The Future of the ThinPinstripedLine Blog

 

The Thin Pinstripedline blog has now been running for around 12 ½ years. For the last seven years it has been published on an at least weekly basis, and now hosts 673 published articles, has had over 4.5-million-page hits and has roughly 1.5 million written words of content. That’s an awful lot of time and writing invested in what is, at its heart, my spare time hobby.

The blog began back in 2012 as a means of providing objective factual analysis of defence issues, many of which were being covered poorly in the media. It was common to see stereotypical lines blaming Civil Servants or out of touch ‘top brass’ for decisions being taken that, on the face of it looked silly. Often there were very good reasons for these decisions being taken, but the details were overlooked in the rush to get a good headline. The point of the blog was to try to put across a different perspective that explained ‘why’.

UK MOD © Crown copyright

From the outset this blog has been my hobby and not a campaigning tool. I write it in my spare time, it is based solely on information I can find via google and is written without any privileged access to information, private briefings, or material that the public could not access. It is an open-source blog written with the benefit of some contextual understanding about why public information may be significant. It is written as a way of putting down my thoughts on an issue, not as a way of trying to set an agenda. The blog is scrupulously non-political, it does not and will not endorse any politicians or parties. It is written on the perspective that the UK has significantly more influence and capability than people sometimes realise and tries to counter the popular narrative of national decline, without descending into jingoism. It also argues that the MOD and British Armed Forces are more capable than publicly accepted, and decisions are taken for good reasons, even if not always clear to the outsider.

For me, there is no coherent plan of blogging activity, rather I find that something happens, or is published that sparks my imagination. A typical blog will be drafted on the backdrop of reading another media article or seeing the news and hearing about something that interests me. It may be defence cuts, it could be coverage on a report about the MOD or it could be announcements made that are particularly interesting. When this happens I find myself instinctively drafting the story in my head, coming up with the arguments I want to make and then when free time permits, writing it out at my desk. I’m blessed with the ability to be able to type rapidly and to write an article quickly. The result can be rapid response articles hitting the ground within hours to tackle the narrative that’s gaining traction, or informing the public about something of interest that may have just been published.

There are also longer-term articles that I do publish with a plan, and which are carefully drafted and worked on over a long period of time. These are generally based on archive research and involve a lot of work in reading primary source material and trying to build an article that is almost academic level in terms of research and effort. Recent examples include the pieces on HMS CHALLENGER, while future articles that I’ve yet to find the time to write will include work on HMS OCELOTS secret intelligence missions under Soviet warships, the plans for the initial CVF carrier design and wider work on cold war issues. All of this is aided by a change in my personal circumstances which means it is much easier to pop into the National Archives and use their facilities to review documents of interest.

Why am I writing this? To help try and explain my thinking on where the blog goes from here so that readers understand what its goals are, and what I want to do that ‘brings me joy’. Recently I have found that writing has become more challenging in some ways that have made it harder to bring a blog together, and deliver something that I ‘want’ to write about. Several things have changed that have made it harder to find the ‘mojo’ to write about current events, and its worth explaining this.

Firstly there is less defence news landing these days that is ‘5” gun size of toothbrush” worthy of commenting on. Much of the sensationalist nonsense of previous years has gone away, and the media environment of 2024 is vastly different to 2012. While some people talk of the ‘defence reporting hall of shame’, its actually often a single comment or incorrectly captioned image that triggers them, and its not worth engaging with. Mistakes happen, the trick is to respectfully flag them up, not get puffed up and angry about it.

Secondly there is the ongoing challenge of being able to comment credibly on an issue, versus just providing speculation as an outsider. When this blog began I was close in to many issues and had current understanding of many of the issues being reported in the media. As the years have gone by my understanding of what is current has inevitably diminished. For example, these days I will practically never write about the British Army, not because I have a lack of interest in it, but because it is at least a decade since I was last regularly exposed to Army issues and challenges. My ability to comment on subjects that I have no current knowledge of is minimal, and I am conscious that an article that either critiques or supports, when based on no more knowledge than the average person on the street may be deeply unhelpful. There are many highly qualified commentators out there able to write knowledgably about the British Army – I do not count myself as one of them! I do not want to become a talking head that waffles on about subjects that I cannot credibly comprehend. I would rather step back from writing on an issue and not say anything at all about it, rather than damage my credibility and provide filler. This means though that as time passes, the subject areas that will be covered here will, inevitably, reduce. I am now many years out of the MOD, and my knowledge there is slowly fading too – the challenge is to know when to step back with good grace, rather than become a bumbling doddery fool.

The next challenge is that of maintaining the blogs perspective and handling the challenges of social media. I’ve found that people like the blog because it tries to put across a different take, often far more positive than most commentators. Over the years I have received a lot of attacks and at times very offensive personal abuse for daring to not follow the establish line. That is a sad reality of social media these days though. What I am now finding difficult is trying to strike a balance on seeing issues around which I care very deeply, but where my instinct and understanding tells me that there is a real problem, and writing something that remains true to the principles of this blog, but also isn’t afraid to call it out, but without descending into being a ‘we’re all doomed’ article that can dominate the media.  Its particularly notable that when an article comes out highlighting concerns, I then receive criticisms for being downbeat. The recent article on the C130J, an issue around which I have grave concerns, was a good example where I was criticised for playing ‘fantasy fleets’ for suggesting that the loss of the C130 was a significant challenge, implying that the other options were worse, and also suggesting that I’d let myself down by saying such a thing.

