I've never hidden behind a pseudonym when blog writing. I used to keep a regular blog when I had my toyshop, thetoyshopowner.com (I had to take it down as part of our business sale conditions, much to the frustration of a worldwide readership from New Zealand to Canada to Australia and the USA). I wrote that in my own name, with my photo, as I do this one. I think a blog is more powerful if there are no veils of secrecy, if you know who's writing it and what they look like.
Admittedly, I get the boundary between public and private wrong sometimes. On the toyshopowner I once posted a story that a colleague had told me about another toyshop. I hadn't realised that I'd been given confidential information, though I soon found out when I got a furious email from said colleague. Yes, it's easy enough to take stuff down but it's hard to know who's read the story and anyway, the damage is always done by the time a complaint is received. I've made the same mistake here.
But now that I'm the governor of an NHS Foundation Trust hospital, now that any member of the public can enquire about my expenses (work related mileage and food is all I'm allowed. Sadly for our ducks, no duck pond castles), now that one wrong post about a patient issue could lead to media involvement... I'm wondering whether I should be more cautious. I don't think so. I've always written this blog in the anticipation of being a teacher. When I write, I ask myself whether I would be covered by a public interest defence: would I mind if one of my pupils read it? Would anything I write damage the reputation of myself/my anticipated profession?
I don't really want to go through my hundred plus postings with a fine toothcomb to check. I'm pretty sure my subjects have been acceptable (I'm decidedly enthusiastic about the hospital. It did save my life on several occasions and I have a lot to be grateful for). I'm just mindful that it could be an issue. I'm going to flag up my blog with the Trust Chairman. I don't want to end up like the writer called NightJack, whose award-winning blog has now been taken down. Journalists, especially at the Times group - who seem to have a penchant for unmasking bloggers - are quick to justify their actions, though their words of "public interest" sound a little hollow to me, and their complaints about their own privacy being invaded smack of blind hypocrisy.
David Finkelstein writes: 'In politics there is a saying: “Don’t do or say anything you wouldn’t be relaxed about seeing on the front page of the Daily Mail” (a rule many MPs seem to have forgotten). If you publish a blog with the aim of entertaining people and even allow it to go forward for the Orwell Prize, you can’t be altogether surprised if your name gets out.'
If I suddenly disappear, that's why. It's been decided by the powers that be (whoever they are) that my blog is no longer suitable. That I'm at risk of putting the hospital onto the front page of the Daily Mail. Here's hoping that I'll still be writing for a few more years...
