I recently discovered that my (soon to be former) MP has a blog, on MySpace. It’s actually not awful, for a MySpace blog, but today, he’s speculating Blair Resigns? :
something is definitely in the air. I don’t know what it is, but if Blair announces his resignation by the end of this week, you read it here first.
So the Westminster bubble says something is up. It would, of course, be a good thing for him to go. Here’s just hoping the constitutionally illiterate morons don’t make much running with getting Brown to got for an early election, we need to give the man time to mess things up utterly.
January 16th, 2007
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Leadership, NuLab, Political Weblog Project |
4 comments
Tom Watson asks:
Seriously, I’d be interested to know what people think about this stuff. Is it a new way of communicating or just clever marketing and spin?
Both, I think. As Paul Walter observes:
Does he think we were born yesterday? If you were going to do a videcast would you do it while you were doing the washing up?
It’s obviously staged and intended to make him look like a ‘normal’ person, right down to the flat not being 100% clean and tidy. But, essentially, while it is a little cynical, it’s a sign that politicians are learning and adapting to the new media environment.
September 30th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Xblogging, Parties, Political Weblog Project, Conservatives, Cameron |
2 comments
This from Ken at Militant Moderate is a nice analysis of the way blogging could be used by politicians and their supporters in the future. I think, overall, I agree with him; blogging is at its best when talking through policy and ideas rather than personality and gossip (although, let’s face it, the latter can be fun(ny) at times). Huhne was very popular amongst the LibDem bloggers precisely because he engaged the policy debate strongly, and has done his future prospects a world of good by running I think.
Also, this on the Snow in Summer. The GOD corporation has a record of its discussions with Tony, but they’re protected by client priviledge. Definately worth a read through.
March 5th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Blair, Leadership, LibDems, Political Weblog Project, God |
no comments
Or, why politicians should blog
Does it come as a surprise to anyone that I think our elected representatives should use modern technology to engage with their electorate directly? As a strong supporter of the principles of representative, Parliamentary democracy, and also of local democracy and local councils, reading this in the Guardian is disheartening:
Paul Evans, head of the Councillor.info scheme to provide elected members with a web presence, says only a tiny percentage of councillors use their sites to do anything more than list contact details.
Hmm. Paul Evans. I think I know what the problem here is. Councillors know that you should Never Trust a Hippy.
Engagement with the electorate is increasingly needed.
Some politicians do a much better job than others. Some have a very strong web presence, and are learning to use it effectively. Others? Well, improvements could be made. Not, necessarily, by blogging (although I think some sort of ‘blog’, whether updated daily, weekly, or monthly is good, not least for RSS feeds and similar), but definately by improving the layout and structure of their site.
Very basic web optimisation techniques, correct page titling, the use of Header tags, article pages rather than archive pages, etc. It’s important to write for the web and, if republishing newspaper articles, edit them (or get a member of the team/a volunteer) to reformat them to be web friendly. For example, I’ve just written a dull paragraph about techniques, right?
- Optimise your site for search engines and users
- Ensure each page has full title tags at the top,
- Break the text up using Header tags and ordered lists
- Put every article on a separate page, don’t just archive them all on one page
- If republishing print articles from, for example, the local press, reformat them for the web, don’t just print big chunks of text
Big chunks of text are dull and lose reader attention
See? Wasn’t that better to read?
Most traffic to a website comes from search engines.
Search engine headlines are generated by the title tags at the top of the page. Ergo, every page should have a descriptive title tag to make the site more appealing to a potential visitor. This is especially important for news and opinion articles; search engines (let’s be honest, we’re talking Google here, the rest don’t matter - at the moment) pay attention to header tags, title tags and page structure. Vary basic techniques can make your site and your opinion pieces much more search engine friendly.
By default, it also makes you more user friendly. I want to have a reason to visit your site regularly. You want me to come back regularly, else why have a site? The best bit of all of this? All of the things you need to do to make your site media, search and user friendly is pretty much the default in decent blogging software.
In addition, if you keep the site up to date and approachable, maybe you can cut back on the number of emails you receive asking the same question again and again.
Instead, you’ll have a whole lot of new questions, mostly for clarifications.
Hostage to fortune?
Yes, there’s a chance something you write can come back and bite you. Yes, there’s a chance you can be quoted out of context. But then, you have that with any media.
- “Did you threaten to overrule him?“
- Mr Redwood, would you care to sing a nice anthem?
- Is that an egg in the face
- “Pauline had done her hair“
Every new media, every traditional media, even your choice of car ownership opens you up to attack.
But if people are used to going to your site, seeing your opinions, you can use that as a right of reply. Instantly, if you so wish.
You don’t need to publish daily. You don’t even need to publish regularly, although that does help. Promote the use of RSS feedreading software, email the updates out, or, better, just email links to the update. Engage in a debate with your voters.
I have a lot more respect for a politician who votes against what I want, but explains themselves well, than I do for lobby fodder aparatchiks, even if they’re on my side. Talk to us. Engage with us. If you’re not sure how to go about it, ask us. We’ll, mostly, be happy to help.
Some blogs are written badly. Some are pathetic. Some are rabid attack dogs out for blood. Others are sedate, reserved, windbags. A bit like the mainstream media really. We don’t dismiss newspapers across the board because of Rebekah Wade’s Sun, or Paul Dacre’s Daily Mail.
E-communication is increasingly the norm. When I started in my job, I spent most of my day on the phone, all over the world. Now, my equivalent in that role barely says a word all day, it’s all e-mail. A part of me misses ringing Poland every day. But I welcome the ability I, and others, have, to influence opinion and discuss the news with anyone, anywhere in the world.
What’s your local representative doing to talk to you
Reading this and don’t know? That means they’re probably not doing enough, after all, I’m just a lone nut in a small flat. They work for you, don’t you think they should talk to you to? Write to them and tell them so. Politely, of course. More on this general ideal here and sometimes at Paulie’s site linked above.
G’night all.
February 24th, 2006
Posted by
MatGB |
Xblogging, Political Weblog Project, Paulie, e-democracy, regulatory stupidity |
3 comments
