In his bizarre attempt to become the blogosphere's Mr Popular, Derek Draper's latest wheeze is to "follow" every single one of my Twitter followers. Some might consider this to breach Twitter's own rules.
While I have been out this afternoon I have been deluged with Twitters or emails from people asking me why Derek Draper is following them - and telling me that the only way he can have got their details is from my own Twitter page. What's he up to? Is he setting up a Dale-Twitter monitoring unit, staffed by dozens of little Dollies? If not, he is going to lead a very sad life following the Twitters of 1,900 people. Or perhaps he's just Dolly No Mates. Can't think why.
Draper emailed me this afternoon suggesting that I should write a guest post on his site, and then he should be allowed to write a guest post on here. As they say in the internet world, LMAO*. It is clear that this whole spat is designed to increase traffic to his site. I'm not playing.
Draper has done more to damage the reputation of an open new media in three weeks than anyone else I can think of - and believe me there is some stiff competition. He hasn't got a clue what he is doing and it shows. I know it, you know it, and furthermore just about every other blogger on the left knows it. I'm not interacting with him any further.
I've just blocked him from following my Twitter feed and have removed him from my own list of feeds to follow. Up to you whether you follow suit. I'm not playing his stupid games any longer. If I want to play with prats, there are plenty of others to choose from.
* Laugh My Arse Off
Links: Prodicus, Stephen Glenn gives Draper some advice on blog etiquette. The Yorksher Gob has an eloquent take on this (even if she does call me an egregious Tory Tosser!)
UPDATE: Here's the email I have just send to Draper.
Derek,
I’m afraid it is you who have made a very big mistake. You don’t realize it now. But you will. I genuinely thought you would do well in this medium. Unfortunately you have contaminated it. I don’t interact with people who do what you have done. It’s you who owes me the apology. Not the other way around. But we can both whistle for it.
I hope you can live with yourself, because so far as I can see you have learned precious little from your previous forays into the world of politics. All you’re interested in is playing dirty. That’s not how I do business. And if you continue to behave in this manner your new media career will be as short lived as your lobbying one. And with the same result.
Iain
126 comments:
I'd wondered why he'd started to follow me. I briefly 'followed' him, but when I saw that his first page of twitters had five separate snide remarks about you and three about Jeremy Clarkson, I realized how sad it all was, sent him a message to "get out more" and blocked him.
Jeez....
With regards to the accident:
Depends on the nature of the prang! If somebody else was moving forward or reversing you maybe not at fault or 50/50 to blame. If you drove into anything stationery or a wall then I am afraid you are to blame.
If it was the former then drop me an e-mail! Otherwise I am afraid yu are likely to cop it! If it was the latter I nearly came a croper the other day but thought about it and managed "just" to get out of a claim by inches!
Yeah, I got an e-mail and don't twitter - how odd. And some referendum dude also.
He started following me earlier today, despite a typical tweet of mine being "I spilt hot chocolate on myself". This draper is a strange little man.
Noooooo! Keep him going as long as possible!
The more that people associate him and his risibly amateur and jejune efforts at doing Web 2.0 with the official Labour Party the better.
The entire Labour communications team must cringe every time Dolly has another 'bright idea'; he's doing more harm to Labour's image than the whole of CCHQ.
In fact, if Dolly sets up a Paypal button on LabourListingToPort I'll contribute just to keep him going.
Well to my knoewedge he does not follow me!
My blogs are cutting edge against Brown - so he is missing something!!!
He was adding them at super-speed. As soon as I was added, I thought to check how many he was following, and realised immediately what he'd done.
On the positive side, I found @kmkywap, which has caused a few titters.
I think it's time for Derek Draper to send himself to see a good psychotherapist. Does anyone know of any?
A few of us have been wondering what was going on. Donal, Curly, Martine Martin and myself were added. We though it was strange. The man is pathetic. Most of us have major differences with John Prescott, but he is going about blogging in the right way. I wish him luck, but Draper...
Wondered the same things myself - especially getting the followed email and looking at the contents of his feed.
I assume his strategy is to provoke and stir things up to capitalise anything he can find. As his rant at the TPA demonstrates.
