When I blogged about the centre-right blogosphere before Christmas, I argued that competition between political blogs is by no means a zero-sum game:
“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”.
A lot of that breadth is already there. But as centre-right bloggers have tended to be more independent-minded than those on the Left, there hasn’t been much of a tribal community bringing them all together. Until this week, for instance, there had never been a proper event for Conservative Party-supporting bloggers from around the country to meet each other.
That changed on Tuesday when over seventy bloggers (plus some tweeters) came to a get-together organised by the Party’s new media team. They ranged from a young lad who got a night bus down from the north-east and crashed on my couch, to a very senior executive who indulges in a bit of political blogging on the side.
Most people there didn’t know most people there – something of a rare quality for an event based in Westminster. Organising it was like herding cats, so we circulated a Google Doc we’d been working on that listed the blog and contact details of all those attending. And now that they have those details it’s our hope that, in the spirit of open data, it will be easier for bloggers to come up with ways of working together.
But whilst cultivating relationships within the blogosphere is a productive outcome in itself, there was a more serious context to the event – something which Party Chairman Eric Pickles touched on in what was an otherwise very funny speech.
It’s become very clear that the Labour Party, and the wider movement behind it, has decided to focus on negative rather than affirmative campaigning in the coming election. Eric said that he expected it to be “one of the nastiest campaigns in recent history”, and he was right.
He was also right to directly urge the bloggers to fight the spin, saying “that’s where you come in, for rebuttal”. There’s no reason why political parties shouldn’t engage with citizen commentators, just as they engage with professional lobby journalists. We’ve seen the power of this kind of open engagement elsewhere the world, not least from the opposing sides in the last American election.
When Mark Twain famously said that a lie “can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes” people had barely started using telephones, never mind Twitter. Negative campaigning at a national level is, of course, as old as politics itself. But with the advent of new media, responsibility for tackling it now rests on the shoulders of grassroots activists.
( 17 comments ) Tags: bloggers, Eric Pickles, Google Docs, Labour Party, Twitter
Comment by Simon Smethurst-McIntyre on February 5, 2010 at 10:57 am
It was a great event and a great idea. There is such a wide breadth of voices in the Blue Blogosphere but they are so often drowned out by the big three or four.
ToryGator Is a new site that brings all the Tory Blogs together in one place. The idea is to make sure that everyone’s voices can be heard regardless of how young or old they are, how close or far they are to Westminster, or how big or small their current readership is.
Comment by Tory Aardvark on February 5, 2010 at 11:10 am
That was a really good event, cant wait for the next one.
It was great to put faces to names of people you have talking to on twitter, comments and emaiil.
We have already exchanged links with other blogs and are already sending and receiving traffic to other sites.
Cant wait for the next event
Comment by Mark Hanson on February 5, 2010 at 11:32 am
Hi Sam – sounds like a very useful event. Interesting you mention Eric’s view that the Labour online movement is being nasty – what’s yours/Eric’s view about the #KerryOut campaign being championed by several leading Tory bloggers?
Comment by Jackart on February 5, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Please, please delete any and all photos of me singing!
Comment by oldrightie on February 5, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I agree with much that is written here. Sadly the “who you know” principle is writ large and lone voices must continue their wilderness wrailing alone.
Comment by Sean Lever on February 5, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Yes it was rather strange a first – a virtual world that hadn’t had physical representation until last week. Of course we need remember traditional campaigning ways still have an important place as well. Politics is about people, first and foremost, and communication the means we all use to engage in it.
Comment by Colm Howard-Lloyd on February 5, 2010 at 1:53 pm
One great thing to come from this event already was the exposure of Will Straw (he of “evidence-based” Left Foot Forward, and one time drug dealer) as a sloppy journalist.
An unverified tip-off, some “clever” quoting and a touch of “wasn’t asserting anything, just quoting someone else” does not make a story. Let alone an evidence-based critique of Eric Pickle’s war plans.
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/02/pickles-key-role-for-tory-bloggers-in-rebutting-labour/#comments
Now we just need to find, and congratulate “A Tory Friend”!
