I was quite interested by an exchange on 18DS last night between Phil Hendren (Dizzy Thinks) blog and presenter Iain Dale (Iain Dale's Diary) blog. Someone had emailed in and asked what Phil Hendren's blog was about. Iain Dale gave him 30 seconds to give his sales pitch. Several valuable seconds were wasted as Phil Hendren appeared to be rendered speechless by the simple question, and he had to think about it. Pregnant pause over, he must have thought he was Harold Pinter writing a play, when all that was required was for him to depress the mental play button and put his brain into gear. It was hardly a great advert for Dizzy Thinks. Desperately, he offered "opinionated arrogance". Duh! That's the header on your blog stupid! He might have been better stating politics and government. In any event, the exchange which got my attention most was that both Phil Hendren and Iain Dale were claiming the crown for being the most arrogant. Hardly a title which I would fight either of them for, because it is not the most flattering of labels I can think of. Iain Dale already has the titles of being a liar and a hypocrite to contend with, perhaps we should leave the pretender to the throne with the arrogant title?
Even imbeciles think, so I won't go as far as saying Phil Hendren (Dizzy Thinks) doesn't think. However, I do believe that his thinking skills are being overrated in the blogosphere. I say this because Phil Hendren gave the game away last night by stating how he cobbles his posts together. Some analogies spring to mind, he is like a vulture hovering overhead and swooping down to pick over a carcass to see what others have left. A parasite bloodsucking away at a story. One of his sources is Hansard, another is the BBC.
Ironically, Steve Richards (The Independent) also a guest on Vox Politix and a former employee at the BBC, described how the BBC News at Ten team scoured the leaders of the mainstream media and blogs like Iain Dale's and Dizzy Thinks for its stories to feature. They all seem to feed off each other. Whilst Iain Dale stated that in his opinion Dizzy Thinks is a rising star, Julian Glover (The Guardian) opined that Guido had now become a spent force.
When the programme dipped a bit, I popped off to watch Question Time where four out of the five panelists happened to be ex-Grammar school wallahs. And, of course, the should there be more grammar schools question came up. The Tory MP Caroline Spellman made a complete hash of putting forward David Cameron's argument, luckily for her that Roy Hattersley came and bailed her out and gained the applause from the audience. Iain Dale, who is basically a gossip columnist akin to Marjorie Proops, wanted to stoke the fires a bit on this issue but bottled out. Given that David Cameron, in effect, sacked Graham Brady this is probably a wise move. Iain Dale likes to see himself as a mover and shaker within the Tory Party. Recently, there has been quite a few Tory bloggers speaking out which way the Tory Party should be going. It may be that this will lessen now that the Tory Party has appointed its own media person Andy Coulson to move and shake things. I seem to recall Margaret Thatcher once saying words to the effect that that there is no society but a collection of individuals. This reminds me of the Tory Party. It's not a party at all, but a collection of self-serving individuals. We will just have to see if David Cameron (not ex-grammar school) is up shit creek without a paddle on this one.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
4 comments:
I don't know Phil Hendren personally but I suspect he needs some media training. When questioned by Iain Dale or anyone else, one must stay on focus and deliver one's rehearsed 10, 20 0r 60 seconder.(sometimes called an elevator speech.
Jeremy: I think in this case the elevator was going down. I remember seeing you on 18DS. I thought that you looked older than the photo here and I expected the same smiling performance. However, you came across as serious faced. I recall that you appeared cool, calm and collected, and very professional. Perhaps, you could sign him up for a few one to ones?
dizzy is a strange character. He strives hard to be arrogant and frequently achieves it, but he was one of those Tories who refused to join in the stupid attacks over the Cameron image and privately was very supportive.
Bob that Cameron image was a storm in a tea cup. Much ado about nothing. It is good to hear that Dizzy has got some redeeming features. There's hope for him yet.
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