Dib Lemming: Iain WHO, dear?

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Iain WHO, dear?

You know, I'm fairly new to all this blogging business so maybe I am missing something, but you know that Iain Dale? I really don't understand what it is that is so very special about him for people to keep quoting him like his views actually matter. I'm not sure what's worse really, the fact that his opinions are considered so valuable that he is given newspaper space and actual television airtime to espouse them like some kind of 21st Century politics guru, or the fact that every other Lib Dem blog I come across has a mention of him somewhere therein!

Do you really care if some high profile tory is going to start saying the Lib Dems are trying to out-tory the tories and can't be trusted? We know better and importantly, thanks to the fact we have ace campaign teams in those marginal seats Iain mentions in his piece, we will succeed in having the majority of the electorate know better as well.

I mean, come on. This is the guy who on Wednesday posted a weak 'humour' piece entitled "you know you are a political chav when.." and on Thursday he argued that we should all stop using the word toff because it reveals "deep and revealing level of class hatred"! Clearly no sense of irony.

My comment there in response to yet another post relating to Iain Dale's comments on the Make It Happen document launched by Nick Clegg on Thursday. Sorry, Andy, wasn't arguing with your whole post there, just getting grumpy about the ubiquitous Dale!

You know, I think one of the hardest conditions I've put on myself in writing here is my aim to have this blog clear and easy to understand for the majority of people who may come across it (you know, like my aged relatives, or other people called Stephanie Ashley doing a vanity search - I'm not expecting to be a must-read writer with a cult following here). I don't want to name names that I know full well I would have had to look up before I joined the party and assume that anyone who is reading will automatically know who I am talking about. I don't want to alienate anyone who isn't a political anorak, but it's proving to be so tough!

10 comments:

Ed said...: He is a vacuous, self promoting, empty shirt. I share your bewilderment at Lib Dem bloggers obsession with his every utterance.; 20 July 2008 07:34
Iain Dale said...: "n Thursday he argued that we should all stop using the word toff because it reveals "deep and revealing level of class hatred"! Clearly no sense of irony."

Mate, calm down. I think it is you who have lost your sense of irony. The piece you refer to was a skit on the original article on chavs. I merely replaced the word chav with the word toff. Can't believe you fell for it.; 20 July 2008 09:29
Martin said...: Steph, I normally refer to him as '10606' Dale as that's the number of votes he lost by to Norman Lamb in North Norfolk. But the problem is, by astute self-promotion and no doubt, somewhere, some genuine ability he has created a larger than life profile himself. And good luck to him. Surely it's little different in the context of the blogsphere to what so amny of us do through FOCUS in our wards?; 20 July 2008 10:06
Alix said...: Hehehe! A timely corrective. I haven't yet got to the point where I actually read his blog unless someone points the way there but I'm definitely more tolerant of the universal Daledom than I was.

It's really just historical. He was there first and, partly for that reason, now has the biggest readership. And the media are lazy so when they want to do an item on blogging, they call him in, and he has gone rather native. He has done various media political projects and for some of them he presented himself as fairly neutral, which is sort of true and at the same time sort of not at all even slightly true. It's all the result of good career positioning. He's simply the first person to have made a career partly out of blogging.

I did the Beeb elections show with him. Total sweetie actually, but (whisper it) bit of a mediocre writer, darling! And for that reason, I find his success quite an interesting phenomenon. So I've ended up proving your point and adding to the frustration really. Sorry!; 20 July 2008 10:27
Jennie said...: * applause and whistling *

I don't even read the pompous Tory git. What's the point? He has nothing to say that I am going to be interested in.; 20 July 2008 11:20
Andy said...: For the record, I don't generally think Dale's views are any more worth noting than yours, mine, or any other blogger's. If it had simply been a blog post of his, I wouldn't have bothered. I was quoting him mainly because this was a column in the Telegraph which neatly fitted my point (ie. the column is exactly what I would have written if I was a devious Tory git). I couldn't care less that Dale in particular wrote it, and I only read it because the column was included in Freethink's press reaction round up.

