European Political News

For this week’s Friday Free For All question, we are asking if you have managed to make the news in your town or community, and what you think about it. So: Have you made the local press? Why and what happened? Do you have any tips? (Note: making it into the local press in such a manner that [...]

Following on from Mike’ Rouse’s question about catching up with blogs last week, today we’re asking about the best use of political video you have seen in the last year. In the last year, there have been protest videos, the last few months of 18DS, some interesting locally-made political videos, and the new Politalks (nsfw) video-podcast. We’d like to know what you think. I’d give my prize to some of the witty political animations done by Miss Eclectech, especially the two about ID Cards - these are older than 12 months, but still highly relevant. So I’m plumping for Tim Ireland’s video for the consultation for the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 covering demonstrations near Parliament: I’ll give a runner up to his earlier animation concerning the plight of Iraqi Interpreters: What are your suggestions? (Anything is fine - videos, animations, or the way they have been used, but please include a link where you can). Tags: video, best political video, friday free for all

As it’s Friday Free for All here on the ever-growing Wardman Wire I thought I would ask a question instead of an opinion, based on something that somebody asked me in a pub recently: “I was just starting to get into these blogs, but then I went away for two weeks and I haven’t been able to get back into it since. I just can’t figure out what’s happened because there is so much content to trawl through.” It’s a fair question. With the ever-growing blog-o-sphere in a variety of topic areas and more people turning to Google Reader and other feed aggregation services it’s easy to end up with something that looks more like your mailbox upon your return from absence - hundreds of unread messages. How do you sort the good stuff from the rambling nonsense? How do you catch up on the blogs?

I have been re-reading a book by Alistair Cooke: Memories of the Great and the Good (aff), a set of essays about figures in US life and culture from the 1930s to the 1990s. George Abbott was a Broadway Theatre Producer, was involved in his first broadway production in 1926, and his last in 1989. This is Cooke on George Abbott and his pacemaker, writing in 1995: “He lost his second wife in 1951, and for thirty-two years he was mostly alone. But twelve years ago, when he was ninety-six, he decided to marry again, a youngster in her early fifties. Last year he came into New York from his house up the river and pattered down the aisle at a revival of his Damn Yankees, just to be sure they were pronouncing the final t’s. Last week, he was busy at this favourite occupation, tinkering with, rewriting and revising a revival of Pyjama Game. This week, he died in his sleep at a hundred and seven. A dozen years ago, he had to have a pacemaker. He had a lifelong suspicion of doctors and their wizardry, and he wanted to know if “there was any snag to this thing”. Only, replied the doctor with well-rehearsed facetiousness, “that you’ll have to have a new battery after ten years”. “Hot damn!” said Mr Abbott. Ten years later, when he was a hundred and five, sure enough he had to have a new battery. “Hot damn!” said Mr Abbott, his chronic suspicion of doctors confirmed yet again. One day, in his late nineties, he was playing golf with his wife and for the first time, and who knows, perhaps the last, fell down on the fairway. In alarm his wife ran over to him, saw the long lean figure still prostrate and shouted: “George! George! Get up, please. Don’t just lay there.” He opened an eye. “Lie there!” he said.” (*) aff indicates an affiliate link. Tags: pen portraits, george abbott, damn yankees, pyjama game, alistair cooke

A refreshing admission by Simon Dickson: OK, Im an idiot. The lengthy and fair-minded piece I wrote this morning about a speech by Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne at the RSA was a year late. Osborne made some interesting points about the need to recast the political settlement for the digital age. And now today, theres an email doing the rounds (see Nick Booths piece) pointing out similarities between this 2007 speech and the one made by Tom Watson on Monday. Amusingly, it condemns the Watson speech as a mashup. But hold on. Surely its entirely in keeping with the whole ethos of open source, to take good ideas and build on them? Didnt you say mass collaboration was a good thing? Kudos up one notch for the Puffbox Man. He makes some good points about Open Source Politics. I made a few similar points in my reaction to Mr Gordon’s 2007 Budget Speech, using splogs as a metaphor: I suppose that all political speeches should in fact be called SPLEECHES since they all follow at least some of the principles behind Spam Blogs, i.e.: 1. Get content from somewhere else. 2. Use it for your own benefit. 3. Do not attribute the source. 4. With the overall objective of promoting your own organisation. That would be 4 out of 4 then for 90% of policy speeches I have ever heard ! Tags: budget speech, splog, simon dixon, puffbox, open source politics

Freeform Fridays are a new experiment on the Wardman Wire: Im wondering about inventing Freeform Fridays, where I will give a platform to anyone with something interesting to say - a sort of virtual Speakers Corner. In my mind there needs to be somewhere on the blog which is relatively unstructured, to be a total change from the quite tightly timetabled nature of the rest of the week. Id see that as an opportunity for young or new bloggers to address a slightly wider audience - one of my priorities for asking people to write columns has been to look for good new writers, who would like the opportunity to write for a different audience or in a different style. Id like to see articles about eclectic political subjects on Fridays - for example how the mistresses of Charles II have an impact on life today, or a piece about the history of Hogarth, or even something about how political eras and movements can be studied by the distinctive hats they wore. Friday also needs to be more relaxed, partly because that is the feel of most of our workplaces and homes, but also to move the blog into the weekend mode. Id welcome any suggestions you have in the comments box below. As it happens, I am away on short notice (10pm last night) at the Jeecamp today, so as an experiment I have a few “lighter” postings myself today - and I have emailed the regular writers inviting any contributions. I wonder if anything will happen? Tags: freeform friday