The dangers of following Mail on Sunday and Liberal Conspiracy bandwagons

Some hysterical newspapers and bloggers have been getting very upset about Rod Liddle's putative move to editing the Independent. There was even going to be an EDM in the Commons.

Or not. Apparently Paul Flynn has backed down :

Flynn told me today that he regretted blogging so quickly after the Mail on Sunday's allegations of "racist" posts on a Millwall supporters' website, which is not connected to the football club.

Liddle has claimed that some of his comments have been taken out of context and that some were posted by other people using his password (which would not have been a difficult code to crack as it was "Millwall"). Liberal Conspiracy website carries a long list of the quotes and some Liddle responses, while Stoners.org also lists some quotes and says: "MonkeyMFC - Let's stop the demonising and get some focus."

Flynn said of his reversal: "Following the Mail on Sunday agenda is a mortifying experience."

The MP has removed his anti-Liddle blog post and has clearly decided that Liddle's defence has some merit. Flynn now says that the decision about whether an early day motion goes ahead is entirely in the hands of Diane Abbott. Over to you, Diane.

Well Diane doesn't seem very interested either, see here on Liddles blog :

Diane Abbott MP
January 20th, 2010 4:07pm

Actually no EDM about you has been tabled. Surely you should have checked the order paper before you wrote this post? You are going to have to show a little more regard for accuracy if you really want to edit a national newspaper.

It just shows what can happen when you follow ill thought out press/blogger campaigns (especially shrill po-faced ones led by Sunny Hundal). Personally I don't care if Liddle becomes Indy editor, the idea that the Indy is "Left Wing" seems to be because it was against the Iraq war ie its the same kind of "Left" as the cringing relativists at the Guardian. Liddle may be crass and annoying but he's also sometimes an interesting controversialist and at least he says what he thinks without worrying about PC nursies.