Time to resume blogging

This blog has been very quiet lately. My excuse for this state of affairs is that I have been heavily involved in putting on the annual Gunnislake Festival. Not just me you understand but a very small committee of dedicated folk who pull the stops out each year to provide some exhibitions and entertainment for locals and visitors alike. I was going to make the 2007 event my last one but was persuaded to stay on against my better judgment! But I definitely am going to sever my connection with the committee from the next AGM, I'm involved with other things locally and this is now one committee too far. Time for fresh blood methinks (I'm not the only one to resign from the committee, one or two long serving members feel that they have done enough).

Hopefully now I can get back to more regular blogging although there are a lot of other 'catch-up' things to be done. A little more to say about our recent Festival in my next entry (perhaps).

The power of blogging

Blogs are an extremely useful and powerful part of the internet and I want to give just three examples to illustrate this.

First of all there is the recent resignation of Peter Hain from his job as a government minister. There is a blogger, Paul Staines, writing under the name of 'Guido Fawkes' who claims, with I think a lot of justification, that his exposure of the background to Hain's attempts to finance his deputy leadership bid led to his ultimate downfall. Not something that could be proved perhaps but the circumstantial evidence stacks up. Staines is well known as being very right wing but he was quite in order I believe to take Peter Hain to task in the way he has. Interestingly with Labour in power it's the right wing blogs that make the running at the moment so far as politics are concerned. It could be argued that it is much easier to go on the attack when your blog is in sympathy with the opposition; it would be interesting to note whether left wing bloggers gain the ascendancy if the Tories form the next administration. One thing I intensely dislike about Guido's blog and many similar is the fact that they permit anonymous comments. Many a time they include unnecessary bad language - I am not a prude and have been known to let go the odd expletive when under stress but to use intemporate language in blog comments, no! The other point to make is that it's possible for a blogger to boost his piece by commenting himself anonymously! I'm not accusing anyone, just stating that the potential is there.

For examples two and three I will refer to my own blog, said he modestly. The second example is my very recent entry on the discovery of the site of a Roman fort at Calstock. I think I was the first person to put this information into the public domain (thanks Marlene for tipping me off!) as the press release came out later. This is not to pat myself on the back, it is just to illustrate the point that a blogger can come across some interesting information and publish it before the main stream media does. Moving to the third example I go back to my old favourite 'MSC Napoli'. I had no idea when I started that one particular story would lead to over 40 entries with plenty more to come. By recording so many developments in this fascinating saga and all in one place it is possible for the reader to follow the sequence of events and in a concise form. Maybe one day a book will be written on it - I hope so, wish I had the time myself - but meanwhile a blog is a useful and accessible source of information on the subject.

One other point that seldom gets aired is the fact that in future years today's blogs will prove a fascinating window into life as it is now, and freely accessible to people from all over the world. Because we are right in the middle of the 'Communications Revolution' we may not totally realise the profound effect it is having on civilisation.

Reflections on 200 blog entries

I see that yesterday I made my 200th entry on this blog so I thought maybe I would just pause for a moment and look back over the past months and reflect on how well (or badly!) I've done.

When I started the blog my intention was to concentrate as the blog name implies on matters of importance and interest in my two favourite counties. However I had said that I would make comments on events with a national or international slant if the mood took me and this has happened. On occasion this has caused me a bit of a dilemma because instinctively I prefer to stay with Devon and Cornwall.

One particular aspect of 'blogger' which I didn't use at the start (not sure it was even available) is the facility to attach labels to the end of each blog entry. I started using this part way through the blog and then went back through all the prior entries. These are listed on the right hand side of the current blog page and is a ready means of access should anybody be interested in referring to all the entries relating to a particular subject. At the moment 'MSC Napoli' is taking pride of place with the most entries with 34 blogs: this will increase substantially when the promised public enquiry by Devon County Council commences.

On the subject of the Napoli I wonder how many bloggers have covered this story as comprehensively as I have. There have been so many strands in this saga and I have felt compelled to write almost every time something new happens. If I knew how things were to turn out I would have been tempted to write a separate blog just devoted to MSC Napoli!!

Blogs have proved a great release for people such as yours truly who have been frustrated by the lack of opportunity to sound off about things that personally matter. OK as yet I don't have a counter for number of visits to this blog and I'm sure it's minute compared with many others. But at least I feel better for it, hopefully it is entertaining or interesting someone, and apart from my time and a little bit of electricity to power the laptop, it's free! By the way I would be fascinated to know in this age of instant communication via the internet whether 'Speakers Corner' in Hyde Park, at least I think it's Hyde Park, still operates.

So what will the next 200 entries bring? I think I've got quite a wide spectrum of interest but can say with some certainty that TV soaps and today's pop music won't feature. Sport will be noticeable by its omission by and large although on those few occasions teams or individuals in the counties do something of note I shall try and include them.

I think that's enough from me just now. I'll do my 'spellcheck' and get this posted.