Bill throws a 'hissy fit'

I have removed the blog of Iain Dale from my blogroll as a result of a post in his blog congratulating Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, for having done a 'fantastic' job after ten years in his post. In a subsequent exchange we had in comments to his blog he said the following in one of his comments to me:

What?! What a ridiculous thing to say. So I don't agree with an assertion you make. Therefore you refuse to carry on the discussion. Dear oh dear. I agree with civil partnerships, but I do not regard it as the only thing to judge a politician on. Single issues are rarely the only yardstick to judge someone by.

- well I am terribly sorry, Iain, I am sure you are a lovely person, but your 'fantastic' in reference to John Howard's record sickens me. It would have been better, in my opinion, to counteer-balance this uncritical eulogy, if you had made some reference to his absymal policies relating to asylum seekers and gays. Your attitude reminds me of Jews and other inmates of Nazi concentration camps during World War II who collaborated with their overseers, because it allowed them to live for a few days or weeks longer before themselves mostly being shoved into the ovens along with the rest. I understand the motives, base ones, behind such collaboration, but I don't respect them. My little protest will most likely make no difference to you, but so what? I only added you to my blogroll in the first place, earlier this month, because you wrote me an email on 29th January asking me to do so - in a message back to you a couple of weeks later I wrote the following:

Hi Iain, Thanks for your email a couple of weeks back. I thought I should let you know that I've finally got around to adding a new batch of links to my blogroll, amongst which is a link to your own blog; curiously enough I had been following your blog quite closely for some months, specially in the run-up to and immediately following the 2005 General Election. If you do add my own little blog to your blogroll I shall obviously be grateful (although I do not operate a policy of necessarily reciprocating to all links to this blog, nor do I expect the same in return). As an erstwhile Conservative (I resigned in disgust when IDS was elected Leader) I am encouraged by recent developments, but will wait a little while longer to see whether Cameron's follow-through on various 'policy reforms' matches the rhetoric before deciding whether to re-join; I certainly accept that the signs seem positive. After some of the unpleasant nonsense spouted in the latter years of Hague's leadership and during the bulk of IDS's happily brief tenure I am wary of committing myself again formally to the Conservative Party until I am reasonably certain it has changed irrevocably. Kind regards,

- It goes without saying that what you write in your blog is entirely for you to decide, just as it is optional for potential visitors whether they choose to visit or maintain contact. I obviously had a niggle at the back of my mind about your blog before the last election, too, when I was reading it quite regularly at one point, which prevented me adding your blog to my blogroll then; I now see that my earlier instincts were valid and I am correcting the situation. Good luck!

UPDATE: (Friday 3MAR06 14.35 GMT) Oh, and I mentioned above about John Howard's appalling policies regarding asylum seekers - this is the kind of thing I was referring to!