I want to propose a new term. It’s a useful little word, I think. And is of particular interest to we creaturely characters of the politicised and speculating “blogosphere”. Indeed, I firmly anticipate that its significance and incidence will only increase as time marches by. It is, in short, a good coining investment. But I’m getting ahead of myself in the red heat of the neological prospects. Here is the proposed addition to the lexicon:To indygal (v.) A state experienced in the early stages of a blogger turned politician’s life when the media discovers their candid reflections on individuals or sensitive subjects on the internet, and immediately seeks to embarrass the fresh-faced politico with lurid incidences and choice examples drawn from their free flowing prose. Frequently a matter for repentance.
Why this sudden enthusiasm for adding a page to our already voluminous dictionary of the English tongue, you may ask. In short, because I think I’ve spotted an attempted incidence of pre-emptive indygal avoidance. And a rather interesting example it is too. As you’ll have read in the papers, it is expected that the by-election in Michael Martin’s Glasgow North East Westminster parliamentary seat will fall to be determined in September. Which monkey will have the red rosette slapped on it – and symmetrically – which will wear the SNP’s tacky canary yellow – has been the matter of some speculation. Martin’s son, Paul “Moomin” Martin MSP has apparently rebuffed suggestions that Springburn ought to observe election by primogeniture or any other sort of direct political entail from his father. Who the Labour party will produce remains a mystery. Perhaps my favourite phizog whittler, Margie Curran, might try her luck.
On the nationalist front, as I understand matters, Grant Thoms, Glasgow City Cooncillor and once-active, now lapsed blogger at Tartan Hero had been nominated to stand in the constituency at the next Wesminster General Election. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Mr Thoms will stand for the Nationalists in the early by-election. He remains a reasonable bet, but matters remain uncertain.
If, however, the fear of indygalling has any nip to it, recent developments might lead us to make the educated guess that Grant Thoms will be the Nationalists’ candidate. What developments, pray? Simply that his Tartan Hero blog is no longer simply languishing without the fresh fluids of new posts, but has now simply been deleted, presumably by its author, presumably because he wants to head off the threatening promise of being indygalled before the computer semi-literates in the press charge up their google search engines, and begin their vigorous “investigative journalism”.
A reasonable conjecture, do we think?
Indeed reasonable, very reasonable. Nice laddie Grant.
ReplyDeleteHe's a great lad, a good councillor and a potentially excellent MP...and yes it has probably been pointed out to him that stopping blogging might be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI also expect that he will be smeared by the Glasgow press who turn a blind eye to Stephen Purcell's affectional preference subset choices.
As I think has been mentioned elsewhere, Tartan Hero was removed immediately after the by-election became a cert in late May.
ReplyDeleteWhich seemed a bit strange because it made it look like Mr Thoms had something to hide, and indeed this no doubt spurred some into trawling the Google cache before his writings disappeared permanently.
Indeed, no doubt his political opponents would have kept a record of what he's being saying anyway, given his position as a PPC or whatever his precise status was.
I wonder why if the blog's contents were likely to be so sensitive that they were only removed at the stage they were - doesn't seem a course of action conducive to avoiding him being "indygalled"!
Indeed, I just checked and there's still some of his stuff in the Google cache, don't know precisely how much but no doubt the extent of it and how long it remains there is of mere academic importance now.