Sunday 17 December 2006

Thanks...I Mean..Really, I'm Just So...

Here's my acceptance speech on being voted Time Magazine's Person of the Year:

This is a great honour, which has come a complete surprise to me. Given that all I do is spend a couple of hours a day sitting on my arse writing a mixture of ignorance and half-digested nuggets of information, or semi-forgotten things I learned at school many years ago, and that I mix it all with a not too healthy dose of my personal prejudices, I think it's all the more impressive. But it's not just me being billy no mates, it's been a team effort at the end of the day, and a lot of people have given 110% to this project. I'd like to thank, firstly, Wikipedia, which has furnished me with more knowledge than I ever thought possible; blogger, who for reasons best known to themselves give me a free space to rant; my employers, for giving me a part time job so that I could spend time wittering into cyberspace instead of earning money; and finally, my family, who have not kicked me out yet. Blogging is a valuable contribution to the global debate, at its best it is a vigorous democratic sphere in which all the issues that get missed off the MSM find a place. For me, however, it's just a chance to mouth off a bit and stare at sitemeter with a slightly resentful frown.

2 comments:

Gracchi said...

Congrats, and thank you for your congratulations in return. Have you read the article? A more odious piece of puffery I scarcely have come across- it was the whole new media thing- Private Eye need a new feature on it the world has changed- pity I didn't notice. Sorry bit of a rant there- good blog by the way

Bill Haydon said...

Yes, congratulations indeed. You deserve this award for your insightful and intelligent punditry; your blog is an excellent read. I have indeed read the article, and it is, to put it mildly, rubbish.