Dr Ben Goldacre
One of the recurring themes of this blog is the way that weblogs are (as Charlie Beckett put it in that book review that I pointed to the other day), reconfiguring journalism and political discourse.
The most prominent examples of this in the UK have been the war of attrition that right-wing libertarian bloggers have conducted against politicians and the very idea that government should tax (“steal from”) people and spend (“burn”) their money.With raw material from the Taxpayers Alliance, a cornucopia of sites have blossomed attacking the symptoms of ‘big government’ while rarely actually making the case for the kind of minarchy that is implied by their position.
The end result has been – it is no exageration to say – the near-total demoralisaton of the political class with MPs openly saying that they hate their job and that their families are begging them to take a job stacking shelves in the local supermarket rather than having to put up with the hyper-scrutiny that they appear to be under at the moment.
On the other side of the fence, though, we’re seeing the institutions that compete with a more left-libertarian notion of democracy being taken to peices by rationalist bloggers. Great oak trees from little acorns grow, and it you don’t like the sight of an organisation being taken apart because of it’s attempts to surpress debate, then don’t go and look at this article now.
Those of us that are rather keen on representative democracy may have a happy couple of years to look forward to, watching all of the organisations that rival elected politicians getting their comeuppance.
A blog about representative democracy, social media and a conversational politics. How will peer-to-peer communications change local democracy? How is representation changing? 
You’re completely overestimating the influence of bloggers, right- or left-wing. Less than 1% of the population have even heard of the blogs in question, and those that do read them do so only to confirm their existing prejudices.
Paul, you blame bloggers for the demoralisation of the political classes. I thought it was old media – The Telegraph – which lead the campaign against MP’s expenses. I discussed this at the height of the Telegraphs campaign with Andrew Dismore MP. Sure he was demoralised by the experience, enough to later advise Tory PPC for Battersea, Jane Ellison to make sure she really wanted this, before standing. Andrew Dismore didn’t blame the bloggers. He blamed people who used the media for their own ends (in this case the owners of the Telegraph).
You should have a chat with Andrew and ask him who he blames. If it really is as bad as you claim, why are there no shortage of candidates to be MP’s?
oh, by the way thanks for link to Ben Goldacre article, as with most of Bens articles, top notch.
“the near-total demoralisaton of the political class with MPs openly saying that they hate their job”
Still more for me to do. Won’t be satisfied with less than total demoralisation.