The (Un)conservative enemy:

This is a Beeb-bash-based blog, and it is so because the values of the BBC- self-vaunting, coercive, politically correct- are so much to my mind the kernel of what is wrong, and what could get worse, with the media that shapes our society- and it's good to say so!

The Beeb though is only a part of the problem with the media; a vital part, but just a part.

That's why I am so impressed by this profound entry in Melanie Phillips' diary. She carves through the morasse of contradictory, vacuous opinion and in the process really sorts out some of the opinionati.

One of the targets (the main one) is Andrew Sullivan, whose latest article for the Times is a model of weasiliness.

I so wanted to write to Sullivan to say what I thought of his decision to back Kerry after spouting a whole lot of songs from the Bush song-book for the last four years, but I backed out when the message was written because it seemed mean-spirited. It was accurate, and not cruel, but it didn't sound nice. Melanie manages to nail him nicely:

'Sullivan is all over the place on the war: a faint-heart who, while ostensibly still supporting it, has nevertheless succumbed to the absurd and irrational propaganda of the anti-war mob.'

She rightly points out his complacency, and I could scarcely believe my eyes when I read Sullivan's opinion that

'Nobody seriously believes that Bush will start another war.'

With these words Sullivan proclaims what is utterly contrary to his stated views: it was GWB's war, not Saddam's. How can a person be in favour of war per se unless they are tyrannical? I mean, pick your cause for war with Saddam- breaking sanctions, supporting terrorists, transgressing resolutions, never completing his original surrender from his previous aggression etc etc- but don't say the war originated with GWB unless you have only personal emnity against him.

When I hear, as probably I will from Sullivan himself or his new democratic friends, how a torrent of vitriol has poured down on his head because of this principled stand- I'll perhaps re-read Melanie's argument and be safe in the knowledge that the central criticisms are powerful and don't rely on offensive name-calling. Still, I anticipate finding him doing a camp impression of Ali G.; something like 'Is is because I is gay?', in the not-too-distant future.