Bob, I put them both on my blogroll again a few weeks ago as a gesture. Since then Ireland has continued his war against me, despite the fact that I came out and supported him when his blog was taken down. I have a policy on my blog of reciprocal linking. I thought maybe, just maybe they might take the olive branch that was being offered. I should known better. I'm not going to link to people who delight in trashing me. Why exactly would I want to? There will be no blog war this time. Wars involve two sides. This time he ain't gonna provoke me.

1. It's not a war.

2. I found it more illustrative than annoying.

3. Any escalation from my end will result from Iain bitching about me on other blogs or setting his attack dogs on me instead of addressing the issues I've raised.

4. *Then* my tanks will be on his lawn.

A minor triumph of my blogging non-career was to be labelled by Mr Dale a couple of months back as the number one Labour troll on his site. It's a shame he doesn't really understand slang and misuses the word 'troll' but no matter. He's also recently removed 'humour' from the list of ingredients on his banner at the top of his blog so no wonder he disliked my little barbed observations.

He seems to have suffered a massive sense of humour failure about the time it became clear that Widders was going to give up her potentially winnable parliamentary seat that is so conveniently close to where he lives. Ambition is, as one of Shakespeare’s more famous characters observed, a dangerous trait. And Mr Dale's desperate to be an MP. Like the frightful stuff that the would-be Tory member for our currently LibDem constituency stuffs through our letterbox, his blog has of late degenerated imho into the worst sort of frightened-suburbia little-Tory rant...

Look Tim, it's really very simple. Iain takes so much criticism on his blog through the comments section, but you keep making it personal. Criticise his views, his ideas, his articles, I don't care - but you've made your attacks personal and that is bang out of order.

And perhaps more importantly, it's his blog and he can do whatever he likes on it.

"despite the fact that I came out and supported him when his blog was taken down"

Yes, let's talk about that, shall we Iain?

At the time, you said this:
http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2007/09/in-support-of-tim-ireland-and-craig.html

"After all the abuse he has directed my way..."

"Despite the fact that a large part of his front page is taken up with wholly unjustified smears against me..."

In effect, you smeared me while declaring yourself to be the victim of smears... and acted like you were doing me a favour to boot.

In the past, you have knowingly approved and published some appalling abuse of me on your website, while seeking to convince others that any valid criticism of the way you conduct yourself as a blogger is abuse.

Of course, that narrative is far more likely to convince if you delete that 'abuse', isn't it?

For as long as you continue your hypocrisy and have the audacity to pose as a leading light of blogging and a champion of honesty and accountability, I will be there to call you on it. Whenever you use censorship and retro-moderation tactics like this to avoid being called to account, I will be there to document it:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2007/10/iain_dale_blog.asp
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2007/10/iain_dale_takes.asp

And I make no apologies for that. You're a stain on British blogging, and people need to know where such selfish, dishonest and downright irresponsible behaviour leads:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2007/09/iain_dale_the_smear_test.asp

"There will be no blog war this time. Wars involve two sides. This time he ain't gonna provoke me."

Is this a joke?

Iain Dale is "a stain on British blogging"? Ha, nice soundbyte but sadly misguided.

Iain's blog gets tens of thousands of readers because people want to hear what he has to say. If they didn't want to listen, they wouldn't read his blog. His popularity is a huge credit to him, and the fact that you spend so much of your time attacking him doesn't reflect well on you. He never claimed to be impartial, he never claimed to be the 'leading light of the blogosphere', and he never claimed to be the 'champion of honesty and accountability'.

He writes what he writes - if you don't like his blog or you don't like the way he runs his blog, fine, don't read it. Iain has done more to bring people into the day-to-day world of politics than you can ever dream of, and despite all your rantings you will never take his popularity or achievements away from him.

LFAT, you've just declared that Iain Dale has had a widespread impact on blogging and then assured us that if we don't like it, we can simply turn away and not read his blog.

His impact, that I am not denying, spreads well beyond his weblog. That is my concern.

He claims to be impartial when he bills himself as a commentator and not a campaigner. He often declares that he never claimed to be an expert, and yet he allows himself to be billed as such when he appears as a blogging expert on TV and in books that are guides to blogging. And he regularly calls on others to meet standards of honesty and accountability that he himself is far from approaching, never mind meeting.

Iain Dale states: "I have a policy on my blog of reciprocal linking". Then where is my reciprocal link Iain? You are well aware that your's is on my blogroll, and you have posted that my site sends your site a lot of traffic. You used to have a link to my site on your blogroll, then you removed it without explanation. Eventually, I discovered that it was because Iain Dale's Dairy linked to my blog, and I did the decent thing and reciprocated. You tried laying down the law to me and demanded that I withdraw the link to Iain Dale's Dairy if I wanted your link to me to be reinstated on Iain Dale's Diary. I refused to give into your childish demand. In due course, Tim Ireland ceased blogging with Iain Dale's Dairy, therefore I removed the link of my own accord. I asked you to reciprocate and you said you would, only this time you were demanding that I cease calling you a both a liar and a hypocrite. I have caught you out on both these counts and you have not been able to answer the charges.

Iain Dale states: "I'm not going to link to people who delight in trashing me". I think it is about time that Iain Dale leaves the school playground behind, and stops spitting out his dummy every time some blogger says "boo" to him. It would be a very sad world if everybody thought and did what Iain Dale wanted. If you look closely in the tarnished mirror which reflects you as Mr Perfect, it is not a reflection shared by all. You come warts and all, the same as everybody else. Your behaviour must now rank along side that of Alisher Usmanov.

I think the Alisher Usmanov comparison is a tad OTT, JHL. Iain's site administrator has only *threatened* to try to compromise my website by falsely submitting my domain name to distributed blacklists. To the best of my knowledge, he never went through it. (In fact, IIRC, he later claimed to be 'joking'.)

That said, for a mildly amusing moment, read this comment from Iain out loud in Darth Vader's voice:

"There will be no blog war this time."

Sorry about all this. I didn't mean to stoke the fires and walk away although I have been able to approve comments all day I haven't been able to add one myself (not that techie for distance stuff).

I still think Iain has some explaining to do. OK, Tim can be a pest (actually, its one of his strengths) but considering Iain allows comments on his site which express the most foul abuse towards some people - JHL in particular - it is a bit precious then for Iain to delete links to other people because they are rude about him.

I think I've only excluded one person - the idiot from Prague - if you don't include out and out fascists, and that was only because he specifically set out with the intention of whipping up a storm against me for spurious reasons... and I have to say, Tim, Iain Dale was very supportive during that period.

The reality is that Tim and Iain both have very popular and successful 'political' weblogs and whilst I suspect this sort of thing is inevitable as blogging becomes more mainstream, I am not sure it does anyone much good to have this sort of spat.

Perhaps you could both sit down for a few hours with Tony Blair? Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams obviously found him so odious they forgot their differences.

Sorry for having a row on your blog, Bob.

Iain allows comments on his site which express the most foul abuse towards some people - JHL in particular - it is a bit precious then for Iain to delete links to other people because they are 'rude' about him.

Fixed that for you.

:o)

Thanks for the laugh, me and the missus nearly choked on our banana panckaes

Grow up both of you - at least Tim had the grace to apologise to Bob.

But really are you both about 10 and stil shouting 'ya boo' in the playground.

No wonder half of us are turned off politics.

Since then Ireland has continued his war against me, ...

contradicts

Wars involve two sides.

therefore

There will be no blog war this time.

must be false. Can I claim a prize?