, Tony Blair's outgoing chief strategy adviser who has decided that the reason people are turned off by politics is not the lies and corruption of the politicians but the people who have the audacity to comment on them, particularly bloggers. Talk about shooting the messenger. Anyway, judging by the reaction from the blogs I've read so far there is a rare (but unsurprising in this case) show of unanimity, with everyone having pretty much the same message for this patronising idiot. Let's have a closer look at the comments he made at an e-democracy conference in central London.

Tony Blair's outgoing chief strategy adviser fears the internet could be fuelling a "crisis" in the relationship between politicians and voters.

If by "crisis" you mean that more people are able to scrutinse and debate Government policy Matthew, that's not a crisis but a very positive development, one you should be encouraging rather than criticising.

Matthew Taylor - who stressed he was speaking as a "citizen" not a government spokesman - said the web could be "fantastic" for democracy.
But it was too often used to encourage the "shrill discourse of demands" that dominated modern politics.
He was speaking on the day Mr Blair carried out an online interview.

I thought we were all citizens in a democracy, whether we are a part of the Government or not. Are you suggesting that if you were speaking in your capacity of a government spokesman you would have a different set of views? Yes, the web could be "fantastic" for democracy if only you lot would stop meddling with it and trying to impose unnecessary restrictions on it.

Mr Taylor said Mr Blair's online grilling from voters - and other initiatives such as environment secretary David Miliband's blog and Downing Street's new online petition service - showed the government was making good progress in using the internet to become more open and accountable.
But he said more needed to be done by the web community in general to encourage people to use the internet to "solve problems" rather than simply abuse politicians or make "incommensurate" demands on them.

The Government is slowly waking up to the power of the internet and I applaud some of those initiatives, but I hardly think it's making the Government more accountable. Mr Blair answered only a small handful of questions selected by the journalists conducting the interview. It wasn't exactly a "grilling" was it? David Miliband's blog is the laughing stock of the blogosphere. Has it ever veered off message? As for the petition service on the Downing Street website, well the jury is still out. We don't know if the Government will take any more notice of the petitions than it does of the votes at the Labour Party Conference.

One of the problems the web community is trying to solve is the undemocratic, mendacious and illiberal actions of this government, I'm afraid that requires a little criticism... deal with it! Politicians are servants of the people, so the people are quite right to make demands on them. If Politicians don't like that then they should be in another line of work.

Speaking at an e-democracy conference in central London, he said modern politics was all about "quality of life" and that voters had a "very complex set of needs".
The end of deference, the rapid pace of social change and growing diversity were all good things, he argued, but they also meant governments found it increasingly difficult to govern.

Voters do have a "very complex set of needs" and it is the job of the politicians to try and address those needs. Many of those needs are being expressed on the internet. Because there are so many people on-line, there are obviously going to be a lot of differing opinions. Rather than complain about it, look at what people are saying. The end of deference is a good thing, as you say Matthew, but you don't really mean that do you, otherwise you wouldn't be saying this:

"We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government," Mr Taylor told the audience.
Like "teenagers", people were demanding, but "conflicted" about what they actually wanted, he argued.
They wanted "sustainability", for example, but not higher fuel prices, affordable homes for their children but not new housing developments in their town or village.

I've been trying to avoid expletives up until now but ... Fuck right off you arrogant, patronising, condescending twat. Yes, we are increasingly unwilling to be governed by a bunch of lying, corrupt, greedy hypocrites like yourself and the rest of the NuLabour junta who are not held to account for their actions. Democracy is supposed to be self-government you idiot. Look it up in a dictionary. Of course people are demanding, and they have different views. Your generalisations of the "conflicted" people are offensive in the extreme which is exactly why you should expect some reciprocation. The examples you give show nothing new. It's up to governments to balance those conflicts as best they can. If you can't do that or complain about having to do it then piss off and we'll find people who can.

But rather than work out these dilemmas in partnership with their elected leaders, they were encouraged to regard all politicians as corrupt or "mendacious" by the media, which he described as "a conspiracy to maintain the population in a perpetual state of self-righteous rage".
Whether media was left wing or right wing, the message was always that "leaders are out there to shaft you".

Now where would we get the insane idea that our leaders are corrupt, mendacious and out there to shaft us? The media reporting on the cash for honours investigation, the lies we were told in the run up to the war with Iraq...? Calling the media "a conspiracy to maintain the population in a perpetual state of self-righteous rage" is a little disingenuous when what it does is report on your actions, and anyway, what about NuLaour's conspiracy to maintain the population in a perpetual state of fear?

He went on: "At a time at which we need a richer relationship between politicians and citizens than we have ever had, to confront the shared challenges we face, arguably we have a more impoverished relationship between politicians and citizens than we have ever had.
"It seems to me this is something which is worth calling a crisis."

