INTRODUCING a brand new award folks.
And this should serve as a reminder as to why the Tories used to describe themselves as The Nasty Party.
Bupendra Bhakta has been leaving comments on this site for a while. But unlike most of my other detractors, he drips pure poison with every syllable he writes. I know that sometimes it’s difficult to convey sarcasm, humour or irony on this medium, but I get the impression Bupendra has no use for such things (if he’s aware they exist at all).
Take his latest nasty little comment in the thread started off by this post:
Anonemouse (11.29 am): “Is the advertisement income from your blog going to be declared in the register of members interests sometime soon?”
——————————————————No need – I have read the Parliamentary Rules Book in front of me: any income under £1.00 need not be declared.
There you go, another ’smear’ for Ani to get Antsi about.
(Psst, Ani, like to take a guess on which Party absolutely wrote the rule book on ’smearing’.)
Earlier in the same thread, he treats us to this beautiful little piece of poetic prose:
I know it’s modish on here to praise Mr Harris for his integrity.
His blog is reasonably entertaining, particularly when compared to the dross any other Labour person produces on the web (and Dolly’sDailyDisaster.com aka LabourLost deserves special mention here).
However I’d be more inclined to fall over myself to praise his integrity had he not called on this blog for Peter Hain to be returned to the Cabinet; the same Peter Hain who narrowly escaped prosecution and received severe censure from The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee for his failure to declare donations. Why the hell should we the taxpayer have people like that inflicted upon us?
And of course Tom’s unrequited love for the serially venal and grossly incompetent Tony Blair (who of course gave him the transport Ministry) is particularly nauseating.
It’s the “he still has fleas from lying down with beggars” sign-off that I find particularly poetic and uplifting.
If you can be bothered, trawl through the rest of his comments from the last few weeks and you’ll see that here is a very bitter, unhappy individual. Most of the other anti-Labour commenters at least make an effort to engage, to respect me and other commenters, even those (shock! horror!) with whom they don’t agree.
Not so our Bupendra, no, no, no… Common courtesy is obviously an intolerable weakness for those such as he. I think he’ll be “happier” (however he wishes to define that word) leaving comments elsewhere in future. Because so far he’s been the equivalent of a loud, obnoxious drunk at a dinner party, and I don’t want any of my guests feeling obliged to stare at the cutlery until he finally goes outside to vomit in the garden.














Monday 16 February 2009 at 3:53 pm
Yeah, this guy is a bit of a tosser. In order to get my comment through moderation I limited my description of him to “an inept, barely coherent, anti-Labour troll”, although IMHO, “the C word” that rhymes with “RUNT” is certainly valid.
What was particularly pathetic in my eyes was the thread he chose to post his bile in.
It’s people like him that give genuine, more likeable trolls like Johnny Norfolk a bad name. After all, Johnny is more of a “I like to let Tom Harris know just how downbeat I am about Labour’s chances at the next election” type of troll, rather than someone who posts anything venomous and hate filled.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 3:57 pm
Nooooooo Tom…. Your directly feeding the trolls! We must always remember that age old saying “Whence on teh interwebz, resist all urges to feed the trolls, for they shall multiple like… multiplying things, and then bad things happen”
Monday 16 February 2009 at 4:00 pm
How did I not win the “Tory Troll of the month” award?.
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I want a recount.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 4:11 pm
@Robtro
The internet is governed by “John Gabriel’s Greater Internet.
It nicely explains the comments at places like Guido and other “anything goes” blogs in particular.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 4:13 pm
John, that link you posted was funny, but I hope you understand why I’ve deleted it.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 4:23 pm
Tom, just to correct a factual inaccuracy, the Tories have never described themselves as the nasty party. Theresa May said that some people describe the Tories as the nasty party. There is a great difference. No doubt you will wish to correct this gross calumny!
Monday 16 February 2009 at 4:30 pm
I think you have just corrected it yourself, comrade.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 5:01 pm
Absolutely Tom, I shouldn’t have posted it. My apologies.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 5:11 pm
Tom
I am sure the guy you write about is a sad loser…but I am afraid I do not read abusive posts so I just skip them… and I have read little in the last 2-3 days.
