Come the Revolution!
The Blogosphere is fundamentally different from the Main Stream Media.
It is the aggregate mass of thousands of committed individuals, sitting in front of their computers, who wish to make their voices heard in the political dialogue which traditionally, only hears their voice during an election.
This is not a new phenomenon. It used to be called pamphleteering. Prynne, Bastwick and Burton were seventeenth century ‘bloggers’ who contributed to the downfall of the Stuart monarchy.
Modern historians place great weight on the pamphleteering that went on in the 1630’s. Then as now the established power first ignored, then repressed the clamour from the pamphleteers, they were unable to control the new ‘medium’.
In the end refusal to change or compromise brought down Charles I
Many bloggers are ‘experts’ in their field, carving a thousand new facets onto an issue; the Blogs can, and do, rapidly expose a lie by Government; Newspapers no longer campaign and are easily controlled by Government, through D notices, or a refusal of access to the corridors of power.
Bloggers are noisy, rumbustious, argumentative, anarchic, and autonomous. They don’t speak with the smooth, editorially controlled, legally sanctified, grammatically correct, voice of the National Newspapers, or the Television Stations.
They shout, from 25 million different electronic soap-boxes, of the injustices they perceive in their small corner of the global world. Unpaid, sometimes unheard, but, critically, electronically linked to each other.
That link is essential, for occasionally a story gains momentum, catches the group imagination and then builds up speed exponentially, amplifying the original lone voice to an almighty bellow.
So it was that when I wrote of Nick Hogan, the Manchester publican jailed for six months for being unable to pay the full £11,600 fine imposed on him when some of his customer’s defied the ‘no-smoking’ ban, it was read not only by my little band of readers, but by other bloggers linked to me.
A fellow blogger, Old Holborn, read my post and offered to arrange a collection point for donations via his own Blog. That blog post was, in turn, read by Guido Fawkes, who relayed it to his own million plus readers.
This was not a campaign conducted by the smoothly professional spin-meisters of the main political parties, or campaigning organisations, with stories carefully planted in friendly newspapers, written by highly trained professionals. There were no government ministers wheeled out to TV stations to tell the obliging public what they should think.
This was not the ‘Pro-Smoking’ lobby shouting, this was the authentic, raw voice of thousands of ordinary men and women who felt that the State had over-stepped the mark, and was making a political point by jailing this man.
The outrage I had felt at the injustice imposed on Nick Hogan was being amplified beyond my wildest imagination – Bloggers across the globe were putting their hand into their wallet and forwarding money to the ‘Free Nick Hogan’ fund.
I lost count of the number of e-mails I received telling me ‘I don’t mind the smoking ban myself, but this is wrong’. Or ‘this man has been jailed for refusing to act as an unpaid policeman for the State’.
Money came in from all over the world, the International Blogosphere had reacted in a truly heart warming way, outraged at the behaviour of the State.
On Wednesday we succeeded, and with the good wishes of thousands of ordinary men and women, equally battered by the recession, Nick Hogan is once more in the bosom of his family, able to support his wife Denise and their children.
Thank-you Blogosphere – and well done.
The fact that so many of you responded is a powerful message from the voting public that politicians would be well advised to heed. The Blogosphere will not be controlled by politicians, bound up in regulations, throttled by impenetrable legislation. It is not a single target that a ‘D’ notice can be fired at. We are not beholden to advertisers.
We are the authentic, unfiltered, voice of your electorate.
Very soon, we may be more than that. Today, Nick Hogan has phoned me and told me that he has accepted an invitation to stand for Parliament. I am delighted for him. I hope he is successful. Parliament needs men and women who know what it is to belong to the great mass of ordinary people – not career political aides promoted to candidacy, not union representatives looking for a national soapbox to shout from – from real human beings who have had to battle the effects of the recession, who know what bankruptcy really means, who know how hard it is to run a business when you are throttled with legislation, who know what it means to sit up at night doing the Vat returns, real people.
In the meantime, Russia’s main television channel is flying into Manchester to interview Nick Hogan as part of a special investigation* into the totalitarian regime that they see emerging in Europe – Oh! The irony! Post Perestroika Russia sees Britain as an oppressive regime! Was it only yesterday that we were lecturing them on Freedom?
For the British, it is not a physical wall such as that in Berlin that we need to pull down, but the psychological wall between the career politicians and the 60 million people that they seek to rule. They need our consent to do so.
Yesterday, Old Holborn was outside Westminster Magistrates court where four politicians, charged with false accounting, sought permission not to stand in the dock as common criminals, they were, so they believed, entitled to be treated differently from any other thief.
They just don’t get it.
My politics are not Nick’s; he knows that, we can politely agree to disagree. Until the day arrives when Libertarians are sufficient in number to field national candidates, I shall be delighted to settle for helping a real human being to enter parliament, it is what this country needs – even if I can’t vote for him.
