UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

In defense of Dude

I feel I must jump to the defense of my good friend Dude who has been unfairly slandered by soon to be ex councillor Baldock.

Dude has been accused of being a misogynist, as a liberated female dog (I object to the official term) this is not something I would stand for in any friend of mine.

So I spent some time looking back through Dude's posts to see if there was any truth to this accusation.

But first, Cllr Baldock's ridiculous accusation:

Louise Baldock said:

I am not accusing Colin's campaign team of being misogynist, unless he is now acknowledging ownership of the Dude the Dog website. I was stating that the author of Dude the Dog blog is a misogynist. Who have the targets been? Me, Jane and Luciana mainly. Count how many comments are concerned with how we look, how we dress, unflattering photos of us. It is not about our views on housing regeneration or job creation etc, it is about our age, appearance, the state of play of our relationships etc. Dude the dog is a woman-hating blog.
This was my point.
Some of the responses above are red herrings. This is not about whether I am a feminist, or whether it was right for someone to write about the partner of a LibDem councillor getting a job in the LibDem group office without the job being advertised. I am talking about the hatred that Dude the Dog shows to women. That was why I used the word Dude/s in my post above. To distinguish the author(s) from the more decent majority of LibDems (men and women) who would never countenance such bile surely.

I can't find a single derogatory personal comment by Dude about Louise, Jane Kennedy or Luciana, and where unflattering photos have been used, they are actually photos that these three have put on their own websites. If they are that derogatory, why did you use them?

Has Dude taken the micky out of them? Well yes, it's a satirical blog. But if anything the only humans who have been the victims of derogatory comments about how they look have been men, particularly Joe Anderson and Sion Simon.

Have these three been particular targets? Well they have made themselves so.

Louise, if you write a vile blog abusing your opponents and calling them bast*rds, you are painting a large target on yourself.

Jane Kennedy's record as an MP was certainly nothing to be proud of, and Dude did a brilliant job exposing her expenses.

And Luciana Bating has become a popular sport in Liverpool amongst Journalists, politicians and the general public. She has been the greatest gift to any satirical dog.

All three are legitimate targets, and I can find no example of Dude overstepping the mark with them.

I know Dude is a big (small) dog and can look after himself. But he is a canine gentleman who is alway respectful towards females and I know that he finds such accusations hurtful.

I know many in the local Labour ranks are major fans of Dude, including at least one soon to be MP who has confessed to several Lib Dems how much he enjoys this blog.

After such a long fight to establish women in politics and demanding a right to be treated equally, it is demeaning to claim sexism ever time you are given a rough time.

Louise, you have lost the respect I had for you as a woman in politics.

12 comments:

Louise Baldock said...

Laura, you are lately arrived in Liverpool. Did you ever read the entry you describe as "vile"? Do you know what it is that I actually wrote? I will link to it here so that you can see it for yourself. I would be interested in your views on what was meant to be a positive comment on a LibDem, with the bit that got everybody so riled up, being quite clearly a joke.
http://louisebaldock.blogspot.com/2007/07/health-and-adult-social-care-select.html

The Vicar of Lichfield said...

I heard they have asked Cllr. Baldock to leave the Elizabethan Breakfast House.

Too much w-offal.

Orpheus, thou art Baldock not said...

Louise Baldock is a bag of slugs.

Kensington & Fairfield has gone to rack and ruin since Frank Doran lost his seat.

It would be madness to allow this creature back into any office. She and her scissor co-horts should hang their heads in shame.

Balboa.

Dude the Dog said...

You are barking up the wrong tree again Louise. Sally's name is not Laura, it is Sally. The clue is in the first five letters.

A real scouse boy said...

er, if Cllr Baldock is referring to Laura Gilmore, could she please explain how she is supposed to be "lately arrived in Liverpool" since I believe she was born here and was certainly living here decades before Louise even knew that Liverpool had a district called Kensington.

Like many scousers, she had to leave Liverpool to find work for a while. It doesn't justify the blatant lie from the lying toad Joe Anderson, claiming that she was from Somerset.

Did he ever apologise for lying? My arse he did!

Anonymous said...

nice to see Louise posting her under her own name for once.

Anonymous said...

Louise, the "Bastards" comment was just one in a long line of personal and nasty comments about various Lib Dems, as you well know.

I will concede that you have toned it down in the past couple of years, perhaps because of the negative attention you gained, perhaps because you have grown up, or perhaps even because you have received a taste of your own medicine from Dude's blog.

But don't try and pretend that your blog has been all sweetness and light, and that you don't know why all these Lib Dems are so mean to you.

Tom Morrison said...

Louise, attack Gerard, me, and the rest of the so called Bash Street Kids.. but sniping at Laura is beyond the pale.

She's been through enough because of you and your pathetic excuse of a party.

I know you must be bored after being kicked off the Berger campaign team, but surely you have better things to do? You're a grown woman for crying out loud!

Perhaps if you spent some time working on a campaign strategy instead of blog trolling then Cllr Simon would be the one facing Colin in the battle of Wavertree?

Food for thought..

Regards

Tom

Anonymous said...

I think Louise Baldock deserves nothing more than to be ignored.

She enjoys attacking (although she does it on sneaky ways) but can't take the hits and plays the victim claiming she's been abused. Hypocrite is the only word that comes to my mind whenever I hear of her.

And about her blog; yes, it might sound sweet and nice but it's full of lies and we all can see through them. You should give people a break Louise; we're not stupid! but then again... a thief believes everyone steals.

Anonymous said...

Why is Louise Baldock blogging and commenting? I remember I read her blog not so long ago and she said she probably wouldn't be writing over the next month because she's gonna be 'far too busy working'.

Empty promises... sounds just like Labour!

Gloria Goodshot said...

My grandma has been canvassed by both Louise Baldock and Frank Doran. She felt intimidated and bullied by LB but charmed and loved by Frank.

Laura said...

Ooh I must say I'm very flattered you think I am Sally the Sheep Dog - and thank you for brightening up my morning. I've been in fits of giggles since I read your post!

I know it must be hard for you to cope with the fact that I am from Liverpool, born in Fazackerley hospital and raised here. No matter how many times you and your party try and say that I am not from Liverpool, I always will be I'm afraid. Whoever your researchers are I would seriously consider getting new ones.

Seeing as though you asked for my views, here it goes. It is for people like you saying what I deem offensive comments like you write in that post, that politics in Liverpool remains as it is. You can try and provoke me all you want, but I still believe you are in politics for the right reasons, as I am sure most of your Labour Council colleagues are too. I just wish you would start to realise that the Councillors on the opposite benches to you, and the many activists there are in the city from all sides like myself, are in it to help and do their best for the people Liverpool as well.

There is no big conspiracy I'm afraid Louise. It must be exhausting being so bitter - and I don't mean that to be offensive in any way so please don't take it to be.

I just find it remarkable that you would get rid of all Lib Dems if you 'ruled the world' - apart from 5 out of 3000. How on earth do you actually know 3000 Lib Dems to make that judgement! I have a lot of time for many people in the Labour Party. Frank Field, especially, I admire. All the Labour people where I work seem lovely and we all get on well. I also have a friend in the Liverpool Labour Party (shock horror) who I have a lot of time and respect for. Incidentally, of my best friends is a Tory too.

Just because I have a different view of political ideology to somebody else does not mean that I hate them instinctively, or naively assume they must be in the 'wrong' party.

Wouldn't the world be a boring place if we were all of the same political persuasion?

Back to the drawing board in your search for Sally, I'm afraid you're *barking* up the wrong tree!

Best wishes,

Laura.