Comment by Heresiarch on February 5, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Next time, can I come?
Comment by Simon Dickson on February 5, 2010 at 3:11 pm
I don’t think it’s fair to characterise Labour’s entire strategy as negative. Of course there’s been all the usual rough and tumble of an election campaign, on both sides. But Labour are at least trying to make a positive case with their current ‘Change We See’ campaign. (Whether it succeeds is another matter.)
Eric Pickles is probably right to say it’s going to be one of the nastiest campaigns ever: not least because there are so many individuals now with unregulated publishing platforms, to get as nasty as they want – well, until m’learned friends wade in. But to echo Mark Hanson’s point, I sincerely hope the deeply personal campaign against Kerry McCarthy hasn’t set any kind of a tone.
Comment by Dean Russell on February 5, 2010 at 3:43 pm
The event was a great idea and really useful to be at. Sam, you should be applauded for making it happen.
As usual Eric Pickles gave a fantastic speech which helped create a great buzz on the night. It’s great to know that Eric and the team not only support us bloggers and tweeters, but actually get what it’s all about too. Keep up the great work.
I look forward to the next one.
Comment by Jeremy Thomass on February 5, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Good piece, Sam, but can’t we do more as a Party, even now to get more of our Candidates to do their own blog?. Too many still don’t,and too many of them are the younger ones who you’d normally expect to be up on this sort of thing. Until more do we’re not going to seem as connected to the Zeitgeist as we need to be to win convincingly
Comment by Will Straw on February 5, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Colm – As I’ve said for about the 14th time, we caveated the claim from “A Tory Friend” with the quote from Shane Greer.
The point of the story (and headline) was the role Pickles sees for Tories bloggers in rebuttal, proved by how many responded to Sam Coates’ tweet.
Comment by Val Duncan on February 5, 2010 at 7:12 pm
OK, lets be serious for a while.
A great many people believe Blair and Brown are traitors for the illegal war in Iraq, mass immigration and for subverting and trashing our ancient laws to impose EU (foreign) laws… BEFORE the Lisbon Treaty was even signed.
Already the Tory Party are being seen as the party with NO policies, so if you wish to enter Westminster with any decent majority it is past time you got the finger out and tackled the above problems. Tinkering round the edges will not wash because there is too much bad feeling among the indigenous people of this country.
Either you can tackle the problems or let them fester… and fester they will.
You are intelligent politicians… start behaving like it.
Comment by Millian on February 5, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Of course Labour has to take a partly negative strategy. “Independent” smear bloggers like Guido never target the Tories unless they have to.
Comment by Rob Marrs on February 5, 2010 at 10:50 pm
I’d like you to be right but I think that the only people who care about the blogosphere are, well, the bloggers and a few thousand readers (admittedly, often influential people).
The majority of the public couldn’t care less. Sadly, as it happens, in my opinion as some of the best, most analytical and insightful writers are on the blogosphere.
I hope I’m wrong – keep up the good work.
RCM
http://leftbackinthechangingroom.blogspot.com
Comment by Sunder Katwala on February 6, 2010 at 11:18 am
On “negative campaigning”, the Economist has a very powerful critique that the “broken society’ argument which is the central Tory claim of the last four years is “simply wrong”. Do you think their analysis is inaccurate? (And will the Conservatives now cease using the dodgy rising violent crime stats, which Iain Duncan Smith to his credit has said can’t be used).
Many independent voices have seen the right-wing blogosphere as rather more homogenous than that on the left. The centre-of-gravity is Tory right and libertarian rather than “on message” in leadership supportive terms. (An example is that all of the top 10 Tory blogs in the Total Politics list don’t believe that man-made global warming is happening, which shows a decided groupthink tendency, and 9 of the 10 want to get out of the EU). It would be great to have some modernising, liberal or progressive Tory voices to engage with: we’ll keep looking hard and engage seriously with any we do find!
[Captcha spam checker: "meanness to" ... bit negative that!]
Comment by tory totty online on February 7, 2010 at 9:00 am
Ab fab evening and a really well organised event!