Arms and the unborn

Here's the 18 Doughty St 10pm 'Vox Politics' show last night, where we talked about the arms trade and abortion, amongst other things, in a rather thoughtful programme. You can watch their political programming free on their 'watch again' service ( I quite often have it minimised and listen to it like a radio show whilst I work). There is some good stuff on there, (I always try to catch Peter Tatchell and the Nick Cohen interview was infuritating but informative ). I am glad 18DS is shrugging off the 'Tory TV' tag, and that they have dropped their awful 'attack ads', which didn't help them at all. The more people get involved in 'internet political TV' and 'citizen journalism', the better. There are more and more opportunities now for people to debate, engage, campaign and have a voice. If you don't like what you hear and see, join the debate. It beats hurling cushions at the TV when the news is on. I am not a Tory, but I welcome the chance to debate with other people of all political persuasion when I get invited onto the sofa.

RIP Fatboy, Blogger TV & stuff

BritBlog round up of the best of the week's blogposts is on tour and this week it's at Poon's place. (Thanks for the link,Poons.)

I'll be on 18DS Blogger TV Monday at 9pm, with Mike Denham, Michelle Tempest, Helen Szamuely and Vicky Ford if anyone fancies tuning in. Busy day tomorrow, seeing some human rights lawyers in the morning with other survivors & families about a matter to do with 7th July, having a catch up glass or two with Michael in the evening and then over to Iain's Tory lair where I will try and sound on the ball. I am knackered, fell asleep for 4 hours this afternoon, haven't read the news yet so had better get into bed with the papers and see what's what.

The sad news of the weekend was the unexpected death of Fatboy, ( see picture, the big orange one above the grey arch) our nine-and a half-year old goldfish who lived in a 3 foot tank with seven friends, including two dopey koi carp, Stripey and Goldy ( seen behind Fatboy in the picture - stripey orange & white, and pale gold) . During his almost-decade of happy life, Fatboy grew from the size of a tiny baby carrot, to the size of a very big fat parsnip, and has survived moving house three times and being transported in a fish bag, being accidentally dropped on the floor, and jumping out of his tank. I don't know why he died, he was perfectly all right then he flipped over and floated to the top of the tank. Heart attack possibly, he was very greedy. He was buried in the front garden with full fishy honours.

The main good news of the day was England winning against France. Some great new players and the captainship of Catty lifting the team no end, thank heavens. Magic stuff. J is chuffed to bits. He's watching the game again on video, grinning.

'Well, I can't enjoy it live, Rach. It's only fun when you know you've already won'.

Blogger TV again

Last night Iain Dale invited me to be on 18 Doughty St , for Blogger TV, Vox Politics and End of the Day Show, with Devil's Kitchen, Stephen Pollard, and Ben Sherread .

' Why are you on 'Tory TV', Rachel', people may cry? Well, 18DS bills itself as 'anti-establishment' and 'political TV for adults'; it has non-right wing guests and presenters on all the time, and I do not see the point of shutting myself or anyone out of political debate simply on party politics lines. I am not a member of any political party, though I would define myself firmly as a non-Tory. I have never voted Tory and I can't think of circumstances in which I would. But I have friends of all political persusasions, and I have conversations with people across the political spectrum. There are several areas that I am passionate about that are cross-party issues: civil liberties, ID cards, SOCPA & the right to protest, excessive legislation, free speech... There are some areas that I will never agree with the Tories on. And that's okay.

I'm sure that all this political bloggery will get very hardcore once we get to a General Election, but I try to avoid fights for the sake of fights and look for common ground these days. I know I say the personal is the political, but not to the extent that personal attacks are de rigeur.

We discussed Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's concerns that blogging is just 'pub bores' ( see debate on political blogging here on TV), the state of the blog wars, in which both sides have taken a lot of flak, particularly Tim, who has provoked a needed debate about damage done to the image of blogging by lack of basic 'netiquette', and who has been viciously ( anonymously) lambasted for it, which rather proves his original point. Personally, I think there's a place for all kinds of blogs, Guido is one kind of blog, other people have other kinds of blogs. Guido's blog does not define blogdom. How can it?

Blogging's simply a channel of communication, open to abuse and subject to the laws of libel like any other kind of publishing. Moving on, we talked about hope, and the positives of blogs, and Barak Obama. We also talked about our blog posts of the week - mine were Indigo Jo on the state of communities, and Sunny Hundal on Comment is Free about Independent Jewish Voices, Melanie Phillip's vitriolic rant on the same subject ( because it made me wild) and the consistently excellent Random Acts of Reality.

It was quite a lively programme with a lot of interaction from viewers. I'm glad that politics debates passion and heat and that the Opposition has livened up: that is good for democracy. Long may the debate continue. Fairly and without abuse.

Update: slight edit for clarity