As you say he's out of credit and will be blocked.
This explains a lot - the world's first 'Twatterer'
//I've just blocked him from following my Twitter feed and have removed him from my own list of feeds to follow.//
Bitter much? Your readers of course will remember you railing against Derek blocking you from following him previously, right? LMFAO.*
*Laugh my...work it out yourself!
Oh thank christ for that!
I only started tweeting a week ago and every tweet of mine till now has been trivial rubbish. (I really wouldn't bother, honestly.)
Nevertheless, the estimable Steve Green of Daily Ref. started following me... immediately. Apparently. Likewise James Cleverly. Yes, the famous one.
No, no, no. Both of these are unlikely in the extreme, since I am the very least, the most negligible, of all the Tory blogosphere, and I assure you that this is not false modesty. (I have much to be modest about.)
I have a bad feeling in my data security/Twitter hi-jack bone about this.
Any date-capture types care to offer a view?
Labourparty, utter prat. It was Tom Watson that blocked me, not Draper.
lmao . . .he started following me this afternoon, and I know of at least 2 other people that have become inflicted by the Draper curse. I also noticed that he did very little this afternoon than lurk around Twitter mischief making!!
He's a Hoon, and that's for sure.
I'd just signed up and added you today...not sure what the idiot thinks he's doing other than irritating and confusing people.
Brown has sentenced us all to the economic grave!
Labour Labour Labour - Out Out Out!
"What's he up to? Is he setting up a Dale-Twitter monitoring unit, staffed by dozens of little Dollies?"
Well, he might as well. He oesn't have anything else to do with is time, does he...?
Interesting - he's de-followed first, which means he can't be blocked. I assume he trying to avoid the rejection. ( Maybe there are some anti spam implications to getting blocked too often ).
Oh, and seconding Raedwald - Dolly is a godsend for any party that isn't his.. ;)
Yeah, I wondered why he started following me earlier today. He must have some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder to want to follow everyone like that.
Another theory is that he's just because another twitter sham artist. I noticed after I joined that about 10 people started following me; but looking at most of their profiles they were clearly just seeking to promote websites on their own twitters by hoping people would reciprocate.
LabourParty said: "a load of shite."
Can you tell us how many mobile phones Gordon has managed to destroy since Clarkson revealed what most of the nation really thinks of him?
Old Holborn is gonna love this...
Despite being (in error) listed as a Conservative blog on Politics Home, I'm using Twitter to tell folks about the latest adventures of my mutt and my attempts to book a ticket paris to marseilles- if Derek thinks that's interesting stuff for the NuLabour NUMedia Rapid Response Unit to follow then who am I to argue? He's not really got it though has he?
Can you tell us how many mobile phones Gordon has managed to destroy since Clarkson revealed what most of the nation really thinks of him?
----------------------
I have one of his phones on my place!
Draper is a TWIT!
Interesting that the mass following on Twitter that Draper has been doing is on his personal Twitter account (he has followed the maximum number of people allowed now which is 2000) and not the actual LabourList account. He is obviously far more interested in self promotion than promoting his so called 'blog'. He so desperately wants to be the story. He is becoming a terrible embarrassment to Labour (again) and the sooner they cut him off, the better for everyone.
Some of us said from the start not to play ball with that man & to not give him any credit!
Iain!
You're way too generous to the enemy, you seem to think that they will play fair, they won’t, you know it and I know it.
The more it becomes obvious to Labour they are finished the more vicious I believe they will be to you for starters.
The same goes for the other bloggers on the left you give credit to, they will stab you in the back as quick as wink.
Blimey!
If I was your Mum I’d be worried you, sometimes ;o)
Did you see this gooogle search I did for Drapers site? :o)
Here! Have a gooogle search for yourself, I think you might save that result!
A bit off topic but I am watching QI right now - even though it has the odious Brand on it.
But quite shockingly they are making fun of people with false hands. Just as well its not gollywog with false hands - but in fact it was Abu Hamza, so they were half way there.
Sadly I cannot wage the energy to complain, and to be honest I cannot see too many people with hooks for fingers rushing to email the BBC either.