Yes Matthew it is a crisis, one entirely of the Government's making. The impoverished relationship between politicians and citizens you lament is because of the dishonesty and lack of accountability. The richer relationship you want is partly possible because of a vibrant media and on-line community.

The internet, he told the conference, was part of that "crisis".
"The internet has immense potential but we face a real problem if the main way in which that potential expresses itself is through allowing citizens to participate in a shrill discourse of demands.
"If you look at the way in which citizens are using technology and the way that is growing up, there are worrying signs that that is the case.

No, the internet is part of the solution. What you call a "shrill discourse of demands" is in fact citizens discussing, debating, arguing and informing. What is wrong with that, and why shouldn't they use technology to do those things more effectively?

"What is the big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years? It's basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are.
"The internet is being used as a tool of mobilisation, which is fantastic, but it only adds to the growing, incommensurate nature of the demands being made on government."

Yes, blogs like the mainstream media, can be hostile and if they expose how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are then they are doing a valuable service. If you don't like it, why not try being less venal, stupid and mendacious? Anyway not all blogs provide this service, you've already mentioned David Miliband's blog, and there are other blogs which will happily praise your illiberal policies, gloss over your dishonesty and be the deferential compliant citizens you obviously want. I seem to remember you wanting an official blogger for the recent Labour Party Conference. And what about Hazel Blears' blog? You seem to complain about blogs when they dare to disagree with you, but are quite happy to use them to spread your message.

He challenged the online community to provide more opportunities for "people to try to understand the real trade-offs that politicians face and the real dilemmas that citizens face".

In other words to shut up and get with the programme... No chance, if it's all the same to you we'll just carry on exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious you are. It's more fun anyway.

"I want people to have more power, but I want them to have more power in the context of a more mature discourse about the responsibilities of government and the responsibilities of citizens," Mr Taylor told delegates.

The last thing you want is for us to have more power which is why your government has put so much effort into removing as many of our liberties as possible. If you want responsible citizens then lead by example and empower people.

Part of the problem, he added, was the "net-head" culture itself, which was rooted in libertarianism and "anti-establishment" attitudes.

Oh dear! What on earth, may I ask, is wrong with libertarianism? Are you saying that you are opposed to liberty and free will? Judging by NuLabour policies, I suppose the answer is "yes" but that isn't specified in the rhetoric is it? As for "anti-establishment" attitudes, well Britain has a rich tradition in "anti-establishment" attitudes. It is not a new phenomenon that grew out of the internet, rather a continuation of an old tradition using the internet.

He told delegates: "You have to be part of changing that culture. It's important for people who understand technology, to move from that frame of mind, which is about attacking the establishment into one which is about problem-solving and social enterprise."
Technology should be used to encourage elected representatives to communicate better with voters, he told delegates.

Why exactly should users of technology not challenge their leaders and ask pertinent questions?

Government also needed to "develop new forms of consultation and engagement that are deliberative in their form and trust citizens to get to the heart of the difficult trade-offs involved."
And there should be more effort to make communities "work together to solve problems," said Mr Taylor.

This government has shown no trust in its citizens and should therefore expect no trust from its citizens. "Work together to solve problems," is a NuLabour euphemism for "keep quiet and do as your told". After ten years in power that has become fairly apparent to many people.

Mr Taylor is Tony Blair's chief adviser on political strategy and the former head of the centre left think tank the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR).
He is leaving Downing Street next week, after three years, to become the chief executive of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA).

I'm glad you're leaving Downing Street Mr Taylor. Hopefully you'll do less harm working in the RSA, but be warned, artists can be notoriously anti-establishment. I doubt they will be any more deferential and compliant than the numerous bloggers who have such a low opinion of you.

Bloggage
Blairwatch
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Guido Fawkes
Iain Dale's Diary
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Rachel
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Tags: Blair, NuLabour, Blogging

Ten Tips For Dealing With GIYUS

2006-11-12T05:04:00.000Z

If, like many people, you are disgusted by the behaviour of Israel and happen to blog about, say, the latest massacre in Gaza; the desperate situation the Palestinians are in; the carnage in Lebanon or the provocation of UNIFIL peacekeepers; the threat of attacking Iran or any of the other nefarious deeds that Israel is allowed to get away with, then there is a reasonable chance that you may attract the attention of GIYUS. You'll know when that has happened when you find your post bombarded by comments (usually anonymous and looking remarkably similar) attempting to justify those actions and attacking you for daring to mention them. A quick look at your stats will confirm that you've been GIYUSed. If this bothers you, here are some tips which may put a stop to the attack, or at least lessen the flow of moronic comments. Of course I can't guarantee that they will work, all I can say is that they seemed to work for me when I became their target. First of all don't be intimidated, that's what this little army of cyber soldiers want you to be. Instead you could try the following:

