I’ve deliberately kept clear of the current abortion row for a few reasons – the main one being the difficulty of saying anything new & worthwhile about it. That’s not something that usually stays the hand of this blogger (or many of us if we’re honest) but abortion just strikes as something we should treat with a bit more caution and restraint. On the issue itself I’ll add only this – any genuine advances in medical science and foetal sentience have to be a factor in establishing the legal limit for abortion. The whiff of absolutism from some amounts to a de facto defence of partial-birth abortion which I personally have trouble with. I fully support a woman’s right to choose but if the admission of these factors into the discussion raises the difficult (and ‘fantastic’ in the literal sense) possibility of survival immediately post-conception then that’s a moral issue we must grapple with – it’s not an excuse to discount those facts.
The only other observation I had was around the treatment of Nadine Dorries. I haven’t followed every twist & turn, every post & comment thread on this so I stand ready to be corrected but – is it just me or is there an air of persecution about some of the attention her campaign is attracting? Persecution that might be rooted in the fact that her party has been doing well in the polls lately or she’s friends with a particularly high profile blogger?
I don’t know and I’m only asking the question – if accusations about the misuse of public funds or proxy campaigns for outright bans prove themselves then much of the criticism will be deserved. This just strikes me as one of those episodes when blogging might add more heat than light to the public discussion and that would be a shame on such an important topic.
11 Comments:
Well there is a campaign against her christian fundy campaign so maybe that's the reason and not your odd conspiracy theory?
>>> is it just me or is there an air of persecution about some of the attention her campaign is attracting? Persecution that might be rooted in the fact that her party has been doing well in the polls lately or she’s friends with a particularly high profile blogger?
Nope - you'll find that I've personally been at this for months and my primary motive is that she's by far the most egregious moron to have flounced into parliament in many a long year.
Oops, should say that if you prefer something more evidence-based then try this...
http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2008/05/13/margin-of-error/
And as for Iain, I suspect he's wisely decided to keep his head down which this works it way through - in fact, apart from Cranmer and ToryHome, the silence in the Tory blogosphere on her campaign is deafening at the moment.
I actually think that she's got so little credibility at the moment that most Tory bloggers find it too embarrassing to support her campaign.
In your case that's fair enough Unity - I'm not sure there isn't some sort of bandwagon effect in play here but as you point that doesn't mean everyone is on board. I as genuinely just asking the question...
As for most 'egregious moron' in the house, that's a strong field..!
I'm not sure there isn't some sort of bandwagon effect in play here
Name names. Give url sourced examples .
Any bandwagon that's rolling is likely to have started with the ill-feeling that Dorries generated from the false accusation against Ben Goldacre and her manner in which she pulled her comments facility rather than respond to legitimate calls for a retraction.
What I think is happening here is that because several bloggers; including me, Obsolete, DK, and Bookdrunk, have periodically taken the time to debunk her arguments, there's now a well established weight of counterargument and evidence to refute her claims, one that she's walked straight into due to the media coverage she's tried to attract.
My take on this is that this an example of blogging actually working and working well - people who're Googling for Dorries on the back of what's appearing in the MSM are getting pulled into the material that's already out her and getting to read the other side of the debate.
What happening at LibCon is that we're simply aggregating that information and giving people a digest to feed on in addition to acting on one or two things that have been the subject of a bit of blog chatter for months, like the issue over how she funds her site and the rules on politicking/ campaigning.
In that sense we've upped the stakes but otherwise she's had this coming for a good while and been dumb enough to walk right into it.
The persecution of the lady alternatively known as "Mad Nad" has been going on for a long time; not simply by pro-abortionists because they are opposed to her views, but because of the methods she uses to promote them. Smearing Ben Goldacre didn't do much good, and the naked appeals to emotion and complete ignorance of science don't help either.
To add to the history already alluded to. Nadine has put herself forward as the lead of the campaign, and her personal picture is in the banner on every page of the campaign website, it's her amendment.
I dislike unjustified ad hominem attacks, but just as I attack Brown's failures in Govt and "The Brown Govt" and feel that's legitimate, this is her campaign, led by her, promoted by her and fronted by her.
It's her who's spreading lies and disinformation, it's her who's decided to plaster her own picture all over the publicity, it was her who attacked Ben Goldacre for using published documents in a legitimate manner, it was her who wrote the "minority report" that started this whole sorry mess off.
The ball is being played as well, but when the player witht he ball is blatently cheating, well sometimes you need to play the player as well.
Oh this is good , Unity and assorted barmy feminist wimmin think that their stalking Nadine is unexpected and influential .It is of course neither , there have always been crazed female body worshippers prepared to take a baseball bat to a teenager in the cause of Fascistic Feminism , well in fact its more like a cult really . Note the utter lack of balance in everything they say . Note the up all night detail bulimia which is only the same people in a white coat .
They live in their own universe but for ordinary people it is firstly a moral and metaphysical question
Start here .
Three months is ample time to decide . Viability is nonsense my new twins would die tomorrow without me . Why not three months and if its inconvenient here and there suggest that people are like that but killing them is still wrong . Simple enough.
Why are we pussy footing around with this arbitrary and stupid 20weeks at all. Much better to respect life and be careful , its never going to be perfect and chopping up unborn babies is hardly a glorious cause .
Newmania demonstrates a disturbing lack of awareness of the predicament of the fibbing, factless, sentimental, knee jerkery epitomised by Dorries. This is not the only area of her "work" which has come under scrutiny over her fibbing. She has fibbed and fibbed again from day one, saying for example that she was born in a Council house and variants thereof. She was not.
Just go through her blog archives Liam. She is not a serious person. She spouts crap continuously.
Coming to this late, the reason Dorries has been highlighted is because she has repeatedly told lies about the issue.
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