Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Step Outside Posh Boy


I'm back after being out of circulation for the best part of a week. It has not just been the traditional holiday activities of  drinking ale and watching too much football on television : as you should be able to see I have been busy making changes to my various blogs. After flighting with the idea of consolidating all my blogging activities into just one super-blog, I have decided, for various tedious reasons, to opt for the federalist approach and maintain four separate blogs within a common News From Nowhere framework. The changes are still not complete and there will be an element of fine tuning taking place over the rest of the week : but what you now see is a fair representation of what you will eventually get. I will try to incorporate links in my posts to the new pages available on the other three blogs : and this should mean that you can limit your "following" to the main News from Nowhere blog alone if you choose to do so.

Whilst I have been dabbling with my blog headers, the British political scene has entered a period of flux. This morning, Gordon Brown went for a cup of tea with the Queen and asked her to call a General Election on May 6th. This isn't a political blog and therefore the political campaign will not dominate my postings over the next three weeks, but I dare say that the issues, the personalities, the excitement and the fatuity of it all will be reflected in some of the things I will find myself saying. I start the process off today with what started as an April Fool's Day joke in The Guardian. The piece in question showed a new series of posters the Labour Party were supposed to be about to launch which featured an angry looking Gordon Brown and the statement "Step Outside Posh Boy". The slogan, according to the hoax report, had the double advantage of emphasising the strong, no-nonsense, ordinary nature of the Prime Minister compared to the ex-Eton top-hat wearing toff who was the Leader of the Opposition. Within hours the fake poster had gained a huge following and it looks set to become the basis for the election t-shirt everyone must have.

I was going to finish by apologising for not having been visiting and commenting on all my favourite blogs. But what the heck, I have been infused with the spirit of the British General Election. So I will defend my record to date and state without fear of contradiction that, in the circumstances, I have done the best that I could. If you decide to turn your back on this blog and follow someone else you are getting an unknown quantity, you are risking all the progress we have made over the years. If that is what you decide, so be it. But don't be surprised if I invite you to step outside, posh boy.

13 comments:

  1. I'm glad you mentioned this spoof poster. I hadn't seen it. Funny.

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  2. Hi Fran, they are in the process on making it into a t-shirt at the moment and it should be available soon. I shall get one if for no other reason than to annoy the neighbours.

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  3. Have fun annoying the neighbors, Alan! :^)

    (your blog is looking oh-so-classy!)

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  4. Hi Alan! This looks terrific! Very posh indeed.
    I, for one, will not be abandoning you whether or not you condense the four or keep them separate. I remain steadfast!
    (I just hope everyone is as lenient with me what with my chronic absences of late.)

    Kat

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  5. I like the new lay out. Still don't like being beaten at chess...

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  6. No reason to ask me to step outside (albeit that anyway, I am not posh, and I am not a boy)
    Good decision, well made. I'm not going anywhere.

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  7. This is a nice fresh look you have here Alan. I've been checking out the work of Tina Chen and it's impressive. Hmmm, time for a little Spring look to Square Sunshine methinks.

    On a political note, I hope your word verification isn't giving too much away about your leanings. It was TRAPSKI

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  8. Welcome back. Your new look is very striking.

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  9. Thanks for all your comments. One or two people have reported that the new lay-out is quite a bit slower to load. I would be interested to know whether that is a general feeling.

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  10. very attractive....

    i'm very impressed with that you keep up with your four blogs, i mean to wander about the 4, but i get distracted with being nowhere which is always somewhere and forget.

    i hoped i was finished falling behind with keeping up, but now that spring has really SPRUNG here i think i've just started being behind in all things in blogland...

    oh well! 1000 lashes!

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  11. This certainly makes a striking change, Alan. I'm not deserting you, either.

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  12. Turn my back? Not bloody likely. :)

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