Comments policy on this Blog

Since I switched off comment moderation on this blog more than a year ago, I have been given very little reason to regret that decision.

Unfortunately in the last week I have had to remove three offensive posts.

In the interest of free debate I often allow people to post here criticism of people I like and of decisions I agree with, but there are certain limits to what I will tolerate and one of them is that people's kids are off limits. Full stop.

I know some people involved in politics make a big thing of their family but I have always tried to protect my children's privacy, which is why you will never find their photographs on my election literature. Nor have I ever gone after a political opponent on the basis of anything concerning their children. I know it happens, but I do not regard that particular tactic as part of legitimate political debate, whoever it comes from, and I will not have it on this blog, whoever does it, and regardless of whose children are being mentioned.

I also consider guilt by association to be a discreditable tactic and have removed a post which appeared to be trying to infer something extremely nasty by means of an association for which there is no reliable evidence.

I also have a set of obit rules - if I publish a "Rest in Peace" post about someone who as just died it I will not accept posts critical of the deceased. That is because there is a non-trivial possibility that their friends and family might search the internet looking for tributes to the loved one they have lost and find such a post instead.

If you want to have a constructive political debate I welcome your views even if I disagree with them and there are literally thousands of posts I have allowed to stand on this blog which it should be obvious do not reflect my own opinions to prove it. But if you want to post personal attacks and innuendo, please set up your own blog or website and leave mine alone.

Comments

Sean Duffy said…
I really don't know what goes through the heads of people some of the time.. and with certain people, all of the time.
4:47 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Indeed. Thanks, Sean.
8:09 pm
Jim said…
Very odd, Usually its me who instigates an opinion you don't agree with, but I have to say fair play, never once has a comment been refused.

Its odd that some people just cant draw the line between an interesting subject for debate, even expressing a different opinion, and breaking the clear blog rules.

Its quite saddling really

12:14 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more