You can expect a blog post next week from Nick explaining his political beliefs – and some more from politicians of a different hue. These are interesting times ahead.
*The video will be available here – just as soon as someone with the capability to put the English translation which I shall have, onto a video, and upload it to Youtube – any offers? Way beyond my technical ability. My e-mail address is on the contact page.
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1
March 12, 2010 at 12:50 -
Bravo!
Truly ironic the Russians are interested in reporting on our totalitarian regime. -
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March 12, 2010 at 13:06 -
I have been stunned by the response. It made my heart leap when we reached the total needed to free Nick, and it gave me unparalled joy to see him stood outside the gaol talking to the press.
Am I deluding myself that an important corner was turned? Something happened, something which I am at a loss to put into words. But something definitely changed.
I think it was a feeling of cohesion, or a sense of belonging to something good.
If it was the beginning of a revolution I think we should mark it well. People will ask where it began.
CR.
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3
March 12, 2010 at 13:08 -
Typo alert-unparallelled.
(Tricky word, that one).
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March 12, 2010 at 13:10 -
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March 12, 2010 at 13:15 -
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March 12, 2010 at 13:15 -
Not so much revolution, as evolution I would suggest – t’Interweb may have its problems, but this just goes to show what a powerful and valuable tool it is, when used for the right reasons. As one of your token liberal pinkos, I’m probably at the opposite end of the political spectrum to many of your visitors, but when faced with such an immoral abuse of the legal system, in order to suppress dissent, political differences go out of the window – no wonder our Russian friends are showing an interest, as it must be like deja-vu to them, all over again.
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March 12, 2010 at 13:24 -
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March 12, 2010 at 13:26 -
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March 12, 2010 at 13:35 -
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March 12, 2010 at 13:37 -
I’ve used the pamphleteer comparison a few times with friends who weren’t aware of what a blog is. Many have since become general blog fans.
And how damning is it that Russia are peering into our increasingly dictatorial goldfish bowl and feeling glad that it is they who are on the outside this time. A complete role reversal in little more than a generation.
Our politicians have a hell of a lot to answer for.
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11
March 12, 2010 at 14:17 -
Regarding the video, apart from the fact I don’t speak Russian, I can quite easily do the rest for you. If I know what they’re saying, I can easily add subtitles.
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12
March 12, 2010 at 14:18 -
Bloggo ergo sum. You are right about the 17th Century, a good many pamphlets are found in the Thomason Papers in the British Library. It is fascinating where some of the new ideas put forward at the time got to. One guy, a toothless (literally) busted Archbishop, James Ussher had this idea he could fix the age of the world by back calculating genealogies and life times in the Bible. Who would believe him now?
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13
March 12, 2010 at 14:24 -
@Demetrious
Most of the born again Christian movement, especially in the USA,
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14
March 12, 2010 at 14:31 -
What a blog entry. WOW
My Blog is small fry compared to yours and others, but I started to blog because I was so angry and upset about what was happening to my country.
I just wanted to write it down my feelings about what was happening, I didn’t really care if anyone read my blogs when I started, but when I saw other bloggers out there and read their blogs I didn’t feel that I was alone in what I was feeling.
I have learnt more about what is going on in the UK reading the blogs than I have reading the MSM.
Thank you Anna and the rest of the bloggers out there for being so informative and for going after the truth, that sometimes is hard to find.
I hope it is ok if I copy this blog onto mine. I will link it to you.
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March 12, 2010 at 14:56 -
Anna, the story was in the print edition of the Daily Mail yesterday.
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March 12, 2010 at 14:56 -
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March 12, 2010 at 14:59 -
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March 12, 2010 at 15:49 -
I thank you,and all the other blogers,that you have given us a light on the horizon,i like many Ex-pats living around Europe and the world have been
watching with sadness,and disbelief at what has happened to our COUNTRY
even if we live in foreign lands, the blogs have kept us informed
perhaps we get a better picture sometimes being on the outside looking in i do not know,but all the worlds press can not be bought i hope?
i think many of us would come back if things changed,because some of us are home sick. Thank you all for keeping us informed. -
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March 12, 2010 at 15:56 -
If Ms Smudd couldn’t uncover it, then it wasn’t there to be uncovered in the first place. She could uncover an undercover in an undercover factory, whilst working undercover as an undercover, undercoverer uncoverer!
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20
March 12, 2010 at 15:59 -
There’s one for the undercover apostrophe and grammar police.
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21
March 12, 2010 at 16:06 -
He’s going to have a problem standing as an MP, as undischarged bankrupts are disqualified as candidates.
Not a criticism of him, just an observation.
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22
March 12, 2010 at 16:09 -
You have sub-editors Anna? Lucky woman.