Draper, is this YOU.
Iain! just ignore him, stop talking about him and block him, you're still making noises about him which is still a iota of publicity, bad!
Personal emails that you exchanged regarding the "Thatcher" fiasco are published on his site too.
I challenged him directly with the same charge on Wednesday over the Thatcher thing here:
"Derek - this strikes me as an embarrassingly transparent effort to generate some controversy & comment around a very minor of issue. The sort of thing you might expect from a boy-blogger anxious to up the hit rate and score a few links"
and later in the same thread..
"Iain attracts all manner of trolls hoping to prod, provoke or pester him because a response is sure to help their traffic – I’d imagine Labourlist has aspirations beyond that."
Derek didn't respond but one of the Labourlist writers Tom Miller did with a fairly straightforward admission - he said Derek feels:
"the need to challenge the internet hegemony of people like ID"
The fool is still twittering, and now 8 of his 20 latest comments contain your name.
I reckon he fancies you....
I wondered why I'd suddenly peaked his interest.
Lovely post about you being an apologist for racists posted out on Twitter earlier... :o/
Iain,
I'm with YMT. Just send Draper and Labourlist to Coventry permanently. It's abundantly clear that nothing positive will ever come from having anything to do with the idiot.
Like others here, imagine my shock when Dolly started following my Twitter.
Naturally I immediately grabbed the opportunity to remind him of something he said in September 2007...
@derekdraper re: Nov 2007 election: "...if I'm proved wrong, I have committed to write a post admitting I am an idiot." Still waiting Derek.
I was stunned that he stopped following me a few minutes later! What could I possibly have said? Having read what he has been up to today it is clear he is as mad as a box of frogs. I mean completely and utterly unhinged. He is a very disturbing person.
Patrick, that was the point of this post.
I've "blocked" him too Iain. Can one complain to Twitter about political spammers?
I fear poor Derek's cracked under the strain of updating LabourList from Beta to Gamma.
"I hope you can live with yourself"
???WTF? Is he gonna top himself?
The blogosphere is a community and these personal attacks from Draper on Twitter and the dreadful LabourList have got to stop.
I have blogged about it, and offer Iain my support.
Andy, I predicted earlier that Dolly would get 'tired and emotional'. Boy, was I ever right.
Errrr.... Excuse me Patrick and Iain? What the heck makes you think that Coventry want anything to do with Derek Draper? Don't you bloody well dare send him here ;-)
I wondered why he was interested in trivial parenting chatter
Iain,
I have to say this feels far more like a personal vendetta than serious political discussion. Its clear that he's jealous of your success - don't get me wrong i often find my self at odds with you opinions - but no one can deny your success and reach. The question has to be though (rather like the far right/left argument) is ignoring him the correct attitude? I believe i speak for the vast majority who really don't give a stuff about this argument but i am at a loss to understand what you could possibly apologise for?
If as a nation we continue to slide towards a world where every breath is analysed and interpreted a thousand times then the remaining elements of free speech will well and truly be dead.
New labour have proved that bully boy tactics and a hopeless attitude of spineless vox-politics can carry a political movement - i'd ask that you maintain your straight talking views and treat the spoilt child in the corner shouting loudly as he deserves.
Will someone please give him a rattle or something?
rd
Perhaps this Draper guy should read the proper guide to blogging and follow how it is really done by the likes of Yaro Starak and Gideon Shelwick...
Just sending a standard twiiter request is not the way to go - although, if he read David Risley.com, there is now a viral twitter application that you can use to make money and build followers, perhaps he is using that?
www.plenty2say.com
I am offering the people who follow you the chance to also follow me, as they are probably politically interested types interested in debate- what on earth is wrong with that? why are you so paranoid?
PS dozens and dozens have chosen to follow me, which is great
Oh well Iain, there is at least one consolation - even the 3 people who visit LabourList are getting bored of Dolly endless droning on about this. He'll shut up soon, the sock puppet.
Watch them drift away once they have read your rabid and tedious little comments Dolly.
While you are here, just WHEN are you going to admit (as promised) that you are an idiot for stating we would have a November 2007 election?
