I have a reputation on Twitter for being "unpleasant". It does not come naturally and I do have to look to others for inspiration but I think I have nailed it. I make a point of being unpleasant to unpleasant people. But the thing about politics is that the most unpleasant people have no concept of how unpleasant they are.
There are rules to this game to remain in favour. One should never criticise, condemn or complain and one should certainly never accuse. To break with that code is "poor form". This is as true in real life as it is on the internet. A veneer of politeness must be upheld at all times.
The product of this is a claque of self-regarding individuals who never say what needs to be said, will never debate and are disingenuous to the core. To even robustly disagree is to fall foul of the code - and to prove somebody wrong, well that's just rude!
Being that these circles function entirely on gossip, where information is transmitted orally, to be part of this circle one must either be in London or in favour with the London set. This is how groupthink forms.
There is, therefore, no point in trying to persuade. They will ultimately form up on whoever is fashionable and carrying the most prestige. Not for nothing do they have their little press conferences in oak panelled rooms in the Westminster village. It is about the projection of authority.
Being that we oiks are interlopers we are already viewed as unclean and little more than a nuisance where if they deign to speak to us at all it is with the greatest of condescension, claiming that if only we were more deferential they would listen to what we have to say. This often gets nods from the gallery, even among my own "supporters".
But this is a lie. What we see is little bands of self-important nonentities setting themselves up as authorities, parroting the basics to a shrinking pool of hacks who then credit them with expertise. They carry just enough borrowed prestige to qualify as a quotable source - where there is little verification of what they actually say.
What do they not want is competition. They will not, therefore, acknowledge outsiders, nor will they acknowledge anything they didn't think of, unless of course it comes to them via a sanitised source. Usually from an article an FT hack has plagiarised. Often we find them talking about subjects and concepts as though they were new - many months after the blogs have already covered it - and in greater detail.
To then complain about this is actually more of that "rudeness". This is their default excuse not to admit their own failings and will use any device to further the meme that I am "unpleasant". There is now a union of polite society - remainers and leavers I have robustly attacked who now join in chorus to tell the world how unpleasant I am. Since there is no escaping that and they will do it anyway, nothing at all is lost by playing into it.
The kind of groupthink we see on display is quite alien to me. I don't get it. There are many sources I dislike and many personalities on the web I find thoroughly disagreeable - but if they report a verifiable fact then it remains a fact. This notion that others must flatter before arguments are entertained is extraordinary narcissism.
My mission, therefore, is not to seek their approval, nor their agreement. They are more a Maginot line that we must go around, whereby we continue to expand and inform the debate until there is a pool of people who can see these frauds for what they are. I do so in the knowledge that decent people will see right through their weaponised indignation - because it is so very transparent.
As it happens, I don't think I am unpleasant enough. Certainly I could never hope to match the unpleasantness of the mealy-mouthed, backstabbing gossip groups inside the bubble. I lack that natural gift. I will, however, find new and creative ways to repulse these people - because they are not saying anything useful, they are not adding to the debate, and they should at least be told by someone how revolting they are.
I have never been known for my finesse. Perhaps it is my Yorkshire upbringing or a general distaste for pretentiousness. What I do know, though, is that the faux-politeness of the bubble and that veneer of decorum is far more toxic than I could ever be. Destroying this cancer that lies within our politics is the whole reason I got into the game to begin with.
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