Update your post straight away explaining what has happened and adding a little bit about GIYUS for those unfamiliar with this annoying pressure group. This also let's the GIYUS bots know that you're on to them.
If possible, add some links to previous posts you might have written on the issues to show that you are not going to be intimidated by their antics.
Refute their 'arguments' in the comments. This is easy as they really don't have any. Their comments go along the lines of "it is about time that Israel completely ignore any condemnation of our effort to stay alive and have a simple life in a and keep pounding at the Palestinians...". Also they don't stick around to argue, debate is the last thing they want and its what they are trying to stifle. They just do as they are directed by GIYUS.
On no account say anything which they could construe as being anti-Semitic. That is exactly what they want. Not only is anti-Semitism so obviously wrong but you'll be lowering yourself to their level. Their main objective is to 'prove' that anyone who disagrees with Israeli policies is a) anti-Semitic, b) a Holocaust denier, and c) an 'Islamo-fascist'. To do this they try to blur the distinctions between 'Zionist', 'Israeli' and 'Jewish'.
Use reliable news sources to back up your points. If you can find items from Israeli sources, so much the better. Haaretz and B'TSalem are useful.
Invite others to join in the fun, it makes the thread more balanced and much more interesting. It also saves you from having to repeat yourself or respond to every comment.
Don't delete their comments unless they really are particularly offensive. That just makes it look like you haven't got an answer to them. Leave their comments up so we can all have a good laugh at them.
Use humour. Believe me, these commenters have as much sense of humour as Ian Paisley on a bad day, and they don't like having the piss taken out of them (who does?). The issues are deadly serious for both sides of the argument but the point here is to stop GIYUS bullying you into remaining silent about them.
If other bloggers link to your post then even more people will see it thus rendering their efforts to silence you completely counter-productive. I'll take this opportunity to thank the Curious Hamster, Obsolete and D-Notice for linking to my post which helped GIYUS's attack on me backfire.
GIYUS has been particularly effective in distorting or wrecking on-line polls. If you are conducting a poll about Israel and you find that GIYUS members turn up in great numbers to distort the result, my advice would be to shut it down immediately and post a message explaining why. I haven't conducted a poll about Israel but it's what I'd do if I found my poll being distorted by GIYUS.

When I was targeted by GIYUS I did most of the things on this list and the comments slowed down and then stopped very quickly. And it wasn't because the GIYUS bots stopped visiting. As I write this they are still coming, they're just not bombarding me with their silly justifications for what is by any standard criminal behaviour. Groups like this don't like to be exposed in this way, so when a light is shined on them they tend to scuttle back to whatever dark recesses they emerged from. Mind you, having posted this I wouldn't be surprised if they tried again.

If you have been GIYUSed and your post is genuine comment on Middle East news and not anti-Semitic or conspiracy theory garbage, feel free to drop me a comment and I'll link to it. Freedom of speech is important and we have enough curtailment of it from our leaders, so we don't need these idiots to bully us into silence. If all this sounds like behaving little better than GIYUS, it isn't. I'm not advocating bombarding people's web sites with comments or hurling abuse at anyone. This is just a defence tactic which may or may not work if you find yourself under a coordinated virtual attack from a state sponsored pressure group. No state is above criticism and when a state behaves the way Israel does it should expect to be criticised for its crimes. Unfortunately many governments, particularly the American and British governments refuse to criticise these atrocities and are complicit in them, so it's up to us to do it.

Tags: Israel, Blogging, GIYUS, Palestine, Lebanon

Guess Who Are Still Running The World!

2006-10-13T08:47:00.000+01:00

Click here to find out

From Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads who has had an attack of cynicism and is taking a short break from blogging to work on a new project. I hope we don't have to wait too long to find out about it. You can see some of his other Flash Animations here.

Tags: Blogging, Blair, Bush

Me talking about Gordon Brown on American radio

2006-09-14T14:17:00.000+01:00

Well that was an interesting experience! Yesterday I was invited to record my thoughts on Gordon Brown for a discussion about the rise and fall of Tony Blair on an American radio show. The hour-long conversation I had was edited down to about a minute for the broadcast so many of the points I made were lost unfortunately. However it was a very interesting show which featured Rachel from North London, Iain Dale and Robert Guest, Washington Editor of The Economist.

Open Source Radio is unlike anything I've come across before; part radio show and part blog. It gave plenty of time to really explore a topic. As Iain points out on his blog:

I can't imagine the BBC devoting an hour's radio time to this or any other subject. After all, they think we can't concentrate for more than four minutes at a time. Think how often you hear a BBC interviewer say the words 'that's all we've got time for'.

Rachel and Iain came across very well, both of them managing to describe the political climate in Britain at the moment in different ways.

You can listen to the show here.

Tags: Blogging, Blair, Gordon Brown, UK Politics