Cheers Dez, 1 in a million sweetie.
Derek you realise that there is more interaction in this single thread than the entire output of your tedious tractor production organ. Now lie back and tell me how does that makes you feel.
Yep, I've blocked the pillock, too.
Derek, who wrote this?
From wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Draper
Although this sentence from the article perhaps sums it up.
” Draper, he said, was “nothing more than a messenger boy, a factotum, a purveyor, a self-loving, over-scented clerk.”
wonderful thing the internet.
Derek Draper.
"PS dozens and dozens have chosen to follow me, which is great
February 06, 2009 9:48 PM"
So that's twenty four missing from the Care in the Community register.
We're not exactly talking significant tractor stats here are we?
OT - Rab C swaps places with an MP on BBC2 - top drawer.
Draper just seems to be a massively counter-productive nasty piece of work.
Interesting stuff. Take a look at Dolly's Wikipedia page, and you'll see that Peter Mandelson once said of him that he is "...a fine intelligence, but sometimes I am afraid he misuses that intelligence. He gets above himself."
Looks like Mandy's got something right for once!
Yeah he tried to follow me, I have blocked him now. What a pillock!
It is quite sad actually. Those with appropriate training will agree that Mr Draper may well be a textbook sociopath. He exhibits many of the personality traits of someone suffering antisocial personality disorder:
- lying for personal profit
- callous unconcern for the feelings of others
- persistent attitude of irresponsibility
- low threshold for discharge of aggression
- incapacity to experience guilt
Pity him but don't mock him. He should seek professional help and not seek to project and fixate his bitterness on others.
Just ignore Draper. He's doing all he can to provoke and prolong any argument he can confect and then inflame - desperately trying to extend a blog dialogue and inflate an internet presence.
But ignore him. Let him rant in a vacuum - because history will repeat itself for Draper....
'Look at ME' is embedded in his DNA and it's surfacing again very quickly and very hysterically - just like it did in the back of that taxi when he was a Labour lobbyist. What was it the self-loving Draper said at that time...?
"There are 17 people that matter - and to say that I am intimate with every one of them is the understatement of the century."
It's only a matter of time before Brown, Mandy and Alastair once again let Derek sleep with the fishes.
What an incredibly bitchy, trivial, silly non-thread.
Good grief.
This reminds me of school.
We used to taunt and tease the unpleasant fat boy, Merton, all through morning break; eventually he'd make a huge noise, like an enraged elephant, and blunder across the playground, lashing out at us, the girls and innocent younger boys until being dragged away to detention by a team of teachers.
How much longer before Dolly does the internet equivalent? I'd give it about an hour...
The important thing to remember is under no account to actually visit his tedious little site. I am sure that the people bank rolling it in the background must already be thinking it is a wasted investment. A continuation of the pathetically low hit rates will just confirm that and kill if completely. If you must look and see what is going on go via labourist a much more professional operation.
"Simon Gardner said...
What an incredibly bitchy, trivial, silly non-thread.
Good grief.
February 06, 2009 10:09 PM"
Yeah well, if you can't say anything nice, it's best not to say anything at all..IMHO.
I'm a shameless blog parasite who doesn't have their own.
Mr Draper started to follow me too.
I'm delighted to say that in response my first Twitters were to:
a)declare that I'd unsubscribed to LList as I find it really offensive (Gollywog free zone seriously 80s knocking copy)
b)and being followed by Mr Draper makes me feel like having a good wash. Bleugh.
What a seriously unhinged and nasty stalking weirdo he is. I've always treated his online efforts as a bit of harmless, fish-in-a-barrel target practice.
The more I see what he's been up to:
- smearing others as racists without any foundation
- intimidating and abusing interns/their bosses at the TPA
- threatening willy-nilly legal action in order to get his way
- bullying visitors who disagree with his conflations
- and misrepresenting the truth to suit his argument at almost every opportunity is simply ASTONISHING.
From what I have read on Paul Martin's excellent blog, Mr Draper is now stating that LList is his enterprise and unconnected with the Labour Party so complaining to that organisation would be fruitless...
