Nadine Dorries is the Conservative MP for Mid-Bedfordshire. A pretty safe Conservative seat. She's not my MP. If it was not for her bizarre behaviour then I would probably never have heard of her.
However she has developed a habit of attacking people who criticise her via their blogs with unnecessary venom. The two main victims seems to be @bloggerheads and @humphreycushion (to use their Twitter names).
In the case of @humphreycushion Nadine Dorries leaked her proper name to the press & seemed to imply through Nadine's own blogs that @humphreycushion's medical condition was either nonsense or should prevent her from...well from doing pretty much anything. Certainly not tweeting.
Nadine's issue with @bloggerheads seems to be that he is stalking her. This video, posted by @bloggerheads, is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjOr9vYg9dQ
The thing is Nadine's problem seems to be that @bloggerheads, who isn't an official journalist, is doing a journalistic job. Through his blog he has - and is - keeping Nadine's statements as a candidate and an MP under scruntiny. There is nothing about her personal life there. No pictures of her house. No threats. Nadine Dorries has claimed that she has called the police (and in her latest blog threatened @bloggerheads with them) but so far she has been unable to produce any evidence of either genuine stalking or her reports to the police.
It seems to me that Nadine wouldn't be behaving this way if @bloggerheads was an 'official' journalist for the BBC or even for a Bedfordshire local newspaper but because he is *just* a blogger she seems to think it is stalking.
Well Nadine welcome to the 21st century. The national press has become relatively easy to manage these days & people like @bloggerheads are doing a fine job of making sure that MPs can't get away with being 'economical with the truth'.
It might not be nice, in fact it might be plain irritating but if Nadine was to stop seeing @bloggerheads (and others) as 'just' bloggers & started to see them as - to be portentous for a moment - citizen journalists then she might start to behave in a slightly less eccentric manner. Why should MPs (of any party) be allowed to make statements that are incorrect and why can't I - as a voter - ask questions?
Let's face it attack is not always the best form of defence.
