Parliamentary blogging must die. posted by Richard Seymour

It would take a real bastard to point out how utterly shit Jody Dunn's blog is, but then someone has to. And I don't merely say that because she is the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hartlepool. For one thing, she seems unduly concerned about her appearance , as The Guardian reports in a plug:

Extracts posted today, seen in advance by the Guardian, reveal her worrying over forgeting to eat while campaigning and struggling to concoct meals for her children, and having to buy suits to look presentable. "The worst thing about byelections is that you need to look smart, and it's worse being a woman," Ms Dunn, 35, writes.

"You can't just wear one suit every day and change your shirt for the occasion ... Court dress consists entirely of black and grey suits, and I refuse to spend two months being photographed wearing nothing but dull colours."

Obviously an issues person, then. But since when was it such a pressing issue for voters? Ann Widdecombe looks like a jumble sale model, and she's fared passably well at the polls. And has she ever seen the Blair 'babes' ?

Still, there's no reason to despair, as her blog reports:

Noted with some satisfaction that all the delivering has resulted in a weight loss of half a stone. Good news. But the real question for me today was what was going to happen to my court case. It was listed for five days. If it went ahead that would leave almost no time for campaigning all week. In the event however, the case was adjourned so I was free by three o'clock, and told my clerk not to put in any extra work for the rest of the week.

There is, occasionally, some politics on her blog (such as when she claims that Labour have issued a press-release calling her a single-mother; "lies", says she). Mostly, however, it is a prolonged effort in retailing dull tales from a dull campaign. And if I want to know what illiberal codswallop the Labour party strategists are purveying at the moment, I need only check out Tom Watson's blog . Watson, although he is given to insanely reactionary outbursts (like "why won't the Lib Dems lock up asylum-seeking single mums who smoke crack, and their kids who join teen gangs?"), does at least make an effort to talk about politics.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat Richard Allan MP writes with about as much energy and conviction as a stuffed turkey. A quick perusal of his blog will tell you that he was excited about the Hodge Hill by-election, has been mistaken for a Labour MP, was very excited to catch a glimpse of Bill Clinton and is vexing himself over the question of copyright laws. Riveting.

Hardly surprising, therefore, that the Hansard Society report on "political blogging" reaches damning conclusions . My advice is, if you don't have any literary flair or combustible political views, or even an insurmountably huge ego like me, don't bother blogging.

Anyone interested in keeping up with that roller-coaster campaign in Hartlepool should check out Guacamoleville . Unlike most of the tiresome cretins discussed above, Guacamoleville is funny, informative and hearteningly contemptuous of the main three parties.