2007 weblog awards

[paddlegal]

My favorite website won this year.

visit Fark.com I especially like the video links. There's some really good stuff there sometimes. I don't usually go anywhere from there except to u tube because many of those "video" sites have malware on them. I've got good security on my computer, but its a pain in the b anyway.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by paddlegal

My favorite website won this year.

Traitor.

[glatt]

I used to be a regular on Fark, until I found the Cellar.

[Razzmatazz13]

I found fark through the cellar....but I still live here.

[TheMercenary]

http://2007.weblogawards.org/

[be-bop]

Is it only me or does anyone else feel there's so much out there you get swamped trying to keep up with it.
I used to read masses of blogs but my head used to burst just to try and keep up.
It's the same with message boards I used to visit 3 or 4 including the cellar but I don't have the time to spend contributing anymore.

[TheMercenary]

I participate in three forums on a fairly regular basis. I go to the blogs to read but rarely comment. I pop in and out of those just when casually surfing the net looking for interesting comment on current events.

[DanaC]

There's only one blog I read regularly. It's a blog by one of our leftie activists. It's quite funny. The other day she noticed herself being called a sectarian in someone else's blog...her response was to go on a sectarian rant, throwing out stuff about various groups within the left, all attempting to show that she isn't sectarian. Delightful. Ain't nobody harsher on a leftwinger than the guy or gal who's slightly to the left of 'em :P


[eta] incidentally, in England I am not what you might call far left. I am a more a little left of centre (okay 'little' may be pushing it, but i am closer to the centre than the far left are :P )

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by DanaC

[eta] incidentally, in England I am not what you might call far left. I am a more a little left of centre (okay 'little' may be pushing it, but i am closer to the centre than the far left are :P )

Given that, how would you describe the "Left" in England? What do they think about various issues? Are they similar to Left in the US? Describe the English Left.

[DanaC]

In some ways similar. The balance within the left seems very different. What I would broadly categorize as the majority view on some issues, amongst the active left here, seem to be the minority view amongst the active left there. I think, for example, that relationship between the left and unions is somewhat different, because the history of unions and the left is a different one. Like any other country, the way our labour movement grew and progressed has unique elements. The fact that Labour Party (the current ruling party in the UK) was specifically formed by Trades Unionists for the furtherance of the labour movement's goals. In the early years of the Labour Party, members were members via their unions, not as individuals.

I don't think Marx is viewed in quite the same way over here generally, as seems to be over there, and I don't think the word socialist/socialism carry the same connotations and are in somewhat easier currency over here. There are a lot of basic assumptions about what government is and what it does which pervade society and that has an effect on the component parts of the political spectrum. Over here even the 'centre right' accept the need for some kind of socialized medicine, for instance.

That said, as I was trying to get across in my post about the blog, the different groups within that spectrum are also not uniform in their views. When I refer to the left I refer to those who a) identify themselves as left, and b) share some of a set of basic understandings/assumptions of the world and a set of hopes/goals for the world.

[TheMercenary]

So you would consider the English Left to be more accepting of a smattering of socialism in society?

Your last paragraph could be applied to any political group Left, Right, or Center.

[DanaC]

So you would consider the English Left to be more accepting of a smattering of socialism in society?

No. I would consider the left to be, broadly, more supportive of the social state. The right I would consider to be, broadly, more supportive of a marketised state, in which such things as health, education and security are commodified. It's about degrees and also about identification. People who are politically engaged, will usually, in my experience, self-identify as left, right or centre. Or, they may self-identify with a party.

What makes things slightly tricky though, is that changes have occurred within the leadership of the major left party (Labour) which means that most of the grassroots members are much to the left of the leadership of the party. Blair was economically right-wing, not just by my party's standards but by the country's standards.

[DanaC]

Your last paragraph could be applied to any political group Left, Right, or Center.

Then perhaps I didn't explain myself well enough. There are certain values and assumptions which tend to co-exist amongst the left and not amongst the right, and vice versa.

[TheMercenary]

Dana, interesting, I would like to learn more about what the parties are and what they think in a general sense about government and they believe are the social responsibilities of government.

[DanaC]

*nods* at the moment we have a strange situation whereby the leadership of both the major political parties are effectively neo-liberal. Both have made a run for the centre ground and an attempt to attract a very specific section of the electorate. In doing so both have lost some of their core support. Trust has fallen within the electorate as people percieve (and they may be right) most politicians as saying what they need to say and what they can get away with saying and what plays well to focus groups.

To really see what a party thinks you need to talk to the activists who meet on winter evenings to run the branches, send delegates to conference, select candidates to stand for the elections, and canvass for those canddiates once selected, who stand for local roles and who push their party's core values.

It is relatively easy, when a party has been destabilised by many losses (such as the Labour party in the early 90s, and the Conservative party now) for a small number of people to sweep great changes through the system. Usually this is referred to as 'modernising'. New members join on the back of that modernisation programme and some old members leave. If the modernising faction have managed to get hold of the systems and mechanisms of the party, they can then usually dictate to a large extent what brand of activist gets in in the key seats.

Below all that is the main body of the party, usually these are people who hold their beliefs strongly and identify themselves with the party at a core level. They usually have quite different politics to the modernising faction :P