"By the way, LabourList is independent of the Labour party so "they" couldn't "shut it down" even if they wanted to. Get your basic facts right first before you launch a silly attack next time please."
Is it me or is a site:
- infested with Labour's most senior and ambitious placepersons
- claiming to be the place where Labour minded people come together (!)
- and the UK's version of the Obama campaign for grass roots Labour activism...
...more than likely to be supported by it in more than a coincidental name. If not then who is paying Mr Draper and webby friends to built and support this?
Grim Reaper:
Wikipedia's a wonderful invention, don't you think? Constantly updated.
WV: dimshin
Prodicus said to me "Wikipedia's a wonderful invention, don't you think? Constantly updated."
Oh yes, that's much more accurate now. Keep digging, Dolly!
Prodicus, it appears to become more accurate by the hour.
happy to have him follow me; any of you lot considered just dumping twitter spam (twitspam?) on him?
keep him busy, just twitter your latest trip to the bog, turning the kettle on etc. I'm sure he'll soon get tired of this.
lmao - he's a psychologist!!!
draper started following me today but unfollowed before I could even decide whether to follow back - I had previously seen he had an account - I follow politicians of all types, but having seen his foaming-at-the-mouth tweets, decided to steer a wide berth.
Twitter is at its best as a more gentle and friendly means of communication - and I prefer to avoid the ranting of Guido's commenters and elsewhere in the blogosphere.
Just saying.
Like everyone else, I wondered why he'd started following me. Originally thought it was because I occasionally post at Liberal Conspiracy, which is actually a reasonably well done left wing blog. He could learn from them. Anyway, we all know who is going to be laughing in 2010.
Now he's following me. And I don't even twitter! He's following me now.
Maybe if I duck through Starbucks and run up the down escalator I can shake him off..
Life is too short. You are doing the right thing.
I found him having listed me as a follower and could not work out why a Labour activist like Draper would want to follow a non celebrity PPC for any genuine reason.....
Don:
Yes. A very satisfying... erm... information source.
I wonder what his wife makes of all this?
If the fragrant Kate is waiting all alone while Dolly foams at his keyboard, I've got some ideas...
Dear Mr Dale,
May I congratulate you on taking precisely the right course of action.
Rarely have I seen arrogance and ignorance combined in such destructive quantities in one person as is the case with Master Draper. He is both a very special, and utterly repulsive, individual.
Every utterance from him seems only to demonstrate his happy knack for making matters worse. Each one shows unmistakeable signs of having been made without reasoned consideration, or the application of judgement. Every criticism or perceived slight against him is countered by a knee-jerk, almost robotic, reaction in which the distinguishing features are a lack of any degree of comprehension that the source of the problem is Draper himself, together with a disturbing total absence of empathy concerning the feelings of contempt and derision he so effortlessly engenders.
Any perception by Draper that he is not held in high regard, or that he is not a member of some elite of "people who matter" produces in him such an over-compensation that one is inevitably left wondering about the true state of his ego and feelings of self-worth. It may well be that the Christian reaction to him should be pity, rather than disgust.
That this performing clown was once employed by the Labour Party does not surprise me; that they possess the astonishing stupidity to allow his continued, high profile, association makes me wonder whether they can possibly sink any lower.
For him to come on here and suggest that people interested in political debate should follow him would be comedy of the very highest order, were it not so desperately misguided, and pathetically deluded, in its haplessly inaccurate self-assessment of Draper's true place in the scheme of things.
From the outside Mr Draper is just like a slow motion car crash.
You can see him rolling over with the wheels falling off and sliding on the roof towards the ditch.
The trouble for him is that the poor bastard can see it too.
If Lord Peter doesn't deliver the coup de grace beforehand, the general election will - and what will become of him then?
I'd leave him alone, as there is
no honour in gloating about it.
Draper,
You clearly have some sort of Jesus / Napoleon complex.....
"I am offering the people who follow you the chance to also follow me"
"PS dozens and dozens have chosen to follow me, which is great"
The sad deluded fool doesn't even realise he's become a parody of himself. I thought it would take it a bit longer, but fair play to him for going at it full-on. Why waste time in making an arse of yourself, when you can set yourself up as the 'star blogger of the 21st century' and fail miserably within weeks.
