Victor Meldrew vs Mrs Victor Meldrew

Thursday, 12th March 2009

Not having felt the urge to join Twitter (blogging is vanity enough for the time being) I found myself agreeing with Rachel Sylvester:

Twitter is reality TV without the pictures...At Westminster, it is a symbol of a wider loss of confidence by the political class. At the very moment when leadership is required to deal with the economic downturn, politicians of all parties are frozen in the headlights of the recession.

Iain Dale has posted a thoughtful response, though. More on a similar theme from blogger Paul "Never Trust A Hippy" Evans, looking at the pitfalls of drawing the public into debates big and small. I'd never heard of the quote from the then Archbishop of York, John Hapgood:

Has it occurred to you that the lust for certainty may be a sin?

Evans broadens it into a discussion of what happens whenever the Victor Meldrews of this world elbow their wives aside:

He spends hours on the internet, trolling forums and blogs, posting under a variety of false names or sockpuppets. His views tend to blend sarcasm, obsession, personal vindictiveness and incivilty in equal measures. He’s a great fan of the easy activism of the Facebook group and a serial promoter of petitions...If a big issue were to come up in the locality that Victor and Mrs M live in, it is safe to say that Mrs M would probably make a small but useful contribution - were she ever asked, and if she could find the time. But those two qualifications in the last sentence mean that she won’t make it this time. Victor, however, could be all over it.

And he's also one reason I'm glad I don't have a comments sections any more.

[Hat-tip: PootgerGeek]