Thought I would just throw this out there in case anyone has heard anything on the grape-vine that might give me a clue…
I have been reading The Inspector Gadget Blog for about five years now and would be lying if I said that he wasn’t one of the main reasons why I started to write. His posts have been an inspiration to many and I have lost count of the number of times his posts have been pinned up on the noticeboard in the canteen by the troops, only to be torn down again a few hours later by the Chief Insp! I have spent the last year or so writing about Policing and other relevant issues and, throughout that time, have continued to read Gadget’s blog religiously along with a number of blogs written by others. Since the earliest days of MinimumCover, however, I seem to have attracted some degree of hostility from the boss. Comments made in response to Gadget’s posts have been randomly blocked, links have been ‘Rick Rolled’ and others have attracted some fairly blunt replies. I wrote to him a few times to ask for my blog to be added to his ‘Gadget Reads’ section but never got a response, let alone a link.
Now, I have never had anything but praise for the Boss. His blog has snowballed in popularity recently. It is now well past 11,000,000 hits and he has more than three times the twitter following as @minimumcover does. He has the attention of the Police Federations, the Government, the media and many other high-profile sets of ears. For God’s sake he even has his own entry on Wikipedia!
I cannot imagine any possible reason why my modest offerings should upset, offend or threaten in a way that could attract such disdain. Any ideas…..anyone?
I am writing this, making my feelings public, in the hope that any issues can be put aside. All I want is for my blog can be accepted by those that inspired it as well as those that are regular readers. Let’s face it, with recent events taking chunks out of the flanks of the Police Service left, right and centre; with Government cuts and political grudges being used to destroy any chance of saving what’s left of the job I joined; we should all be pulling together to ensure we have some chance of getting through the next few years.
So, if you are reading this boss, for whatever I have done or written that annoyed or upset you I apologise. I don’t expect any public acknowledgement or to get handed an olive branch with a bow on it, you might not even care! But, if you do, maybe you could see your way to pushing a few barriers aside, resist the urge to be mean to the little blogs in the playground and let us write as colleagues.
Cheers,
MC
