Back Towards The Locus

Derek Draper is one of the few people that could possibly induce me to consider voting Conservative. Frankly, I’d rather french kiss Ken Clarke than support anything he’s involved with. He’s probably a very nice man – lovely husband, devoted father – but his politics – or, at least, his attitude towards politics – turn me into a sort of bile-emitting fire hydrant.

As you brave few will know he’s created a website, LabourList, which claims to be “the must read online forum for Labour minded people to come together“. Another site that I write for (with sad irregularity) has been placed on it’s blogroll, which is very kind, but the mix of apologias, sniping and web 2.0 doodling was never going to interest me. Unfortunately, Draper has been at his shrill best while trying to make himself known.

A couple of days ago, Iain Dale gave a rather vacuous defence (best punctured by Tim) of some nasty drivel spouted by an incredibly vacuous individual. Draper, lurking nearby, scented blood.

It was clear that he didn’t give a shit about racism in general, but was just eager to find “racist Tories” and “right wing racist[s]“. He attacked Dale as “an apologist for racism“, and demanded a “mea culpa” to counterract “the hurt [he had] caused black and asian people“. Dale had “offensive views“, he had to “clear his name“; Christ, he even had an “ugly head“. The inevitable conclusion was that “even when they appear nice, the Tories, underneath, are still a backward, out of touch, nasty party“.

This twitter from the man himself is illuminating…

“Ok, even I’ve had enough of Dale vs Draper.”

This is an echo of how the bitchfight was originally mooted…

“Quite a spat seems to be brewing between stalwarts of the political blogosphere Derek Draper and Iain Dale about the latter’s defense of Carol Thatcher over her sacking from the BBC for her behind the scene’s utterance of the word ‘golliwog’.”

Draper never cared about the defense, he cares about the spat. By drawing one of Britain’s biggest, most influential bloggers into a scrap he can elevate himself – a stalwart, for fuck’s sake – as well as discrediting (or, at least, attempting to discredit) his opponent. This cynicism and will to deceive is sadly typical of New Labour, as well as being just sad.