Who Are These People?

I note with no great surprise that Hazel Blears disapproves of newspapers and political blogs. I quote (from The Guardian):

“We are witnessing a dangerous corrosion in our political culture,” she said. In part she will blame “a shrinking and increasingly competitive newspaper market” which demands more “impact” from its reporting - the translation of every political discussion into a row, every difficulty a crisis, every rocky patch for the prime minister into the “worst week ever”.

And more:

“Until political blogging ‘adds value’ to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.”

A more patronising, pretentious and petulant politician I have yet to encounter. Sadly, the competition is stiff.

I believe there is a name for the state of mind when you become convinced that everybody is out to get you, and only you. This state of mind is known as paranoia. Paranoia can also be a symptom of schizophrenia - characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Criticism leading to the denial and suppression of free speech also has a name – tyranny.

I can appreciate how tiresome it must be when the proletariat discovers yet another mechanism for voicing disapproval of the government. It must be even more irksome when the facility enables the comparison, spreading and sharing of complaints. Heaven forbid that a database of failure and incompetence should form. Only a Labour government should be allowed such ability as only they know just how it needs to be ‘maintained’.

I recall comments from John Humphries on the Today programme some years ago. He observed that when the Conservatives were in power and he gave them a hard time; the Labour Party patted him heartily on the back and urged him on. When Labour came to power and he turned his heavy guns on them they called him biased and partisan.

It is characteristic of the Labour Party that if the message is uncomfortable then a good tactic is to yell loudly at the messenger. If you shout loudly enough you might even drown out the message itself. This is the ideal result – discrediting the source and destroying the bad news. (Alastair Campbell used the technique and gave a master class in misdirection when attacking the BBC and Andrew Gilligan over the WMD dossier affair.)

It has been said that a country gets the government it deserves. I suggest that the corollary is also true – a government gets the querulous population it merits. Hazel Blears might just consider asking herself what the message is instead of waving her gun at the messenger. Or perhaps she has already done this and doesn’t at all like what it tells her.