Saturday, March 03, 2007

Denied Access to Blogger : Conspiracy or Cock-up ?

I do not think of myself as a conspiracy theorist and seem to be one of the few people who believe that Diana Princess of Wales met her tragic death in a road accident : albeit that there were a cocktail of contributory factors to this, notably a drunk driver speeding, on the instruction of his employer, to escape a posse of paparazzi. For most of use, I'm afraid, the car is more dangerous than the gun, and "the cult of the car" more a threat to global civilisation than other forms of religious extremism, and even certain parts of the western media.

Nevertheless, I was surprised to be told in one of my local libraries this week that access to "Blogger" was going to be increasingly denied to me. The young woman in question, a librarian, with a confident, if rather prim, manner (a bit New Labour in fact), suggested that "Blogger" was effectively being censored, because of content issues, by an increasingly number of public access points such as libraries and Internet cafes. I must say that this warning came as rather a shock, and I suggested in response that Iranian-style censorship may have arrived in Britain.

I hope I'm wrong, but just in case this is what we should expect under the premiership of Gordon "I'm A Dinner Jacket"* Brown and the Ayatollahs of New Labour, here's a list of those of my blogs without a link to this one for any would be censors to scrutinise :

  • www.regen-man.blogspot.com (A Manifesto for Regeneration)
  • www.horse-work.blogspot.com (Horse Management through Appropriate Work)
  • www.crookbarrow.blogspot.com ("The Modern Gothic" - Articles, Reviews, Stories)
  • www.janetrocco.blogspot.com ("Satyrical Creations from Two Political Animals" etc)

Of the above, "regen-man" and "horse-work" have very little content at all, as they are in a "start-up" phase. "Crookbarrow" in a literary blog, and "Janet Rocco" is something - I dare say a little risque - that my cat channels through me from time to time.

* "I'm A Dinner Jacket" : A mnemonic provided by Ann Widdicombe in radio interview which might be used to remember the name of a certain middle eastern leader, much in the news.






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