Draper: I'm not going to block you for now. I'd like you to follow me for at least one day longer to see the disgusting filth that your party has spawned in the state-sponsored fake charity market. Too late to blog it tonight, but have a look and see if you think equating normal people with holocaust deniers is fair.
I personally don't care one way or another about being 'followed', but adding bloggers en masse without explanation is going to scare many. If you didn't realise this would be the effect, you are short-sighted. If you did intend it to have that effect, it is very scary & entirely in keeping with how Labour tend to operate these days, unfortunately.
What a silly thing to do.
By the way, can I just say Iain thanks for giving us all this opportunity to say what a twat we think Dolly is? And we don't even eed to go on Labourlist to do it cos we know he'll read it on here. Bet your figures are waaaaay up this month.
Thanks for explaining why he was following me Iain. I didn't follow him as I don't approve of unshaven over 30 year olds. Now he's been blocked so that's fine.
Silly man, why would he want to follow a Scottish independence supporter? Is he into masochism do you think?
"The Twitter Rules
...
...
*Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. .... Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:
* If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time;
....
....
Twitter reserves the right to immediately terminate your account without further notice in the event that, in its judgment, you violate these Rules or the Terms of Service."
If you think you have been spammed:
http://twitter.zendesk.com/forums/23786/entries/18398
Ian,
You should completely ignore Draper from now.
Since he has become a troll (see his posts on this thread) you could be forgiven for blocking all his posts.
He contributes nothing to anything.
Derek mate,
I'm a nobody.
I only started blogging a year ago for a laugh. My first attempt.
Apparently I'm now the 11th most influencial blog (not just political) in the UK according to Wikio. God knows how that happened. I'm not even a member of any political party, nor do I run any adverts.
If I can do it, it just shows you must be a complete and utter Hoon to have failed so miserably with all the backing you've had.
Give it up mate. I know I'll never be more than top ten if I'm lucky (as if I care) and if I'm not, who cares? Not me.
Go back to selling aromatherapy candles at car boot sales. Please.
Iain, having twittered you to tell you Dolly was following me, and indeed, having twittered him to tell him what i thought, i was blessed with a reply!
"@james_manning read what black people have written about it in today's papers then reflect on your insensitive flippancy you juvenile prick"
My heart leapt with joy when i read this.
Dolly Draper - the greasy, offensive, moronic, egotistical, arrogant, idiotic failure that is Dolly Draper! - accused ME of insensitivity, flippancy and juvenileness!!
My life is complete.
Lol...Dolly Draper has been downgraded to 5 visits a day on Labourlist.com, according to his http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Draper#Career entry, priceless!
@ James Manning said...
...i was blessed with a reply!
"@james_manning read what black people have written about it in today's papers then reflect on your insensitive flippancy you juvenile prick"
Lol..you indeed have a long and distinguished future ahead of you!
Well, yes. Derek made a dive by follow of me. A half hour later, after a twitter about how Brown was frankly insecure if he felt insulted by a mere jibe of his half-blindedness ( I am, by the by, deaf and hardly insulted by the odd deaf joke) and he was off again. Most queer.
draper the movie said... “Yeah well, if you can't say anything nice, it's best not to say anything at all..IMHO.”
New to this, eh?
Notwithstanding, this is considerably below Iain’s usual standards.
[plonk]
Derek Draper's actions over the last week(golliwogate, tax dodgergate, twittergate) are a 'cry for help'. A Munch type scream over the blogosphere.
May I humbly suggest suggest cutting the guy some slack while he finds his feet. He is not a bad guy. Sometimes misdirected but not malicious. Read his 'mea culpa' post. That took guts and self awareness.
It is in all our interest that LaboutList succeeds whatever you think of its politics and its current stumbling about.
Last night, I too got an email to tell me that I was being stalked by The Draper. It caused LibertyCat immense amusement. When I visited his Twitter page, he was following 1,999 people.
This morning, he was no longer following me. A visit to his Twitter page reveals he is now only following 318 people...