It’s rather like Labourlist which has degenerated after a promising start into a D Draper hates everyone platform.. I no longer read that either.
Life’s too short to read nasty posts. I like to keep happy (through non chemical means!)
Monday 16 February 2009 at 5:30 pm
I don’t know why you are blaming poor Bupendra Bhakta. Surely he is just the result of evolution over billions of years? How can he help it? All that electro-chemical business in his brain resulting in his ‘thoughts’ and ‘behaviour’ has been brought into being by a series of bizarre cosmic accidents. Resultingly, he should not, indeed must not, be the subject of criticism or scorn.
(You can’t have it both ways.)
Monday 16 February 2009 at 5:40 pm
Does that mean you do not think that Bupendra Bhakta is a Labour party supporter then.?
Perhaps you now understand how we feel about Draper. I would describe him as King Troll.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 6:09 pm
I’m not sure what the purpose of your post was, Tom.
Was it to humiliate or embarrass BB or to warn other posters that anti-Labour sentiments will be tolerated only if politely expressed?
It’s ill-mannered to post poisonous anti-Labour comments when your host is a Labour MP and I’m not defending him, but perhaps he feels that his loathing is justified. Maybe he’s lost his job as the credit crunch has bitten yet, at a time when the country is in crisis he sees senior politicians milking their expenses and breaking the spirit of the law if not the letter; perhaps he’s had the misfortune to inadvertantly break one of the thousands of new laws enacted during Labour’s government or perhaps he leads an exemplary life and is a pillar of his community but finds himself treated as scum because he dares to continue to smoke?
I’m sure that BB won’t post again – he probably won’t ever, ever consider voting Labour again either.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 6:46 pm
why not just do like they do when they’re lifting comments for the latest blockbuster film:
“praise Mr Harris for his integrity.”
“His blog is … entertaining (better than) the dross any other … person produces on the web”
“I … fall over myself to praise his integrity.”
Get Stalinist on his ass.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 7:01 pm
I met a Labour supporter the other day. He told me that I seemed cynical online. “Well informed” I replied. “You’re aggressive” he continued. “Deeply disappointed” I answered.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 7:36 pm
Derek Draper’s humiliating apology;
http://www.labourlist.org/apology_from_our_editor
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It must be especially galling given that he clearly isn’t sorry…
Monday 16 February 2009 at 7:59 pm
@Jay
but perhaps he feels that his loathing is justified
Who cares? He marched into a thread, a thread designed to highlight how far this blog has come, to make a pathetic personal attack on Tom. It’s irrelevant how “justified” he may have felt, he was acting like a complete tosser.
What if I walked into Downing Street and verbally attacked Gordon Brown. Essentially walking into his house to attack him. However “justified” I may feel, it’s still disrespectful, even towards Gordon. It’s called, common sense and not being a disgraceful human being.
What about that idiot who egged Prescott that time. Does it matter that he may have felt “justified” because maybe he disagreed with or had even been adversely effected by one of Prescott’s decisions? No it doesn’t.
Tom isn’t a whipping boy for the failures of this government. No Labour MP online is, and to treat them as such is totally disrespectful and reflects badly on the idiot doing it.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 8:07 pm
Does Dale know the difference between a calumny and a canard? If so, I apologise to him unreservedly.
Apart from that minor pont, go for it Tom.
Game on.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 8:10 pm
Dear Tom,
Further to my previous post on the subject of Tory trolls on this blog; please could you be so helpful as to identify them for the benefit of us relative newcomers.
Thanks in advance.
Colin.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 8:28 pm
Did Dolly give you a call as he apparently seems to have done Alex Hilton Tom? Appears Draper went on a full on threat laden rampage! Wonder who else he called with threats? It’s on LabourHome
Monday 16 February 2009 at 8:48 pm
@Robtro
Thanks for the tip! I’m shocked at the depths this has now reached. Surely there is now no other option than for Labour to turn it’s back on Dolly well and truly. Not only is he running around accusing racism and insisting that all bloggers and commenters shun whichever blogger he has his sights on at the minute, but he’s now trying to bully and threaten LABOUR bloggers in to complying with his needlessy hostile and aggressive wishes?
