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Scorched Earth bloggers theenglandproject.net/wordpress [theenglandproject.net/wordpress]
I'm a Scorched Earther. I'm the kind of person who has no more capacity left for politics.
I am the kind of person who is fed up with being lied to, mislead, and expected to believe that principle is secondary to power.
In short I am the kind of person who expects more from my public servants.
Then I began to wonder how this relates to some thinking I've been doing about the rise in popularity of political blogging.
You know the kind of thing; why people decide to start blogging and why so much of it is a diatribe against politicians in general.
I see what looks like kindred spirits everywhere.
People who are fed up with being taken for a ride.
People left cold by the quality of our public figures.
People who are fed up with mainstream media portrayals of public figures as consummate politicians like it was a good thing.
People who think being a good politician is not the same as being a good public figure.
People who cannot and will not stomach another lie or slight of hand by the politically adept who pass themselves off as our servants these days.
People, in other words, who are Scorched Earthers.
You want to know why the voter turnout at general elections is so low?
A politician lies...woosh, another patch of earth is consumed.
A politician blabbers on the radio, refusing to answer a simple question......woosh, a forest blazes uncontrollably.
Another announces a tough new policy in response to public outrage only to drop it quietly a few months later....woosh, there goes another village.
A party announces that they are against ID cards in principle only to spin that they actually support ID cards....woosh, a smallholding in Berkshire bursts into flames.
Politicians criticise people for being Scorched Earthers without realising that it is they who are handing out the kerosene.
So here it is.
A new blogging club much in the same style as the dormant 1952 Committee.
A simple list of members who blog in the smoke and flames of a landscape created by the poor quality of our consummate public figures.
Scorched Earth bloggers see it as their civic duty to highlight the poor quality of our public figures.
The tools they choose to do this with are their voices, their blogs, their votes and their absolute belief that any public servant who is a hypocrite, who lies, misleads, obfuscates and generally plays us for fools cannot and should not be trusted with public office.
There is no middle ground, just Scorched Earth.
Clearly such a group will be greeted with much derision. Flying below the radar is an attractive proposition but, sooner or later, someone might notice.
Guardianistas might write that this is no way to further the debate or to improve things. They might surmise that abstinence from voting for a liar is a bizarre way of improving the political landscape.
They will probably bleat that it is everyone's civic duty to vote for the least offensive person that they can find. They would like us, in short, to be consummate voters.
To them I say......no.
You don't have to be politically non-aligned to be a Scorched Earth blogger but if you are some way down the road on your own personal journey to the realisation that, actually, none of the political parties are quite good enough for you then please consider joining.
If you are a party person but don't like the direction your party is going in and you suspect that it is all really just a play for power and nothing to do with principle then this could be the place for you.
If you are just sick and tired of it all and want to stick it to them until they get the point that truth and straight talking are what you expect from your representatives then please consider joining.
All I ask is that you continue to do what you are no doubt doing. Take no prisoners in your blogging. Make no excuses for any of them, whether they are on your team or not. If they fail the Scorched Earth test then say so. If they are in a position of some power, say party leader, then don't support them in that position. If they hand you a can of kerosene it is your public duty to use it and to remind them of it when they think everyone has forgotten.
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