He obviously didn't get the reception he was expecting...
Yes, he asked to follow me too but I declined. Now I wish I'd read your post first, because then I'd have told him to **** off and then declined.
I think dolly promised his master a huge audience and wow! did he screw up.
The mans a joke and his site gets 750 viewers nuff said.
It's just occurred to me this morning that maybe Draper is following all of Iain's mates/fans so that when inevitably we all post "tonight I'm getting out the nazi uniform and murdering a few non-whites" he can turn round and say "aha! look at the company you keep Iain!"
I was wondering who he was. More alarming is the fact he managed to hook up with the bird off the telly with the big knockers.
@ Savonarola
"It is in all our interest that LaboutList succeeds whatever you think of its politics and its current stumbling about."
Why? And How?
Iain Draper reminds me of Chad Noble!
@Unsworth 9:22
I think it true to say that blogs such as this, Guido, Raedwald and many others have filled , in part, a vacuum in the political process. They do this by engaging in debate, exposing what the MSM does not and generally pulling politicians down a peg or two.
When/if there is a Cons Govt(I am a member of this party) it would be healthy if LabourList or equivalent were strong and robust to expose the Hamiltons/Mellors/Hayes and others that will emerge. Arubably if there had been a blog about to keep the Cons Govt real, much subsequent damage could have been prevented.
How do LabourList achieve this. This is for Draper and co to work out. I suggest they will learn. I hope they do.
I got an e-mail from Twitter saying he was following me. Didn't take too long to find out that he seems to have a reputation and isn't the kind of person I want to be associated with. I blocked him. From what I can see we have no common interests.
When I write political content, I do so to highlight the stupidity of whoever is responsible for that stupidity. Usually it's the current UK "government", though cricket's governing body the ICC gets a fair and well-deserved kicking on my blog as well.
Like Old Holborn, I started my site and blog for my own personal enjoyment. If my writings make people think about and change what they say, what they believe and what they do then good is being done.
I guess that means I've had my first Twitter stalker!
OH - Draper should take a leaf out of your book buddy. Put BBC to shame as to how quickly some hoon can get sacked. Comedy.
I saw this and thought it could have been written yesterday. It is dated 5 November 2005. I'm sure Guido will note the date.
Perhaps he should read the article again too.
"...Looking back on his "idiot years" now, after seven years of therapy - the last three in daily analysis - he attributes the self-destructive impulses to an unconscious need to get out of politics.
"I believe now, as a psychotherapist, that most of what we do is motivated by the unconscious. And I think slowly, over a period of time, not being at the centre of power but having my face pressed up against the shop window, I'd unconsciously decided I didn't really like what I saw. But it was very hard for me to recognise, because it was all I'd wanted to do since the age of 11."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2005/nov/05/weekend.deccaaitkenhead/
Sorry bust link - here you go...Mr Draper 5 Nov 2005 Guardian
All is explained. I thought I had picked up my first follower but now my hopes are dashed. I'll just go back to being lonely. Love the blog.
On his profile at Labourlist, I presume in a desperate attempt to draw the chav vote (big readers of political blogs) back to Labour, Draper admits to having been 'a regular on ITV's Kyle's Academy'. Maybe his old mate Jer could help him get over this terrible addiction to politics which he has tried for so many years years to overcome. That's one Jeremy Kyle show I'd steel myself to watch.
The rolling development of his Wikipedia entry (Dollface vs. The World in an editing war) is becoming surreal. Overnight, the total number of visitors to LL was altered to '5' - not a lot for such a star-studded site, Derek. You might want to change that, in case people think your site is rubbish.
"Simon Gardner said...
draper the movie said... “Yeah well, if you can't say anything nice, it's best not to say anything at all..IMHO.”
New to this, eh?
Notwithstanding, this is considerably below Iain’s usual standards.
[plonk]
February 07, 2009 7:12 AM"
To be frank, I've had wittier comebacks from the speaking clock, but I suppose I'll have to cut some slack for someone who is obviously a beginner.
No comment:
Just the WV: aturd
!!!
