Who is ‘responsible’ for what and when it comes to leaking emails written by others? I previously jotted down some thoughts on this here, picking up some contrarian arguments from Brian Barder. On his site the subject has rumbled on, with various readers baffled (as am I) by his argument […]
Assorted Crawfs are having a few days away from it all in the Algarve: The Algarve. Think of the Algarve and you think of sunshine breaks and relaxing holidays. You imagine golden beaches on the coast of calm sea waters, sun-kissed tourists relaxing and sampling the delights that this wonderful […]
When I saw the Prime Minister’s letter to Sir Gus O’Donnell about the McBride affair I at first thought it was a spoof as it was so oddly drafted. But it turns out to be real. What’s odd about it from a literary and substantive point of view? Various things. […]
Wrinkled Weasel has been sharing some interesting ideas with me on the value or not of blogging as a propaganda tool. He argues that blogging lacks ‘semiotic subtlety/stability’: Unless you state your case unequivocally, the point tends to get missed. If one were to attempt a propaganda blog, the writer […]
Former Ambassador Brian Barder has been trying to crank up the argument that Guido has to carry a sizeable share of the blame for spreading the odious contents of the McBride emails: … virtually all the smear stories sent privately as possible blog material by McBride to Draper are now […]
Here is another fine site looking at English words (HT Ken Buxton) – where they come from and where they are going: World Wide Words. What should you say? He weaved his way through the traffic Or he wove his way through the traffic? The answer and an elegant explanation […]
Ever-alert reader Ken Buxton picks up my posting about dying expressions and points us all to this excellent site about Eggcorns, words and phrases whose use is mutating mainly but not only through ignorance: In September 2003, Mark Liberman reported (Egg corns: folk etymology, malapropism, mondegreen, ???) an incorrect yet particularly […]
What exactly was wrong with apartheid? At root the act of defining people in arbitrary phoney ‘racial’ categories then allocating them special territories accordingly (‘homelands’). Just as happens in some bookshops these days (HT Ed Driscoll): What a great idea! Putting all the novels about black people in a single […]
Michael White at the Guardian broods on the what the headline over his piece terms "… the rightwing dominance of political blogosphere". Thus: If I understand the situation correctly, McBride got mixed up with Labour blogger and psychotherapist, Derek Draper – not always a wise move – in trying to […]
Take this story leading in the Telegraph this morning: Downing Street is at the centre of a fresh security scare after it emerged that private emails written by one of Gordon Brown’s senior officials had ended up in the hands of one of Britain’s most controversial political bloggers. The emails, […]
