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Week on the web
Andrew Alexander
Lib Dem blogging queen Lynne Featherstone poses an interesting question this week - why do her party's bloggers "provide the online equivalent of committee meetings and pizza and politics events - vital but inward looking"?
Talking of inward-looking, Lib Dem Voice has a series of posts assessing Nick Clegg's first 100 days as leader.
Martin Land gives him eight out of 10 and some high praise: "On the doorstep I've not had a single person ask me why we got rid of Charles Kennedy."
Peter Hoskin at the Spectator's Coffee House is less generous, suggesting that Clegg's anti-Westminster approach "comes across as him riding on David Cameron's coat-tails".
Refreshing, open, upbeat and idealistic are not adjectives that often need to be dusted down when talking about the blogosphere, but they all apply to Lords of the Blog, a new peers-only collaborative site.
"Parliament, encompassing both Houses, belongs to the people. They have voted and they pay for it. It surely is the responsibility of Parliament to create as many mechanisms as possible to facilitate the expression of all kinds of views", writes Baroness D'Souza. Long may she stay in such positive frame of mind.
The lords-a-leaping include Lord Soley, who talks about the genesis of the site on his old blog of a similar name.
Also worthy of note is the excellent blog by Baroness Scott, Because baronesses are people too.
She deserves a medal for revealing that there exists such a thing as the Tesco Aquatic Retrieval Unit.
Some interesting posts from Red Box - which continues to raise the bar for politics blogs at breakneck speed - including some Cameron bashing from Hazel Blears, who tells a tale of the Tory leader and the oregano-flavoured black pudding.
Shades of Mandelson and the guacamole here, so Cameron had better hope this one doesn't become political folklore.
Sam Coates also wonders about the implications of his own Times story which had many people scratching their heads this week - has Gordon Brown really given up on Ken?
Westmonster is dismissive. "We suspected the Times had fallen for BoJo, but we didn't know how far and how hard."
As Cassilis says, it's always interesting to see how other countries perceive your politicians, and he links to a Washington Post article which praises "the exceptional Iain Duncan Smith".
And finally, Daniel Hamilton at CentreRight says that Early Day Motions are a waste of money and should be abolished. His list of shame includes EDMs about the definition of a pint of beer, and the failure of Oyster card machines to recognise Scottish bank notes.
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Published: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:26:00 GMT+00
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