Comments on: Our slavery has been exchanged for an apprenticeship to liberty

By: Nadia

Nadia — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:23:57 +0000

Nadia…

Your site looks great! I have seen many other so-called sites and they have been far from good quality.Your site has all the key ingredients to pulling in visitors….

By: Mike Power

Mike Power — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:22:15 +0000

“The very, very last thing blogs should be is like tabloid newspaper articles”

You are, of course, perfectly entitled to your views -shared by Sunny and Unity to name but two – but perhaps you would explain WHY exactly? After all, as Unity says above: What’s even more frustrating, however, is when one finds a blogger who chooses the tabloid style precisely because they cannot back up their opinions with argument.

What is wrong with this, for instance?:

As naturally suspicious character myself, I am naturally suspicious of Gordon Brown. What is he up to with this Bill of Rights of his?

After all those years with the Treasury, it is not in Gordon’s nature to give anything away, as it might be rights, without grabbing something back in return. The full title of his Bill of Rights, should it ever happen, is the Bill of Rights and Duties.

The American Bill of Rights, from which Gordon snitched the idea, says nothing about the citizen’s duty to the state. It is entirely about the state’s duty to the citizen. Their Bill of Rights consists of a series of amendments to the Constitution (we don’t yet have one of those – Gordon is still thinking about it). The First Amendment, for instance, guarantees free speech; the second, the right to bear arms. The Fourth Amendment declares that the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.

Gordon, by way of a footnote to his Bill of Rights and Duties, proposes to double to 56 days the time a suspect may be held without charge, and to continue to undermine civil liberties in general. Duties? What these will boil down to is a blathering pseudopatriotic rant aimed at immigrants. I refer them to America’s eighth amendment – the one about cruel and unusual punishments.

Keith Waterhouse in that dreaded tabloid, The Daily Mail.

When there are bloggers that have achieved a tenth of what Waterhouse has managed in his long career I’ll pay them close attention, until then – my advice is – practice, practice, practice.

By: septicisle

septicisle — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:03:49 +0000

The very, very last thing blogs should be is like tabloid newspaper articles, but the popularity of Guido and Iain Dale shows that there’s more than a market for it, much like the tabloids themselves.

By: Sunny Hundal

Sunny Hundal — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:48:30 +0000

Well, we have lots of bloggers here with different styles. There’s no reason why everyone should be the same.

By: Unity

Unity — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:05:00 +0000

Blogs should be whatever their authors want to make of them.

As Mike said no one is compelled to read anything and people will read what interests them and what’s suits their tastes – personally I prefer arguments to be backed up with evidence and find the tabloid approach too often frustrating as very few bloggers write well enough in such a style to back up their opinions with cogent argument.

What’s even more frustrating, however, is when one finds a blogger who chooses the tabloid style precisely because they cannot back up their opinions with argument.

By: Matt Munro

Matt Munro — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:30:37 +0000

Blogs should be like tabloid newspaper articles, short, immediate and punchy, with links to more detail for the really interested. Most people only skim read because long articles are tedious to read on screen, especially if you’re “at work” and have to switch screens occasionally.

By: Mike Power

Mike Power — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:32:36 +0000

I’m someone who has complained about Unity’s long windedness in the past (as well as praising some good work he has produced, to be fair) and nobody is forced to read him. But what is interesting is that of the six comments here (seven including this one) only one – Bob Piper – relates to the actual content of the piece. Clearly, if it is a case of noyer le poisson it isn’t confined to Mr/Ms ADH Dee.

By: Gene

Gene — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:36:56 +0000

Somebody is desperately trying to noyer le poisson. I wonder why.

By: septicisle

septicisle — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:00:15 +0000

I would have thought everyone knows that Unity tends to write long posts.

By: A.D.H.Dee

A.D.H.Dee — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:50:49 +0000

Tsch. I didn’t.

I prefer bloggers who treat their readers as people capable of following a link if they need to expand their understanding of the subject rather than having half of Wikipedia cut and pasted for them on a blog post. It’s a blog not an arm of the Open University. It’s also mostly a self indulgent waste of time because (as almost every study of reader behaviour demonstrates) – INSERT LONG EXTRACT HERE – most readers have given up and moved on long before they reach the end. And if they ain’t reading it you may as well not bother typing it

By: sanbikinoraion

sanbikinoraion — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:16:12 +0000

Tsch. Don’t read it if you can’t be bothered. I applaud Unity’s breaking the mould of traditional blogging in order to bring well-thought out, long pieces to the masses. Long may it continue.

By: Bob Piper

Bob Piper — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:06:34 +0000

The People’s Charter…. Who could argue with that…..

Errm, women, I would have thought. Good article though Unity.

By: A.D.H.Dee

A.D.H.Dee — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:59:40 +0000

Is this Liberal Democracy or Wikipedia?!
Less is more, old boy, less is more