President Ahmadinejad has not got a reputation as the most liberal world leader, in fact Iran tries to censor the internet by blocking access to foreign websites.

But his own very public blog allows comments from unregistered users, which means that like on this blog you get the mob making comments. He has comment moderation but it is (as here) pretty liberal. John Jacobs from the USA tells Mahmoud “I hate you. You are retarted. That simple, mentally retarted”. More intelligently another American posts a comment “I think you are an evil leader. Freedom and tolerance are necessities in this day and age, and the fact that your country kills intellectuals, journalists, minorities, etc. is horrible and deeply disturbing. People say America is so horrible, but you can live in whatever fashion you want to, and if the government does something you dont like then we can protest. Our government is great because it is of the people, for the people and by the people. Change your ways.”

In contrast as an experiment (after discovering that they were using payroll astro-turfers) Guido has been joining Downing Street Ministerial webchats on and off for months and posting polite pointed but critical questions to the likes of Ed Balls and other ministers. Not once has a single question got through, yet Guido can post critical comments on the Iranian president’s blog freely.