This was one of the most entertaining things I’ve seen on daytime television in a while. Derek Draper, Psychotherapist (qualified or not), Labour advisor and editor of Labourlist.com faced off against right wing blogger and political gossip queen Paul “Guido” Staines.
The program starts of with an explanation of the UK political blogging scene before quicky descending into the usual petty name calling and “who’s pulling who’s strings?” accusations and refutations.
They also went on to cover the ethics of moderating racist comments before Staines scoffs “If you knew what it was like to have a high traffic blog, you’d know what it’s like to have thousands of comments” – like a kid bragging about his popularity.
In the second half, they discuss Daniel Hannan‘s speech at Europian Parliament. Supposed digital guru Draper manages to completely avoid the issue – which was why Hannan’s speech became such a viral success through the likes of Youtube and Twitter – and instead uses it as a chance to spout tired anti-conservative rhetoric.
In essence, what could have been an engaging discussion about how web 2.0 is changing politics became nothing more than a mudslinging match between two self interested parties.
Tom Craik 
I watched this and completely agree with you. It could have become a very interesting debate about how different political sides can use New Media to gain support for their respective movements. As you said, the mud slinging that replaced it was entertaining if nothing else.