And the taking the kids hostage is an old Alan Partridge gag.

If you’ve got my daughter I wish you luck, mate.

The size of the Paul Staines commentariat is no indication of libertarian popularity, just a reflection of how many socially disaffected and disconnected right wingers there are.

Alas, I rate the opinion of #welovetheNHS Twitterers with the same value as the people who signed the Downing Street petition against motoring speed cameras. And the Twitterers would have much preferred to acknowledge #HannanIsA****, had Twitter permitted the tag.

It is easy to get a gut reaction against something (eg Hannan) and much more difficult to get people to do something positive. How do you get the thousands of people who love the NHS involved in anything? Do you reckon anyone joined a trade union as a result of the Twitterfest? Come on, we are in the media silly season with little serious politics in the news, and people need something to get upset about. We’ll have forgotten about this in eight months.

Then, of course, it will be a good time to resurrect the Hannan interview to remind the good voters about how awful the Tories still are.

No, I’m waiting outside your house with an air rifle and I’ve taken your kids hostage.

Agreed – http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23welovetheNHS is one of them.

OK point taken- perhaps a little over rhetorical ! ! !

But if you doubt that a lot of real people get very angry indeed about being told how to live their lives by a bunch of self-promoting, self-serving dickheads there are a few websites you need to read.

DHG

Are you wearing a short skirt and waving some pompoms?

Oh I don’t disagree, but this online chatter certainly has an impact on the national media. My point is only that the chatter was earlier dominated by right-wingers and now some balance has been restored.

May I humbly suggest it might be more productive for them to gain a sense of fucking perspective?

FR is amusingly right about libertarians of course but the net is the obvious and natural place for libertarian thought to develop. It is a response to the growth of the orthodoxy of the state and the political system that supports it- it is a reaction to the well meant authoritarianism we have endured for the last twelve years.

Libertarianism will always be a minority creed (the politicians pander to the majority preference for security over individual liberty) so the most that can be hoped for is that libertarian thought and protest can in some way influence those who aspire to rule us.

Until then, it makes some people feel better about their enslavement to know that there are others who have the courage to suggest revolt, even if it’s only virtual revolt.

Your comment has the rare distinction of being funny, vivid and right. My only question:

Is the internet therefore quite a useful care-in-the-community echo chamber for the libertarian wingnuts? i.e. keeping them feeling powerful but actually dooming them to irrelevance, a bit like the US academic left in the 80s?

Or could they still use their dominance online (and seven out of ten people I encounter even on labour or liberal sites are libertarian loons) to eventually activate a larger base, just like the left blogosphere did during the Obama campaign?