Crisis, What Crisis? mdi-fullscreen
Matthew Taylor, Tony’s chief adviser on political strategy and the former IPPR head wonk is on his way out of Downing Street. By way of a farewell speech today he tells us he fears the internet could be fuelling a “crisis” in the relationship between politicians and voters.

“We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government”.

The über-arrogant wonk alleged to an audience of teenagers that people are incapable of self government. Is it any wonder we despise this regime and the way that it infantilises the voters.

“a conspiracy to maintain the population in a perpetual state of self-righteous rage… It seems to me this is something which is worth calling a crisis… The internet has immense potential but we face a real problem if the main way in which that potential expresses itself is through allowing citizens to participate in a shrill discourse of demands…


What is the big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years? It’s basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are.

The internet is being used as a tool of mobilisation, which is fantastic, but it only adds to the growing, incommensurate nature of the demands being made on government.”

The problem Taylor reckons is the online culture itself, rooted in libertarianism and “anti-establishment” attitudes. Since when has liberty been a problem?

Guido intends to be a thorn in the side of corrupt politicians for a long time. There is nothing the vermin can do about it, no media proprietor for them to brandish baubles to, no job you can offer, no bribe we will accept. They deserve everything they get, the crisis has been brought about by their lies. In an age where all can be journalists and information is freely available they have lost control of the media. That is their crisis and our victory.
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mdi-timer November 17 2006 @ 14:33 mdi-share-variant mdi-twitter mdi-facebook mdi-whatsapp mdi-telegram mdi-linkedin mdi-email mdi-printer
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