In a way I can see where she is coming from. The next few months are likely to be times of great upheaval, but they will certainly not be fun for any supporter of Labour. In fact, in the spectacularly unlikely event of Jackie Ashley being right about something, the next twelve months could be the perfect time to be a Liberal Democrat. Or, of course, an Old-Labour diehard with a safe seat and an impeccably anti-Blair record, who may just find himself (and out of curiosity, has anyone else noticed how all the potential leaders of Labour are men?) leader.
I do not, of course, write from a left of centre perspective. I've never worked out what I am politically - probably on the libertarian left, with right-wing views on certain issues (notably social policy to do with marriage). And I have already publicly declared my support for the Conservatives at the next election. But I also find myself gradually drawing back from an interest in politics.
One of the commenters on Iain Dale's post mentioned that blogging is the perfect medium for opposition. This blog has mostly been aimed squarely at Labour - its corruption, incompetence, disregard for civil liberties, deliberate devastation of the national economy (and anything that happens from hereon in will almost certainly be designed to leave a poisoned legacy for an incoming government, because that is how this most tribal and selfish of Prime Ministers thinks). In six months or so, that government will be an ex-government. Indeed, there is reason to think that had it not been nailed to its perch by Peter Mandelson, it would be pushing up the daisies already.
Where I go from that politically I don't know. But where I go as a blogger is clear. This blog will be a face that doesn't fit any longer. I have several times considered closing it over the last year as a busy life took its toll on my postings - and hinted at my thinking in this post. I did toy with the idea of keeping it going but turning my attention to other matters. However, I find that doesn't work so well. This was a political blog at the start, it will be a political blog at the finish. And that finish is now approaching. When I close it down for Christmas, I will not be returning.
That does not mean I will be quitting blogging. I have already set up a new blog, using Wordpress, and have been running the two in parallel for quite a while. However, that is a blog about my professional research, and although I have left the door open for posts on other subjects (I especially mentioned politics, Christianity and music in the opening post) it won't really marry across from this one. I have considered cross-linking the two. However, the new one is written under my real name.
Very sadly, I know there is one reader of this blog who is a dangerous and unbalanced liar with a pathological hatred of anyone remotely successful, who has made a disastrous mess of his life, and who now spends his all too many idle hours trying to ruin other peoples' as well. I ran afoul of him when I pointed his failings out, something he did not like, and I am aware he intends to try and destroy me by means of a smear campaign if he can - indeed, he has already made a start in several posts on multiple websites, although he has quietened down recently. At the time, ironically, I did not realize how nasty a piece of work he was, assuming it was simply a matter of a grudge against an organization for which I certainly felt no sympathy, knowing rather more than he did about them. Further investigation has convinced me that his personal problems go deeper than that, but I have decided I want nothing more to do with him so I will not publish the information, or link his name to this post. Can I please stress that it is nobody I link to and nobody who currently comments on this blog (although he has become one of the most notorious trolls on Betsan's blog, under a weird pseudonym implying sympathy with the Taliban, who is regularly in trouble with the moderators).
As long as he does not know who I am, the danger to my future is minimal. However, in the febrile atmosphere of the CRB and the ISA, his allegations (all of which are false) despite his own terrible record, might do me serious damage if linked with my real identity. With hindsight, I should have steered well clear of him - does not the Bible tell us that "he who toucheth pitch shall be defiled"? But it's a bit late to worry about that now, and I have decided under all the circumstances I really cannot take the risk of revealing who I am. I feel that's terribly sad, because I have on occasion written things I regretted, or later found to be wrong, but I have never been ashamed of what I have written (my reasons for being anonymous in the first place are here). Where necessary, I have fronted up and retracted. But honesty of purpose is no longer good enough in Brown's Britain - we must all be Caesar's wife, and let free speech and free conscience go by the board.
My new blog does contain links to most of the blogs in my sidebar (certainly all the active ones) so I will still be keeping up with matters political and Welsh. Maybe some of you will work it out! I intend to leave the blog on the web until at least the next election - maybe beyond - to keep up with the latest posts through that supremely useful blogroll widget, which Wordpress doesn't seem to do. But it won't be further updated. Although I know most bloggers who retire are generally lured back in the end, I'm not retiring, merely switching my focus. So this truly will be an ex-blog, as Brown will be an ex-government.
I intend to use the last five weeks here constructively. I'm delighted that recently this blog appears to have risen in peoples' estimation, and I hope to keep the higher standard of writing I have been able to manage in the last six months going. I intend to comment on the new First Minister - and the old one. I will also do those other two music posts I promised, and possibly one on what I have learned about blogging from the last two years. I also hope to break 300 posts - at one time I thought that would be a good place to stop, but I may beat it. Or not. It doesn't matter much. This is post 287, so another 15 or 16 are possible, including the 7 I already have mapped out in my mind.
So after that prolonged bout of naval gazing, I will summarize by saying that this blog is winging its way to its conclusion, ahead of the Brown government (unless of course the rotten edifice collapses in the next six weeks). I'm hoping that the next six weeks will be a ball, as the first 116 have been. They will certainly be "interesting times".
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