Originally Posted by iranu
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However, isn't it great, the internet, forums and the age of the blog has enabled us mere plebs a far faster, efficient way of distributing information and that discussion can be picked up very quickly and make mainstream news. Policticos take note.
Interesting point .... and oh so true. It doesn't seem to have dawned on Mr Clelland yet, though. The old adage about the problems old dogs have with new tricks comes to mind.
This is the internet age, Mr Clelland, and it isn't just those that have traditionally had the power and the platform to attract the attention of the press that can now get their word out. And this is a classic case in point. A few years ago, what chance would an 'ordinary' member of the public have had to hold an MP up to the glare of public gaze over this? None at all. But now, copies of letters can whizz their way round the country (or indeed, the world) in minutes, and something can go from being a private letter to a constituent to being an exposé of political arrogance echoed by numerous national papers in an afternoon. Who'da thunk it?
And for an MP that's a member of an already embattled party that's currently pretty much at the pits in the polls, is showing all the signs of ineffectual leadership, continuous u-turns, repeated scandals, resignation of cabinet members and the Scottish leader, moral bankruptcy and a dire lack of understanding of public concerns (whether it be 42 days, ID cards, the position over the Lisbon 'treaty', or what now, this afternoon, looks to be MPs burying their heads in the sand over public attitudes towards their snout-in-trough expenses) it's an amazing display of arrogance and complacency
from a public servant.
Moreover, it seems that "23 years" as an MP hasn't equipped him with sufficient life skills to have worked out the first rule of being in a hole - stop digging. Five minutes indeed!
You'd think he'd have worked out that if this story hit the media in a hurry yesterday, there was a more than decent chance that an unchecked and demonstrably incorrect statement of spin like that could backfire, and merely serve to keep the story alive, when otherwise it probably would have died.
Muppet.