Gosh, I sound a bit defensive there, don't I? For balance, then, I do read Dale's blog, since he does come out with some interesting stuff, but I agree that we should take with a pinch of salt his claims to the self-awarded position of Emissary From Blogosphere. I think, in the case of his toff post, you may have taken it more seriously than he intended - it is, after all, a direct mirror image of the Fabian Society's decree that we shouldn't use the word "chav".

To answer your question, no, I don't care what a Tory is going to say, as such. They will say what they like, we can't stop them, but, as you point out, we can counter that message on the streets where it matters. My point was simply that we shouldn't allow our glee at the press coverage distract us from the fact that we are in danger, as we always are, of letting other people define us. Dale and others can say what they like, but we shouldn't allow it to go unchallenged if it isn't true, just because we're glad someone is talking about us, or because we think the public can't understand political positions more than three words long. That's what worries me: not that a Tory is saying something, but that we appear to be welcoming that message uncritically.; 20 July 2008 14:10
Ian_QT said...: "on Thursday he argued that we should all stop using the word toff because it reveals "deep and revealing level of class hatred"

No he didn't. The post was satirical.; 20 July 2008 15:19
Stephen Glenn said...: Well Steph iain Dale along with Guido Fawkes have for a number of years been prominient political bloggers. Iain has of course also tried to advance politics on the web in a number of other ways, 28 Dogherty Street (TV) and now Total Politics (magazine). He is also a compiler of the lists of political blogs and has for the past few years listed the top 100s by all sorts of categories, party, country etc.

Somoe of us grumpy old bloggers actually remember when the political blogosphere was quite non partisan when it came to sourcing info to share with the world at large, and Iain was one of those pre-eminnet in doing that.

There has long been a debate over whether the Lib Dems have an equivalaent high profile blogger Jonathan Calder and Stephen Tall are often cited but do either really have the profile of Iain or Guido?

Hope that sheds some light at least from my POV; 20 July 2008 16:04
Steph Ashley said...: Oh crumbs, I go away to training for a few short hours and this happens?

In order then:

Thanks Ed! That's maybe a bit more vitriolic than I was feeling myself, but hey, feel free to express yourself!

Iain: what on earth are you doing defending yourself on a little blog from a remote corner of Wales that attracts about 30 readers a day? It should matter even less to you what I think of you than it does to me what you think of Lib Dem policy - still, thanks for popping by.

Martin: fair point well made. I'm just very tired of seeing every other lib dem blogger pick up something or other he's said. After all, it's not like the tories are picking up our focus leaflets and saying to the public "ooh I've just read the latest focus leaflet and it says this, isn't that exciting?".

Alix: I'm sure he's absolutely charming and I could happily spar with him over coffee, it's usually true of the more enlightened members of the opposition, after all, we are all in it for whatever we think are the right reasons... and I suppose what irritates me most is it seems people are lazy enough not to want to find out their own news, so they go to him because he is prolific enough in his output to provide blog fodder in a semi pre-digested format on a daily basis.

Jennie - I am so glad I'm pleasing somebody!! Or were you being sarcastic.... I'm not even sure I can tell anymore ;)

Andy: man I am so sorry I landed on your post with this, because to be fair, you aren't really guilty of misplaced i-dale-isation at all, it was just the mention of him triggered something that had been brewing a couple of days. As far as the 'toff' post goes, I hadn't taken it literally but I do see it as a tory who is happy to call people chavs sniffing at the Fabian Society rather than pure wicked fun - haven't we all met privileged middle-and-upper-class white men who wail "everyone sticks up for the opressed but what about meee?"

Ian - see above and thanks for trying to pull me up about this without offering any further comment. What I really need is more people to come along and pick holes in the detail of what I say rather than make any sense of the thrust of my post. Why not patronise me because after all, I haven't got a clue about anything. So, ta for that.

Stephen: Hello, that's a really nice, considered and balanced view without sniping! That takes talent on the internet, that does. After all, it is normally a vast platform on which everyone calls each other wrong! *goes to investigate your writing further*; 20 July 2008 19:44
Jennie said...: "What I really need is more people to come along and pick holes in the detail of what I say rather than make any sense of the thrust of my post. Why not patronise me because after all, I haven't got a clue about anything."

LMAO!!!!

Also, it may be my fault La Dale descended upon your post. I was rather...um... abrupt about him in my link LOL Sorry 'bout tha'.; 20 July 2008 19:52