What’s Tom Harris got against squirrels?

The Labour MP  and minister Tom Harris, has taken time out from his day job (slagging off the SNP) to broadcast to the nation about what he really meant in his blog posting about unhappiness.

The post and the subsequent story tells us a lot about a lot of things. Firstly modern-day political journalism – it’s not very good. Even with the Daily Mail/Tory spin Tom’s remarks are not that interesting or original, but they’ve propelled broadcasters in particular into a rather over-excited state.

Secondly, it shows the dangers of having ex-journalists as MPs. Tom’s blog is better-written than most and is clearly designed to attract attention – it was the phrase: “why is everyone so bloody miserable?” that has created most of the fuss.  There’s a lot of moaning about relentlessly on-message MPs and MSPs but a lively turn of phrase combined with a hint of self-indulgence, is disastrous for serious political parties.

And thirdly, this whole story says a lot about blogging itself – not just the dangers of the medium but that it is only really powerful when it is picked up by the mainstream media that many bloggers profess to hate.

But the oddest thing about all this is Tom Harris’s subsequent post which takes his Tory critics to task. He likens their reaction as being ”the political equivalent of chucking rocks at a squirrel – entertaining, but rather missing the point”.  Is it just me or is that not just a plain weird analogy – the idea of throwing rocks at a wild animal as a form of entertainment?