(Although I think that should technically read “New Statesman New Media Awards report”, but that contains rather too many “New”s, especially as neither the magazine nor the awards really are.)<\/p>\n
Anyway, as Guido’s<\/a> still hungover, Paul<\/a> got lost, Katie<\/a> vanished, Tim<\/a> missed his train, Recess Monkey<\/a> seemed too busy with his ethics advisor (yes, really), Alan<\/a> is no doubt busy with “work”, and Jonn<\/a> hasn’t got anything up yet, it’s doubtless time for me to add my tuppence worth to that of Clive<\/a> – who has proved that these northerners are better drinkers by already having something up despite having missed his train back to the sticks.<\/p>\n Other than the bloggers, who won lots of free booze but very little else, MySociety<\/a> deservedly done good, with awards for Contribution to Civil Society for Write to Them<\/a> and Advocacy for Pledgebank<\/a>, other awards going to OpenDemocracy<\/a> (Independent Information), Derek Wyatt MP<\/a> (Elected Representative), BBC Backstage<\/a> (Innovation), Love Lewisham<\/a> (Modernising Government), The Commission for Social Care Inspection<\/a> (Accessibility), and Sonic Postcards<\/a> (Education). Nope, I hadn’t heard of most of them either.<\/p>\n Still, “blogging” minister David Miliband<\/a> was on hand to dole out the pieces of plastic (insert ID cards joke here), and was actually rather impressive. Kept up the standard “make a joke to get the audience onside” thing for a good five minutes before moving on to the tedious stuff, and gave me a good idea of why he’s being talked of as future leadership material. Despite me despising a large chunk of what he stands for, he managed to seem likeable. (The fact that he quoted extensively from Devil’s Kitchen<\/a>‘s insults to him – “That David Miliband has lost his fucking mind… batshit mad” – as an example of the kind of nutters he’s had to put up with since starting his blog almost got me wanting to buy the man a pint…)<\/p>\n Gossip-wise, there was surprisingly little that’s juicy – although I was present for the historic meeting of Guido and Georgina “Why do they all hate me?” Henry<\/a>, I’ll leave it to the bearded one to give his version of events, as his account will doubtless be far more amusing (if also significantly less accurate…)<\/p>\n As can no doubt be gathered from the utter tedium of this post, I’m still feeling a bit delicate. Good amounts of alcohol and very few nibbles combined with the heat of an awards ceremony conducted in what appeared to be a giant condom outside the Serpentine Gallery<\/a> has caused a level of dehydration that will doubtless soon be patented by some Californian plastic surgeon as a revolutionary new weight-loss technique. If I remember anything worthwhile, I shall update.<\/p>\n Update:<\/strong> Oh yes, and Peter Tatchell<\/a> needs Google-juice. He’s got a new campaign starting up revolving around former workers at the British Embassy in Baghdad who, despite having received death threats from “insurgents” for “collaborating” have been refused asylum in the UK. Sounds like a worthwhile one to me – though there’s less than no info out there. (And yes, I did try and convince him to start a proper blog, rather than merely list his recent articles and hope that the occasional piece for Comment is Free will attract notice…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Although I think that should technically read “New Statesman New Media Awards report”, but that contains rather too many “New”s, especially as neither the magazine nor the awards really are.) Anyway, as Guido’s still hungover, Paul got lost, Katie vanished, … Continue reading