UK MOD © Crown copyright

Handling social media is a real challenge. There is no getting away from the fact that Twitter is a loathsome site and where many people feel able to act in a vile manner. But its also a location where you can get messages across and get interest in the message you have to share. I’ve been impressed by the communities I engage with on Twitter, while sickened by some of the abuse people seem willing to dole out at others who do not share their views. More widely, trying to manage Twitter is a full time job – my ability to track and engage with it is minimal and if you take attention away from it, you return to a bucketload of notifications or find yourself tagged in some tedious debate about something I haven’t the slightest interest in. It makes it harder to find and engage with the content that I care about, due to sifting through some utter dross in the process.

The challenge with blogging and social media is that if you want people to engage with your material, you need to post it on Twitter. There is a notable decline in blog traffic, which I suspect is mirrored by many other blogging sites out there. I keep an eye on traffic to the blog and in recent years many articles, even when tweeted out, get far fewer ‘hits’ than before. But the social media engagement is huge – as an example, the article on HMS CHALLENGER has had approximately 2400 views, while the Twitter thread to communicate the blog and precis it has had 147,000 views in the same time. For some reason people want to read the tweets, but don’t want to then engage with the blog itself. This means blogging can be a thankless task at times!

Finally there is a growing challenge that others have set expectations on this blog that I have not set myself. I am very clear, this site is nothing more than my personal views, written because I enjoy writing and setting out arguments on issues that matter to me. What I find personally difficult to understand is how it has become a site that people turn to, or that people regard my views being ‘influential’. Hopefully those that know me well will confirm that I am a modest person and have very little, if any, interest in influence or power. The idea that people put weight on what I say, or feel that the blog has a reach continues to amaze me – this isn’t why I write it and it isn’t what I really feel comfortable with to be honest. For me a significant moment of truth was getting emails from a senior member of a major Whitehall Departments comms team demanding I delete content of publicly available material that I’d found due to it being hosted in error. Another time was when I was informed that for a short period of time the blog content was of concern to a counter intelligence team for concerns that it was a security risk. That was the point where I realised that this is getting a bit silly. My worry is that the blog is getting to a point where people are giving it a level of influence that it was not intended to have, combined with a reach that it never set out to achieve. As someone who has no aspirations of being an influencer and who finds the idea that what they say matters, this is quite stressful – it means every blog I do has to now be carefully drafted with thinking ‘how will this land or be interpreted’ in a way I find stifling. The blog is at its best when it can comment freely, but now I’m not sure that it is able to do this for fear it will set people off. Bluntly, I’m not sure that as currently delivered, this blog is ‘bringing me joy’.

UK MOD © Crown copyright

So what to do about this? Having reflected carefully on how to take the blog forward, my instinct is that there is still a key role for PSL to play. Firstly, I do want to continue doing the occasional article in response to news and events, but these will likely be fewer than before. It is less likely that you’ll see the same frequency of blogs commenting on media posts and there will be things that I don’t engage with. Also its less likely that I’ll go over old ground again – I have no interest in picking up (again) articles on RIVER class OPV armament or the pointlessness of Reserve Fleets.  Where the bulk of my time and effort will instead go is on articles that will be more academic in nature. I hope to use my ability to use the Archives to do more research on historical events, and write about them and their ongoing relevance to the modern armed forces. My intention is that PSL will over time be far more about longer articles that tell the story of the military in the Cold War and why it matters now, than it is about a ‘rapid rebuttal of poor headlines’.  I believe this enables me to carve out a niche that still adds interest and value, but avoids becoming out of touch and damaging credibility by writing on issues that I no longer have a credible connection to.

What I also want to do is try to carve some time back (blogging takes up a great deal of time) to focus on other interests. I am keen to do more academic writing and publish under my own name, rather than a ‘nom de plume’, and particularly focus on study of the Cold War era in greater depth. I’m also keen to do more published articles under my own name, and build a reputation for myself as an academic in my own right, and not via the blog name. I am also keen too to build my reputation in this space – I’ve been asked a lot if I’m writing a book, and the answer is ‘no, not yet’ because I don’t have a literary agent or book deal. If you want to have a serious chat about this, then get in touch via the email address at the bottom of the article. Likewise, I am keen to publish more academically and want to step back slightly from blogging to give me the time to write on this more formally.

Similarly, I’m keen to engage more widely in supporting events, study days and other activities where hopefully I can add value. As those who have heard me speak publicly will (hopefully) attest, I am a very good public speaker and really enjoy delivering presentations. Without wishing to sound like I am touting for business, if you have a ‘brigade study day’ (or equivalent) or need an after-dinner speaker to talk about why the lessons of the Cold War remain relevant to this day then get in touch and maybe we can make something happen.

Given the above, its fair to say that the question I often get asked is why do I hide behind anonymity? I’ve carefully considered whether to end the use of the ‘Sir Humphrey’ title, but decided on balance to retain it primarily because it functions much like the Dread Pirate Roberts does in the movie ‘Princess Bride’ – one day there will need to be another Sir Humphrey… It is very much a character, much like other columnists, and not an attempt to conceal my identity - those who need to know, ‘know’ and if asked, I always confirm who I am! I do enjoy seeing much ill-founded speculation about who I am and where I work – I’ve also seen a few poor attempts at doxing, all of which have been wrong, although it’s fascinating to see the places where I apparently work, but it would be even nicer if they paid me! As I have always said, if you want to meet for a coffee, drop me a line and let’s try to set something up. Its always a pleasure to meet fellow defence enthusiasts.

Hopefully this gives you, the reader, a sense of where PinstripedLine is going and what the next few years hold for it. Blogging is something I do for fun and not for my career. I hope that in setting out where I want to take the blog and what I want to write about, you will find it of interest and value to you. As always, a genuine and heartfelt ‘thank you for reading’ – I am humbled beyond words that people enjoy what I write, and I hope that this site will both for you the reader and myself as the author continue to ‘bring us joy’.

 

pinstripedline@gmail.com