Good on the Libertarian Alliance for publishing this. As it says, Guido Fawkes, aka Paul Staines, is more than able to take care of himself, but given some pathetic attempts by the Daily Telegraph and a few others to sneer at him (what the heck has gone wrong at the Telegraph?), it is nice to have friendly comments.
Paul has probably raised the profile of the LA indirectly, quite a bit. He should get an award at this year’s annual LA conference. Even if it is not the whole truth, I think it is very, very good to be able to have it said that a “libertarian blogger has brought down minister X or civil servant Y”. The very fact that folk are going around saying this, or hinting at it, is gold-dust to libertarian activitsts such as the LA and its counterparts. In his way, Paul is doing for the free market movement what the Tea Party folks are doing, maybe, in the US. In fact, I’d be willing to state that relatively speaking, Paul’s site is now the most influential political blog in the world. I mean, is there a French, German or, heaven help us, an Italian equivalent?
Just askin’.
Nothing in France or Germany, I think, but there is one in Italy: Beppe Grillo, formerly a comedian now a campaigner against waste, dishonesty and corruption, has an excellent blog which used to be the most widely read in the world. I believe it has an English translation. He is more influential than Guido.
sorry about the repeats – it kept telling me to redo the security code and resend
Indeed, well done Guido!
I hope the constantly playing video that cannot be turned off does not last for long, however, a similar think on Iain Dale has rendered his blog practically unreadable.
The dangers of commercialisation I fear!
There this guy in France, and I believe there are others. I have no idea how influential they are, however. There are also a few in Russia, but their influence there is trivial, I believe.
Excellent question. The Telegraph used to be my daily read to assess conservative (and Conservative) thought in Britain. Now it’s about as feeble an institution as the Tories themselves, and I seldom go there except to read the Sports or Obits sections.
As for Guido: he’s an excellent example of bomb-throwing libertarianism — seldom was a nom-de-plume better chosen — but just wait until he directs his ire towards the Conservative Party when next they come to power (by default, of course).
I have no problem with bomb-throwing libertarians, of course, except for the fact that bombs, by definition, are somewhat indiscriminate when it comes to their effects. By taking down the good and the bad alike, sometimes the results are counter-productive.
However, I think that Britain needs a little bit of general governmental house-clearing right now, and in that regard alone, the existence of a Guido Fawkes may serve a decent purpose, as a deterrent to future government abuses.
Re bomb-throwers:
“The world needs more than just a building right now. It needs hope.”
— Evey Hammond (from “V for Vendetta”)
It makes me close to despair, but bomb-throwing is vital at the moment.
Little remains to preserve, much to destroy!
Laid,
It’s such a shame that the meaning of the word ‘hope’ has been so utterly bastardized in less than one election cycle.
Best way to beat them right now? Form a political party called “None Of The Above” and watch your Prospective Parliamentary Candidates clean up at the next UK General Election.
Much better than bombs and you get taxpayer-funded expenses too!
This is a great French site: “Quitter” – leave; “la Sécu” – Sécurite Sociale (Social Security system). “Examining the possibility of leaving the Social Security system, that bottomless chasm for which no one envies us. We don’t practice soft Libertarianism here.” It is written by a young fiery anarcho-capitalist called Laure (Laura) Allibert. Today’s post is “Infirmières en URSS française : un pas de plus sur la route de la servitude.” – Nurses in the French USSR : one more step down the road to serfdom. It notes statist plans to prevent nurses from installing in areas where there are too many nurses unless an existing nurse retires; and give subsidies to nurses installing in areas where there are not enough nurses. (Here in France nurses can set up private practices where you get your vaccines and blood tests done). The little cartoon is the Leviathan of the state talking to a nurse: “my girl, if you’re trying to scare me, I’m planning to put you in my syringe”.
The blogroll on the site tells you that radical Libertarianism is alive and well in France although I have no idea how many people read them.
There is a libertarian movement in France called Liberté Chérie, or Beloved Freedom.
How would people feel about libertarian activists being called libertivists? Only to be applied to people who do something, instead of the broader class of libertarians, like us, who blog about it?
Beppe Grillo is not, and never will be a patch on Guido. Beppe is a leftie whose only real objection to Berlusconi is that he is not an ex-Communist. I’m afraid that all Italians are addicted to their politicians and quite happily pose as anti-clerical but would faint if you seriously criticise a politician in their presence.
Three words: the Barclay brothers.
What has gone wrong at the Telegraph?
As people have said before J.P. – this goes back years.
It started in the cultural coverage (film reviews and so on) and then spread into the news sections, and then into the comment sections. No doubt there are still good people at the Telegraph – but when you mix half a gallon of water with half a gallon of urine what you get is a gallon of urine.
Conservatives and libertarians often proceed as if what is taught in the government schools (and many private schools) and most universities does not matter.
Sorry but it does matter.
If a generation of people are brought up with their heads full of collectivist nonsense this is going to have effect on what they write.
The only way to counter this is to actively look for people who check facts (as opposed to assuming what they were taught is true) and who reject the “liberal” world view.
But that is not the way the Telegraph group acted.
“Good education, good degree, strong interest in journalism”.
That is what they look for – and that means you get more and more leftists (and leftists are very good indeed at taking over an organization once they are inside it).
The old rule applies – if something (or someone) is not explicitly anti lefitst (to the point of “paranoia” – the leftist smear word for being aware of the world as it is) then it will be taken over by the left.
The price of liberty is enternal vigilance.
Paul, no offence intended here but as someone who has worked for the Telegraph for 12 years, I have to say there are now very few government school alumni on the editorial side. Although Will Lewis the editor is grammar school I think. There is a pretty strong bias against state school and non-Oxbridge graduates in all the British broadsheets – I’d say this has increased in the last ten years. Obviously they can employ who they want, but the content may have become weaker as a result. The Daily Mail, which of course left-wingers decry, is in my experience more open (far more so, incidentally, than the The Guardian) and it has prospered.
To me, the Telegraph’s problems (or some of them) are that it tries to copy the Mail; is overly concerned with distancing itself from the old high-church Toryism of Charles Moore without having a clear sense of what sort of right-wing politics it now believes in, and has managers who think too much about “future delivery platforms” in relation to editorial strategy/quality.
To be fair, it is difficult for editors of august broadsheets when all the hits on their websites are for celebrity tittle tattle. However I agree that root problems set in years ago. When I started they had for some time been in a panic about the age profile of the readership. Personally I have always felt that this wasn’t as terrifying as they thought, and the Telegraph might by its nature be a title that many people just tended to come to when they were older and wiser. The trouble of course is that few businesses want to advertise to 60 year olds.