This is now beyond parody. He needs to be dumped like a hot potato or he’ll do enormous harm to the Labour cause, and Labour certainly don’t need this at this moment in time.
Just shaking my head really.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 8:59 pm
John said:”. He needs to be dumped like a hot potato or he’ll do enormous harm to the Labour cause, and Labour certainly don’t need this at this moment in time.”
Oh no.. He’s a wonderful advertisement for an authoritarian party whose leadership does not tolerate dissent.
Don’t diss Draper..he needs all the friends he has got (1)
Monday 16 February 2009 at 9:03 pm
Never dump a hot potato. Spit it out and say, ‘A fool wouild have swallowed that’.
Rapunzel. you’ve let down your hair again.
Try just to use the stuff on your head.
Monday 16 February 2009 at 10:09 pm
Don’t diss Draper? Oops, too late.
http://dizzythinks.net/2009/02/derek-drapers-offensive-comments.html
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Tee-hee. Am I the only one who thinks that his decision to pick a fight with Guido Fawkes was a monumentally stupid idea?
Monday 16 February 2009 at 10:27 pm
on the subject of unwanted feedback, let’s all make sure Alex Hilton isn’t shafted by whoever’s having a go…
Monday 16 February 2009 at 10:41 pm
@Richard
Everything the man has done in the blogsphere has been stupid:
- Making LabourList available with no content, saying that it’s a “beta” and doesn’t launch for weeks? He doesn’t get how the internet works. Once something’s available, it’s launched. Bad start there Dolly.
- Openly calling Iain Dale a racist for supporting Carol Thatcher, and then making a big show of removing him from his blogroll. Pathetic, needlessly hostile, confrontational, and a stupid attempt to try and occupy the moral high ground. The whole thing made him look ridiculous.
- Calling Paul Staines a racist because he has an open comment moderation policy, removing him from his blogroll, DEMANDING that everyone does the same, and then going one step further and trying to destroy his advertising revenue by targeting the companies that advertise on Guido’s blog, and by targetting Messagespace itself. Are you kidding me? This was low, and any hilarity that his inept actions were causing (at himself) ceased at this point as his actions took a more sinister turn.
- Now it appears “someone with Dolly’s mentality and values” has threatned to ruin Alex Hinton’s career because he’s linked with both Messagespace and Paul Staines, unless of course he complies and severs ties with both. If I were Alex i’d gladly be publishing a full account of this with my very public message to go self fornicate. This is more sinister again, and totally uncalled for.
Tom, I don’t know what the backchannels of the Labour Party are like, so I don’t know if you can do this without causing harm to your own position, but of you can, please consider removing DraperList from your Blogroll. Such a hate filled, venomous site run by someone who has demonstrated a needless contempt and sinister attitude to even the bloggers from his OWN party, doesn’t deserve to be linked to your blog in any way, and certainly doesn’t deserve the support that being on your blogroll brings.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 12:01 am
Jim Baxter @ 9.03
“Rapunzel. you’ve let down your hair again.
Try just to use the stuff on your head.”
I think I must be missing something here.
Can someone explain, please?
Thanks.
Confused of the North.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 12:02 am
With John there. Totally. I know we are facing things which are even more desperate than many currently perceive. But we need maturity and stability from our leaders (not something you will ever get from me, but I’m not a starter, never mind a leader). I mean Obama.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 8:27 am
John’s open letter was much better than mine.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 9:44 am
Nasty party? You mean it was the Tories who threatened Alex Hilton and Jag Singh, as a result of that tinpot Mussolini, Derek Draper.
Scheesh. You guys have got a bad enough name already (well done, Ms. Rimington by the way, for speaking out) without threatening some of your more intelligent and sympathetic supporters. Anyone who has had anything to do with Draper could have told you straight off LabourList would be a train wreck. Ans do it is – Draper is the laughing stock of the UK political blogosphere.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 12:48 pm
It just gets better and better. I laughed like a drain.
