I see that left leaning bloggers are being asked to unite against Michael Meacher and his bid for leadership of the Labour Party. I scoff a little at the idea. Even in my most optimistic moments I don’t imagine that anyone out there is reading my thoughts apart from family and friends. Then I nip behind the scenes of my website to do a bit of tidying up and to my amazement discover – awaiting moderation – comments from a skater in Dundee, an elk spotter in Canada, an eco warrier in Oxfordshire and some sad perverts in an unspecified region of cyberspace. Yikes.

All of which makes me feel both overawed and more than a little creepy about the wide reach of the Internet. In an instant, a random search on Google can bring unknown readers to me while it whisks me towards new information that supports or challenges my prejudices. But it takes much more time and diligent cross-referencing to decide how much of this information is reliable.

Comments on my website cannot be taken at face value (that doesn’t include reputable family sources like Jean of course whose post on carbon footprinting I quickly approved ). I am very happy to post Daryl’s comment on the successful outdoor skatepark in Dundee. And I am intrigued (if disappointed) to get Lonnie’s opinion on the image of elk crossing the Trans-Canada Highway. He says it’s a fake. Which is a shame, but who on earth has time to photoshop elks into a picture of a highway flyover?

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But at least, if it is a fake, it is good clean fun. I am aware that I could have been taken in by a cleverly worded SPAM rant against Bush which turned out (I clicked the URL) to be a portal to sites selling handbags, gambling and dodgy sex.

Thanks to Rob and Tommy I now have the protection of Akismet which filters out 99% of the SPAM arriving daily on all blogs. My last post about the Scottish Parliamentary committee system produced a sudden rash of invitations to all kinds of activities my sheltered life has protected me from. I suspect (in my innocence) they were triggered because I used words like pornography and prostitute (subjects for discussion in one of the committee meetings). There, now I have used them again, that will probably trigger another load of SPAM about George Bush.

Meanwhile, back to Michael Meacher. For the record (in case anyone out there in the blogosphere really wants to know), I like his stand on the environment and enjoy his rants against the US and the mad folly of the ‘war on terrorism’. But it is a pity he voted ‘very strongly’ for the invasion of Iraq so I would back John McDonnell for leader. Not because he stands a hope in hell of beating Gordon Brown but because he does stand for a lot of things left leaning members of the Labour Party should be voting for. If enough of us back him perhaps Gordon Brown will notice.