Monday, August 13, 2007

Starting the Week

Oh well, back to the grindstone today after two weeks or R&R - no, not a holiday, but recuperation after a minor operation. This week, I'll be back presenting on 18 Doughty Street every night at 10pm and I've also got three 1,000 word articles to write. One of them is for the House Magazine on the political books which are being published during the party conference season. The list I have compiled so far is pretty thin gruel. Fewer and fewer big political books seem to be published each autumn. Makes me glad I got out of bookselling when I did! Anyway, if you know of any books which I should consider mentioning in the article feel free to leave a comment.

Comments Policy

As you may have noticed, I switched anonymous comments back on over the weekend, and was flooded with abusive and insulting comments as a result. I've now switched moderation on too, which doesn't mean I shall censor, but I'm just not going to allow this blog to be infested by idiots who think it's clever to troll around hurling abuse at me or anyone else.

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for making it possible to comment again without having to get my aged brain round a google account.

    Comment moderation is sensible, given the abuse - there are some truly sad people out there!

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  2. Agree totally. Sometimes anonymity is used for a valid reason but we can do without people who use it as a cloak to simply post personal abuse and pointless diatribes peppered with foul-mouthed rantings so keep moderation switched on and hopefully they'll go and infest someones else's blog !

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  3. So, there will be no more abuse of Gordon Brown or anybody else in the Labour party?

    I wonder how long this new rule will last?

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  4. Unfortunately they will come back.

    (I hope you are fully recovered and now realise that there are more wholesome things to do with a small figurine of John Major and a tub of Swarfega.)

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  5. Getting a google account is extraordinarily easy. I cannot understand why people cannot manage it. But, in any case, Judith, you do not post anonymously, so it doesn't matter. But blogs that get a lot of comments have mostly abandoned the anonymous facility. There is no need for it and it encourages loons and nasties.

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  6. helen

    How do you know what 'judith' is actually called Judith?

    How do I know you are actually called Helen?

    I could post as Judith if I wanted to - or Helen for that matter.

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  7. 'Course the great thing about moderation is that you tend to get a better class of insult being hurled around. At least, more witty, anyway.

    Glad you're back in harness (if that's what I really meant to say). Germoline is the answer.

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  8. Well, it says Judith on my birth and marriage certificates; and once someone posts fairly regularly, you get to recognise their style and where they're coming from.

    Having said which, where's Verity?

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  9. Can I suggest HOMO AMERICANUS: Child of the Postmodern Age by Tomislav Sunic, Foreword by Kevin MacDonald (2007, ISBN: 1419659847)? Or GERMANY'S NEW RIGHT AS CULTURE AND POLITICS by Roger Woods (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2007 ISBN: 0230506720)? Should blow away a few cobwebs!

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  10. and I thought you'd left the blog in the capable hands of the dawg while you were pootling around the sowfofrants with guido en vacances en famille. keep on keeping the barbarians from the blogates.

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