Last week Jeremy Hunt MP and the Conservative Party’s new media team hosted a Christmas lunch for ten Conservative-supporting bloggers.
It was a fun event which not only brought some of the Conservative bloggers together with us at CCHQ, but it also brought them together as bloggers – many of them for the first time.
Since the political blogosphere first developed in the UK it’s often been noted – with good reason – that the centre-right has been dominant. Just look at the last few days for a couple of examples of it flexing its muscles.
First there was the start of a campaign to use the tools of MyConservatives against the most prominent Labour backbencher online, and then there was a rapid and robust response to an entirely inaccurate account on the New Statesman website about the bloggers’ lunch itself.
That said, the real strength of the centre-right blogosphere up to now has not been in working together or toeing lines. Its strength has been its independent spirit. I know this as well as anyone from my two and a half years at ConservativeHome.com. There’s no technical magic about it, centre-right blogs have up to now simply been more interesting.
But just as we on the centre-right cannot afford to be complacent about the Conservative Party’s prospects at the next election, we cannot be complacent about the future prospects for our blogosphere.
The world of politics on the internet is a fast-moving treadmill, and its speed is going to increase exponentially as we get closer to the election (and beyond). Neither party nor movement can afford to slow down or stop innovating. So how can we keep up the momentum?
Competition between political blogs is by no means a zero-sum game. So whilst the centre-right blogosphere is best known for its big players in Westminster, there is plenty of room for a much broader and deeper hinterland of online activism and commentary – and ever-improving ways of navigating around the best of it.
Some of this added breadth and depth can be provided by new entrants – capable and committed individuals making their own mark. But a lot of it can be added by organisations too.
No centre-right thinktank has yet followed in the footsteps of organisations like the Center for American Progress in building a truly effective online “bridge” between its research capacity, and the constantly shifting focus of political debate that plays out on social media hour-by-hour.
That goes for campaign groups too, few of which have adapted the way they promote their values in a world of viral videos and Twitter hashtags.
Cultivating an effective online presence does take time and effort though. The sooner organisations and bloggers put in the “hard yards”, the better. And the more who do so, the merrier.
Comment by Philip Meyer on December 23, 2009 at 1:48 pm
It’s great that our blogs are so well received. But I do have to question how far they reach. They’re, for the most part, only read by political anoraks (that’s us, guys!) and by definition that means people already committed to their vote.
If we’re to win next year we need to reach swing/floating voters (or whatever we call them this week). So we need to be a little bit cleverer. I’m not entirely sure how we acheive this but I do have an idea.
There must be many thousand supporters like me who’s circle of friends are what I would call political civilians (i.e. inactive apart from voting). These are the people we need to reach urgently. The good thing is we already communicate with them every day via updating our Facebook statii with the minutiae of our daily lives.
We can surely put this to good use. If we update regularly with something in our own words it will trickle by osmosis into the National psyche (look at the Christmas No.! campaign for evidence. Who cared who was no.1 until someone gave us an alternative?).
It’s important that it’s our own words, and not a donated status like we did in the Europeans. We can link to articles that otherwise wouldn’t see the light of day. We can point out hypocrisy & get behind the spin. The media won’t do it for us.
I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop, but you get the idea.
Comment by Andrew Sprott on December 23, 2009 at 3:50 pm
A new kind of communication. The separation from actions from words. Words are powerful, actions do nothing but betray the way we see forward in our lives.
Embracing the logic and interoperability of the internet as just that. Forget about keyboards, mice – which do not even have hardware priority – and react to words.
The knocks of the shivering and quivering are just the knock on effects of what we believe is ‘cold’. No such thing, Seeing is believing and out of sight is out of mind.
Muscipula
Comment by Philip Meyer on December 23, 2009 at 6:27 pm
I didn’t understand a word of that.
Comment by Ron Gobell on December 29, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Hi Media Team,
Do you not read the comments to Blue Blogger articles? Read those that attract the most comments, eg. Eric Pickles and DCs, not just 3 or 4 comments but hundreds. There are a lot of peeved commentors on this site who believe that there is absolutely no communication between the Conservative party and the UK voters.
Pingback by Liberal Conspiracy » Is CCHQ planning to issue memos to bloggers? on February 3, 2010 at 4:00 pm
[...] Samuel Coates, who may or may not have sent out the email, said recently: That said, the real strength of the centre-right blogosphere up to now has not been in working together or toeing lines. Its strength has been its independent spirit. [...]
Comment by Reginald Fah-Fah on April 27, 2010 at 7:05 am
I have been campaigning day and night. A political correspondent from the New Statesman deleted my comments from his blog! He told me to go and blogosphere somewhere else.
Please google me and you will see. I was so please that David Cameron won the 2nd Leaders’ debate. Marvellous…jolly good show!