gatewatching

One of the most consistently… bracing political blogs is Andrew Elder’s clearing-house for the foibles of the commentariat, Politically Homeless.

I haven’t had time to have a good solid read of his stuff for a while - a comment from The Doctor on a previous Gatewatching post led me to have a squiz this evening.

His stuff is critical and often hilarious, but it’s beyond snark - Elder’s style involves a close, often line-by-line disassembly of the offerings of the paid-up commentariat, and discussions of their shortcomings that are extended, impassioned and incisive. Usually each post focusses on a single article.

I couldn’t just add a link to the poll wars post of earlier this week, which catalogued the brouhaha on the 21st - I thought passages like this deserved a post of their own:

Dennis Shanahan is an experienced journalist, yet his experience was sidelined by
his yearning for more Howard. He was comprehensively shown up by people going
by names like Possum Comitatus, Poll Bludger and Mumble. People smarter than him,
people who knew more about voting patterns than he did, people who all but stole
the bread and butter out of his mouth.

That’s about the least combative part of that post, by the way.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve all got his feed in your readers already. If you haven’t, and you’d like to see how excoriating intelligent, informed blogospheric voices can be, get over there.

UPDATE THURSDAY: Yesterday’s post about the “renaissance” of moderate Liberalism, which bounces off an article written by Liberal MP Marise Payne, is simply a classic of Elder’s idiosyncratic style.