Good days and bad

As editor of this magazine the buck stops with me and I have to say, today we came up short. Technical issues abounded today which meant the magazine ran a rather dull piece by me on the Dublin spire instead of the usual news content. We did manage to produce an admittedly short piece on today’s strikes, so all was not lost but I would like to apologise for the drop in quality. Things should be back to normal tomorrow. There were other problems too, but no matter.

Anyway, we’re beginning to get comments on the magazine from around the ‘blogosphere’ – what a horrible neologism. Readers will be interested to hear that Derek Wall, former principal speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales had positive things to say about forth‘s article criticising the ‘population bombers’, that strain of green thinking that says the planet is overpopulated. Derek wasn’t too keen on our quoting James Heartfield, but you can’t have everything. For my money James’ book, Green Capitalism, is a must read.

However while Jason’s article name checks a few too many of the tribe of Spiked for me to be totally comfortable, what he is arguing is essentially correct

Actually only James Heartfield is quoted. The other interviewee is unrelated to Spiked and the other quotations are from published material by various lifestyle greens. Anyway, no matter. I’ve had some dealings with Derek and have to say I find him a thoughtful and amenable person and, more importantly, I am delighted to discover he isn’t a ‘population bomber’. Whatever else we all agree and disagree on, this is a nasty and pernicious viewpoint that will hurt the poorest among us, at home and abroad, if it becomes the orthodoxy.

Click here to read Derek’s post

Over on acclaimed Irish blog, Cedar Lounge Revolution, WorldByStorm introduced readers to forth:

Some interesting material, albeit with some debatable propositions, on the recently launched Forth website. I’m particularly struck by the pieces on the North, some of the thoughts there which I’ll discuss soon.

I’m not quite able to gauge the political position of the site, but seeing as the main person behind it, Jason Walsh, is writing for as eclectic a mix as the Guardian, the Irish Times and Spiked some form of triangulation should be possible

I have had some correpsondence with WBS and he seems like a decent fellow. Certainly his blogs are well worth reading. I just don’t understand the need to ‘triangulate’ my politics or those of forth. They’re pretty straightforward. Failing that, anyone who wants to know could always me. There is an e-mail address and telephone number listed on every single page of this web site. In addition, our ‘About Us’ page says:

What are forth’s politics?
forth is unaligned but considers itself progressive, however vague that term has become in recent years. Our main objective is to bring clarity to the issues we cover and challenge conventional thinking.

Who writes for forth?
Anyone who wants to. We actively encourage debate and so have an open-door policy on contributions. Pitches should be sent to our commissioning editor: commissioningeditor AT forward.ie. Please do not send unsolicited manuscripts.

What does the name mean?
forth is in favour of progress – we want society to move forward, to grow and develop. We see forth as progressive but this does not mean we necessarily seek to take traditional left-wing views on any particular issue. The name forth is also a nod to Vorwärts, a progressive newspaper published in Germany between 1891 and 1933.

Mystery solved? If not, don’t be afraid to ask. First and foremost, forth is a publication, an online magazine, not a blog.

One commentor, however, called me a cunt and then explained it was because of my writing for spiked. As irritating as it is to be criticised without any attempt whatsoever to understand, I can’t say I’m surprised. There are a lot of strange conspiracy theories circulating on the left about spiked – and they’re all nonsense. I’m stand by the work I have produced for spiked, just as I stand by of the work I have produced for the Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Guardian, CS Monitor and other newspapers. I am also glad of the support I have had from spiked’s editor Brendan O’Neill, who has contributed two articles to forth completely free of charge, one of which was has been most popular article so far by a very wide margin.

As for the notion that forth is an Irish version of spiked, well, I would be proud if forth was up to spiked’s standards. Alas, it is not. Not yet anyway. However, I suspect that is not what the suggestion means. Are things so bad now that one must produce a list of people they know? If so, yes, I know Brendan O’Neill and some other people associated with spiked and am glad to consider them friends. So what? I’m a journalist. I have friends with totally different views, including several (Irish) Green Party members. I also know members of the Ulster Unionist Party, Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Fine Gael, Labour, (British) Labour, the Socialist Party and plenty of people with no political affiliations and a good many with no interest in politics. I don’t judge people by their politics. Witchhunts from the left appear to me to be even uglier than those from the right. If anyone wants to have a go at me they are welcome to do so to my face.

On which subject, why am I not to be accused for having written for the Christian Science Monitor? Surely that means I am a Christian Scientist? For the record: I am not. The commentor in question also accused me of attempting to further my career – quel horroeur!. Perhaps I need to be clear about this: I am a working journalist, not a political partisan. The particular article he objected to was on the issue of suicide and was, frankly, entirely uncontroversial. Readers could not know this (because I have not told anyone before) but I am working on a number of mental health-related projects because it is an area that I am very interested in.

As far as I can pull off the top of my head, this is a (mostly) complete list of publications I have contributed to:

The Irish Times, the Irish Examiner, the Sunday Business Post, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Independent (of London), the Christian Science Monitor, Daily Ireland, Diplo, Magill, Village, Mute, Variant, the Dubliner, Business and Finance, Wired, Computer Arts, Computer Arts Projects, Digit, Digital Arts, .net magazine, Linux User and Developer, Linux Magazine, MacUser, Macworld, iCreate, PC Live, Micro Mart, the Journal of Music in Ireland, Retro Gamer, Short Wave Magazine, Culture Northern Ireland, Computerscope, Irish Printer, Hotel and Catering Review, Ulster Architect, Construct Ireland and Construction and Property News. I was invited to write something for the Sunday Tribune but couldn’t due to time pressure. The working life of a journalist is not glamorous.

Finally, forth is doing a bit of ad-hoc content sharing with teic.ie and spiked as well as actively looking into syndicating material from the alternative press in the US.