I must have missed this but according to the Heavens there has been a blogwar. Or perhaps some minor arguments amongst the British blogosphere. First alerted by Iain Dale’s misapprehensions, I checked Google News to see how far the disagreements and conflicts had rocked the mainstream media. They had not.
Staying below the parapet of the media or using the wrong search word certainly demonstrated to me that if there was any retelling of these events, they were not listed as a blog war and I cannot stomach Media Guardian tonight. It was time to try Technorati, the rather slow and ponderous Technorati. You can tell I am writing this as I wait.
Well, I have gone back three days and, as yet, no blog war has appeared concerning British bloggers on Technorati. Call me an old fogey but I remember the days when blog wars were real blog wars. I think that a blog war only exists if it meets the nominalist requirements and is called a blog war as it happens across many blogs.
The Heavens have had a minor spat. It hardly counts as the fall of Lucifer. If you want a real British blog war, agree the terms of declaring the conflict by throwing down a stylised gauntlet and go to war. Ritualised textual combat, avoiding libel and error of fact, may be just the path to spice up our ideological differences.
Just had a look at some of the postings, and my response?
“God, who cares?”
I see no value whatsoever in engaging someone like (say) Tim Ireland in bloggy debate. He is a paleo-socialist who might provide some entertainment by fisking his more outrageous populist authoritarian utterances but in truth our views are so utterly irreconcilable I really do not give a shit what he thinks.
I see much more value in talking to people who still think the ‘conservatism’ represented by folks like Iain Dale is an ‘alternative view’ to the radical centrist world of Tony Blair.
At least Iain Dale’s world view is intellectually intelligible to people who do not crave the idea of being a drone in a directed regulatory state. I would much prefer engaging those sort of folks and suggesting that Iain’s Tory Party actually represents continuity with the here and now, not an ‘alternative view’ at all. If you actually want something different, listen to us, listen to Guido. listen to the L.A., hell, listen to the UKIP even.