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http://dizzythinks.net/2009/02/draper-politely-fired-as-labour-list.html
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 1:00 pm
Please let that be true!
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 2:17 pm
Hi Tom.
I’m really enjoying the blog. One of the most intelligent and considered things in the political blogosphere at present. Makes me not wince entirely as much about the online presence of the Labour party…
I like your piece. I’ve stopped reading such negative sites such as order-order.com. Contrary to positive comments from previous posters such as John @ 10:41am, I believe Paul Staines has created a monster on his blog – demonstrating hugely negative and nasty views from a lot of people. This is compounded by his moderation policy – which is far from open, as suggested by John. You try posting something about his hilarious Newsnight confrontation with Michael White + Paxman…
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 4:01 pm
I think it’ll be very sad if draper is forced to stop his excellent work, labour’s true colours perhaps?
Selfish, prone to violent outbursts and viciously anti diseent or revelations he disagrees with, certain of his righteouness, certain that any who disagree need to be stopped, felling entitled to respect and money. Seems very much like the goverment.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 4:59 pm
@ Cuse.
You are Derek Draper and I claim my £5.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 5:57 pm
UPDATE:
Alex Hilton has received a second threatening phone call: http://www.labourhome.org/story/2009/2/17/11307/3162
Apparantly, said nameless individual from the first call has now indicated that they will be carrying out their threat.
I have to say, Alex is reacting in a far more restrained manner than I would. Not only would said individual have had both barrels from me over the phone, but I would be posting his identity, and a transcript of exactly what he said.
Alex describes this as “nasty politics”, but threatening to ruin someone’s career unless they do what you want, and then calling back to say you’ll be doing just that, is more sinister than just “nasty politics” IMHO.
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 9:53 pm
@John 5.57pm – surely this must be a criminal offence (intimidation, blackmail)?
Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 10:52 pm
I note that Cuse hasn’t come back to defend himself from their heinous charge of being Draper in disguise.
Surely a Labour troll of the month award is in order?
Wednesday 18 February 2009 at 11:34 am
Richard.
Cuse is a Labour troll on a Labour blog…? Hmmm.
And there’s me thinking that it’s you lot that are the trolls here, virtually taking over Tom’s blog like slightly more refined Maguire commentators.
An explanation of ‘troll’ is obviously needed.
.
And Cuse is right anyway.
And if I remember, there was a controversy sometime ago involving Alex Hilton, but what that was about…?
Like comments on blogs, round and round and round we go.
.
Still, I’m getting my lunchtime emails from Derek so that’s alright then. :0)
Wednesday 18 February 2009 at 1:10 pm
Richard.
You’ve wounded me. Deeply.
But like I said. Try posting on order-order.com something about the hilarious NewsNight interview where White and Paxman tear Staines a new bottom.
Or better still – have a look at it on YouTube.
Then come back and try telling me your Dad’s bigger than my Dad.
Wednesday 18 February 2009 at 6:23 pm
I agree with John on both matters being discussed here. The way I see aggressive trolling is that it is like attending a party and insulting the host.Respectful posts from Tories and others who disagree with the Labour Party are a good thing as they stimulate debate. People coming on here purely to insult are not. The amount of time and energy some people put into this kind of thing is amazing. As suggested by other posters these kind of people can not have much of a life. I should imagine that anyone who was genuinely active in politics would not spend thier time behaving in this way. As a Labour activist I have found that the Conservative and Lib Dem activists I have met have on the whole have been civil towards me even though we see things differently.
I am horrified by the way Alex Hilton is being treated. He has done a lot for Labour blogging and deserves recognition for helping people take an interest in politics. I totally agree with linking to other sites that hold different views to ones own as anyone interested in politics can appreciate a well written blog even if they disagree with it’s content. I also see not problem with holding shares in a company which supports these blogs.
Thursday 19 February 2009 at 12:52 pm
@ Angelina “Respectful posts from Tories and others who disagree with the Labour Party are a good thing as they stimulate debate”
I heartily agree. Tom, et al seem to have noticed that my views are not terribly favourable towards the Labour party but I post here because debate is far more interesting than simply talking with those who agree.