Anyway Anna, want me to ‘advertise’ for a Russian/English translator? I’d be happy to do so but first I must restock my larder or accusations of starvation will be flowing fast.
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March 12, 2010 at 16:40 -
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March 12, 2010 at 17:39 -
I do fear, Anna, that we are slowly on the way out. Two tier blogging, the copyright portal to control and so on.
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March 12, 2010 at 17:52 -
Apostrophe….? Any one lost an apostrophe…? Just found this .. ‘
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March 12, 2010 at 18:12 -
Ahem! ‘Scuse me, but I did find the piece in the paper-foldy Daily Mail yesterday and told Mme Raccoon! No mention of Anna Raccoon in yesterday’s print version, only OH.
Ah well, so I only uncovered something which wasn’t uncovered until it was later uncovered. Pah. Such is life. I’m off for some expert apostrophe work…… and a packet of custard creams.
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March 12, 2010 at 18:13 -
Re the Daily Mail (print) article, I’ve scanned and uploaded it here:
http://i42.tinypic.com/2z9d63l.jpg -
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March 12, 2010 at 18:21 -
That’s the one. Page 5. No mention of Anna Raccoon’s blog which started it all.
Only sayin’, like.
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March 12, 2010 at 18:21 -
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March 12, 2010 at 18:22 -
The Daily Fail article make no mention that Mr Hogan was bankrupt and could not pay the draconian fine.
Or, have I made some mistake somewhere?
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31
March 12, 2010 at 18:23 -
Comma, Comma, Comma, Comma, Comma Chameleon….
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32
March 12, 2010 at 18:25 -
B(tP) – nope. The piece is probably penned by someone called Arfur Storey…
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33
March 12, 2010 at 18:29 -
Anna, you have been outed and your glorious pastimes.
“Anna is liberal and open-minded but politically she supports The Labour Party, for all its sins.”
“Anna is liberal and open-minded but politically she supports The Labour Party, for all its sins.”
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34
March 12, 2010 at 18:30 -
Anna, you have been outed and all your glorious pastimes
“Anna is liberal and open-minded but politically she supports The Labour Party, for all its sins.”
http://www.lettersfromatory.com/2010/03/12/quote-of-the-day-543/
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35
March 12, 2010 at 18:31 -
Sorry about the double post
Sorry about the double post
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March 12, 2010 at 18:49 -
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March 12, 2010 at 18:50 -
I took a walk around my neighbourhood yesterday, terrorist spotting.
I identified about 25 suspects, of course these would be the stupid terrorists that don’t open their curtains before noon.
There were untold numbers of clever terrorist suspects that had deviously got up early in the morning to open their curtains and give the impression of innocence, sneaky bastids.
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March 12, 2010 at 19:00 -
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March 12, 2010 at 19:09 -
Anna,
You and OH did a great job, I am very happy all worked out for the better in the end with Nick Hogan finally getting home.
Hopefully the Blogosphere will keep writing about it, and get Nick Hogan’s story and a debate on repealling the smoking ban into mainstream debate.
Well Done
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March 12, 2010 at 19:44 -
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March 12, 2010 at 20:04 -
It warms the cockles of yer ‘eart, so it does.
The power of the blogosphere!
I’m only sorry I could barely touch the Hogan story, I’ve been up to my eyes digging for the truth about Purcell.
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42
March 12, 2010 at 21:29 -
Here is a quick lesson on the use of apostrophes…
Two kittens, one dish: Gloria put food into the kittens’ dish.
One kitten, one dish: Gloria put food into the kitten’s dish.
Two kittens, two dishes: Gloria put food into the kittens’ dishes. -
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March 12, 2010 at 21:42 -
Who’s doing the dishes?
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44
March 12, 2010 at 21:52 -
Mrs Scrubbit, of course. Doesn’t Mrs Scrubbit always do the kittens’ dishes? (two kittens, two dishes .. see? easy!) Mrs Scrubbit also does the kittens’ dish. (two kittens, one dish). Mrs Scrubbit routinely cleans the kitten’s dish (one kitten, one dish) as well as the kittens’ dish (two kittens, one dish). It’s so easy I could laugh myself into a giddy spin and trip over the kittens’ dishes…… now, how many kittens and how many dishes????
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45
March 12, 2010 at 21:59 -
How about a sack and a house brick?
(Sorry, honestly)
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March 13, 2010 at 04:48 -
Excellent post, Anna, I’m delighted that Nick is out and in such a short time, too. You and OH did a brilliant job of organising it all – well done.
I just posted Guido’s video of Nick’s release – Labour should be very worried, methinks, seeing as how the blogosphere campaign raised double the amount of money in four days that it takes ASH and that sour-faced old bag, Arnott, to scrape together in a whole year!
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