You may notice I’ve spruced the place up a bit. The new theme is part of an overall aim to refresh this site and make it more clearly a “Labour” blog.
As such, I’m motivated by the values of the Labour party as set out in clause four of its constitution:
The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few.
I’m not by nature a polemical blogger, and my aim is to look at things from within the framework of those values, rather than engaging in polemics in defence of those values.
I’m not aiming to exclude anyone here – heck, I’m a blogger, traffic and comments are a key part of my self-validation đŸ˜‰ – just to make it clear what my aim is on this site, and to ask your patience if you are coming from a very different perspective and I don’t always have the time, mental energy or depth of knowledge to engage with your comments to the extent they deserve.
The Wandering Hedgehog 
I comment on sites not because the other bloggers agree with me on everything, but usually because I find the discussions they wish to pursue interesting.
No problem if certain discussions get dropped. That happens.
Rick: indeed. Equally, sometimes the argument can end up having to go back to first principles, and I just wanted to be upfront in admitting I won’t always be able to take it back there.
This may sound odd for a long-time blogger to say, but I’m not terribly keen on debate: I’d rather both sides of a topic understood better what the other thinks, and then moved on to talk about something else.
There is a place for “apologetics” (arguing and defending an overall framework in vigorous engagement with its critics), and a place for exploring within a given framework, thinking about how different ideas relate to that framework and can help illuminate or develop it. My preference in blogging has always been to engage in the latter. Perhaps it’s not a model that translates well from theology to politics – but it’s worth a go, and if it doesn’t work then I’ll probably just stop.