Internet Karma

Tim Ireland's past is slowly catching up with him. Today he complains to Mr Power via Twitter:

Westminster = small village. Dale telling political/publishing mates I'm a stalker makes it hard for me to ask tough questions.

Where did the phrase "stalker" in relation to Ireland come from? Is he right to complain that Iain Dale has been spreading this around Westminster? Tim Ireland seems to have a short memory because between 2003 and 2007 he ran a blog which, as he puts it now, was:

formerly dedicated to the gentle stalking of one of our finest Conservative MPs

Note only gentle stalking though, that must be fine. That's not like true blue plain vanilla stalking at all, is it? Tim has never done anything more than a bit of soft, gentle, teasing stalking with a feather. No wonder he's outraged, this Dale fellow is assassinating his character.

Unfortunately for Tim, Google's cache tells a different story.
It says:

Tim Yeo - The Weblog
A weblog dedicated to the stalking of Tim Yeo, one of our finest public figures ...

Oh dear Tim, for four years you told Westminster, the world and his dog that you were "stalking" Tim Yeo MP. Now you are complaining that Iain Dale once used the word "stalker" about you, then thought better of it.

The political blogosphere does indeed have a "stalker" lurking amongst us. Tim, who loves nothing better than to use forensic techniques on the internet, has been hoisted by his own petard. There's nothing here that couldn't be checked with a few clicks or searches of your own. And by the way, it seems Tim Ireland is not beyond doing a little bit of gentle editing too, when it might suit his own version of events. Maybe there are a few tough questions that he should ask himself, before he is let loose on the luminaries of the Westminster village.