Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Go for the man, never mind the ball

...or should that read, go for the balls, never mind the man. A lot of what is written on political blogs is about the personalities of the politicians. Yes, there is discussion and analysis of political issues, but often even that is defined in terms of individuals. So we either have 'Blairwatch' which frequently hits the spot, but often couches it in fairly meaningful insults about the personalities involved (I am not exempting myself from that, by the way) all the way through to Iain Dale, who writes a marvellously entertaining site, but mostly in the style of a newspaper gossip columnist. The one thing you can guarantee from most is that the personalities are discussed and described in an almost entirely sectarian style.... and the commentators do that even more.

So, that's why I found this piece so interesting. It's by a conservative, it's about personality, but it is thoughtful, and not simply sectarian.