There's another Oscar in the news other than Pistorius. Conwy's Thoughts of Oscar blog has turned out to be something of a scandal. It's hit the national and now even to a limited extent the UK news. The author was outed on Tuesday evening in the UK parliament by none other than Aberconwy MP Guto Bebb. Bebb had been the subject of that blog author's ire and he reported that some of his constituents were more than unhappy at (a) the treatment meted out by Oscar to them and (b) the response of the police. Bebb'd gone to the lengths of hiring a private detective to unearth the author: according to Bebb, there were three (including the solicitor business partner of Rhuthun/Ruthin's MP David Jones, later vehemently denied). According to Oscar himself, there was but one.
Thoughts of Oscar blog is almost as old a blog as ours. It started in 2007 and was taken down the day before yesterday having clocked up over 6,000 posts with a 2014 average of eight posts a week. I wonder how Oscar feels, having invested so much of his time in publishing. It must leave something of a vacuum for him. I doubt many in public office will have much sympathy with him, though.
Early on, Oscar linked here. I think Oscar may have felt that Rhuthun/Ruthin was some sort of soul mate as a sister local blog. Erm, hardly. Oscar's blog had a very different outlook. In 2009, we said of Oscar,
Much of what Oscar wrote was simply nonsense and sometimes his arguments were weak & vacuous. He was occasionally just plain juvenile (the ARSEmbly? Really?). He did, however, cross the line and at least one person has made mention of the word "harassment." Bebb called it a "poisoned pen blog" and rather "viscous and nasty". Mind you, there were plenty who might disagree: there was always enough support for him via blog comments and there were those who felt his exposé gave otherwise discouraged local people a voice.
There are ways and means.
But if he felt so enraged by public life then perhaps it would have been more constructive of Oscar to stand for election locally, nationally or for Westminster. Perhaps he may yet but with local elections not due till 2017 depending upon voluntary council mergers, by then he may have lost his momentum. And Oscar did once say, "the moment you become a councillor, you become the ridiculed as opposed to doing the ridiculing!" So that avenue is probably closed to him, then.
If you haven't the editorial authority and accountability of the media, which can be equally strident when needs be, then you need to be very circumspect.
Rhuthun/Ruthin is rightly proud of its unbiased approach. Its author takes the view that if one wouldn't say something down the pub or on the Square or anywhere in public, it's not worth stating here. This, by the way, is one major deficiency of the Fans of the Old Ruthin Blog Facebook page. No anonymity there, of course, but we do have people we all know making all sorts of ill-conceived, ill thought out comments, seemingly off the cuff.
It's interesting that in 2009, Oscar said (and the grammatical errors are all his),
In 2010, Oscar named Bebb as likely to be a most capable MP for Aberconwy and someone who had "got what it takes". How things change.
Early on, Oscar linked here. I think Oscar may have felt that Rhuthun/Ruthin was some sort of soul mate as a sister local blog. Erm, hardly. Oscar's blog had a very different outlook. In 2009, we said of Oscar,
"We would not… wish to emulate Oscar’s populis't (sic) style as he picks off and snipes at public figure's (sic) in Conwy county and elsewhere which, some might conclude, are wholly ill tempered, ill judged, unclear—and rather grammatically challenged to boot. His approach is Oscar's choice, of course, but we feel it does him no favours. To think Oscar once linked here (shudder), with the epithet "Rhuthun/Ruthin—lover of small shops?"Oscar's choice, indeed. His desire may have been an imperative to highlight what he felt were deficiencies and injustices in public Conwy life but it was the way in which he did so that now seems so ill-conceived. And, in the end, it certainly did him no favours.
An Oscar post referring in part to Rhuthun
Much of what Oscar wrote was simply nonsense and sometimes his arguments were weak & vacuous. He was occasionally just plain juvenile (the ARSEmbly? Really?). He did, however, cross the line and at least one person has made mention of the word "harassment." Bebb called it a "poisoned pen blog" and rather "viscous and nasty". Mind you, there were plenty who might disagree: there was always enough support for him via blog comments and there were those who felt his exposé gave otherwise discouraged local people a voice.
There are ways and means.
But if he felt so enraged by public life then perhaps it would have been more constructive of Oscar to stand for election locally, nationally or for Westminster. Perhaps he may yet but with local elections not due till 2017 depending upon voluntary council mergers, by then he may have lost his momentum. And Oscar did once say, "the moment you become a councillor, you become the ridiculed as opposed to doing the ridiculing!" So that avenue is probably closed to him, then.
Rhuthun/Ruthin is rightly proud of its unbiased approach. Its author takes the view that if one wouldn't say something down the pub or on the Square or anywhere in public, it's not worth stating here. This, by the way, is one major deficiency of the Fans of the Old Ruthin Blog Facebook page. No anonymity there, of course, but we do have people we all know making all sorts of ill-conceived, ill thought out comments, seemingly off the cuff.
It's interesting that in 2009, Oscar said (and the grammatical errors are all his),
"I have spent a while this afternoon looking at the Internet… and looked back on this blog and reflected on a few comments that had been left by one particular person, and I had great joy in deleting this persons (sic) comments, I admit that maybe I should not have published them in the first place…"Hmmm…
In 2010, Oscar named Bebb as likely to be a most capable MP for Aberconwy and someone who had "got what it takes". How things change.
At the time of writing, morethoughtsofoscar.blogspot.com (above) was still live. It was taken down on Wednesday but reappeared the same day. It shows the open letter to Bebb as published initially by Oscar that was to be his eventual downfall