I was requested to allow him to follow me And I wondered why he had followed me , I was at a loss so I called him Dolly He promptly unfollowed and I realised what the game was he is now blocked
What a Arsehole he is
This is hilarious. They say Twitter is a form of reverse stalking, but Derek in true Socialist style has managed to invert even that.
Iain, are you sure Draper has not been "Hitchened" ?
Yorksher Gob must like you, 'egregious' is Latin for 'distinguished'
Yes. I am am now being followed by Derek Draper.
Oh, what fun.
Still, if he wants Twitter to ban him, he is going the right way about it.
Alan: Egregious is latin for 'outside the flock' - something you might call in statistics an 'outlier'. Outliers can be either above or below the mean, ie unusually good or unusually bad.
I'm afraid I was flattered... until I read Iain's piece.
Ho hum, back into obscurity...
My advice, for what it is worth, is to ignore Derek Draper. He always seemed to be an unpleasant individual but now he and much of the rest of the Labour rabble seem to believe that they have the right to be as vicious as they deem necessary so as to keep power away from the "nasty party".
The next general election campaign, if we allowed an election, will be the nastiest campaign ever in the UK and the Conservative party must be aware that elements within the Labour party will use any number of illegal tactics to win it.
The last comment was deleted because of swearing.
@ Savonarola
In many ways you're absolutely right. I would welcome a decent left wing blog - or several. I just doubt that LabourList will ever be sufficiently good, certainly not under the present management, that is. As I've said here and elsewhere, quality and content are the keys.
But the present quality of debate (and presentation) is just awful. There was a time when much of the Socialists' writing and argument was, simply, superb. But they have lost their way and are now seen to be no better than - and in many ways considerably worse - than the Conservatives of the 1990s. What they will need to do is establish credibility and (an appearance of) integrity and competence. It will be a very long time before that happens, blog or no blog.
Thank god you mentioned this, Iain. When I found out he was following me it completely creeped me out. Now I understand the deep revulsion & trauma that stalking victims suffer.
From the "discussion page" about Draper at Wikipedia.
QUOTE
"Draper hosted the Student Union quiz nights which frequently imploded under his own bombast, egotism and drunkeness. "
-appropriate?
Answer - Yes. Although there is no way of equalling the description of him as a self loving, over-scented clerk, which is untouchable. The only thing i can think of that would be more ironic than him writing a column on psychotherapy would be dietary tips from the king of Tonga.
* Could you give your reasons for why a description of him in such terms is appropriate in an encyclopaedia article? Are there any sources for his drunkenness and implosion of the quiz nights? Magic Pickle 19:35, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
*
o Because it gives a good insight into his own particular megalomania, which in itself begs the question why a "Labour" movement would recruit such an obvious narcissist. The only evidence i can give , sadly , is that i attended more than one of his fiascoes.
*
o
+ (sigh) I would ask that you read Wikipedia:Verifiability as personal recollections do not count as good enough evidence of a fact for placement on here. Your description of Draper's bombast and egotism and drunkenness would not have a place in a conventional encyclopaedia. Magic Pickle 10:12, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
*
o
+
# I remember Derek from uni and, subjective as it may be, I must say that sounds like a very accurate description of him. HairyDan 20:35, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
UNQUOTE
Here's the thing: Draper's blog has been a flop, nobody's read it, but he's smart enough to realise that by posting endless things like this hugely more successful blogs like this, and Guido and Coffee House will link to him, traffic goes up, people pop him in the RSS feeds and pete's your uncle.
Why not stop making his day and ignore him, when the laws of commerce dicate he will actually go away?
You clearly haven't noticed the absence of links to his miserable site in this post, or indeed any other since!
Is all this a bit immature on both sides of the blog equation? I would suggest that these political bloggers follow the likes of blogs like Yaro Starak's, and Caroline Middlebrook's blogs who earn a packet. They will show everyone how blogging is really done - As it goes I don't support LabourList and this Draper - but, it's a bit like the BNP if you keep going on about how rubbish they are you are falling into their trap and giving them more exposure and determination to continue to do what ever little tricks they have up their sleeve....
www.plenty2say.com
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