I haven’t been a member of a Labour affiliated union for nearly ten years now – my current union don’t even have a political fund, let alone one that affiliates to Labour, but something really irks me about the latest Tory billboard – criticising Labour for taking union money (no, the one above is my take on it, not the original, which you can see here). (more…)
I’ve got a campaign, yay! Well, if this banker-bothering online lark is good enough for John Prescott, I might as well have a punt too. LabourSpace is a neat idea – a kind of Policy Idol contest, with anyone (Labour supporter or no) able to add a campaign and solicit votes for it. They’ve done this before, but this time round it’s much whizzier – a proper network with ways to interact with those who support (or oppose) you, and tools to help you spread the word. The winners get, well nothing really, but that’s hardly the point – senior Labour figures are checking in on it as it progresses, and the chance to demonstrate how popular an idea is in this kind of arena is fun in itself.
I think it has a load of potential for training activists of all stripes, and getting new people excited at the thought of doing something political for a change. Unfortunately the execution is a little sticky – registration is smooth enough, but changing your profile needs moderation, and multiple changes before modding seem to wipe earlier attempts. You can understand why they’re anxious about moderating it, but at the same time it’s a bit stifling. Similarly the widgets are great, but don’t all work for everyone (I have yahoo.co.uk email, so the nifty yahoo.com addy book scooper doesn’t help me). Unfair to gripe though – there are going to be more rounds of it (this one’s nearly over), and the quirks will no doubt get ironed out as it goes.
So, coming late to the scene with only 2 weeks left, I’m going to have a tough time getting my campaign voted up anywhere near the top of the pile. Luckily it’s a bit of a no brainer in the current climate, and an idea that I hope is going to be popular: Minimum tax rates. (more…)
At a Labour New Media breakfast yesterday, which gave a really interesting insight into how Labour hope to change their campaigning to make the most of the new environment. Also the launch of LabourList, and a chance to witness a broad section of the left blogohemisphere’s ecosystem – which I think is a post in itself.
There was a big distraction (well, enough to distract me) at the event though in the shape of an article from the Guardian, alleging LabourList editor Derek Draper was fudging the origins of his psychotherapy qualifications (studying in Berkeley, but not at Berkeley. David Hencke wrote it up, on a tip off from top right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes. Toddler-induced router damage prevented me from sticking this post up last night, and Roy ‘Splitter’ Greenslade has beaten me to much of the point. (more…)
After my post last night on the enigma that is Labourist (the fan site / attack site / alternative model demo of Derek Draper’s LabourList), I got a nice and very full comment (at least purporting to come) from the person/people behind the site, taking issue with my cynicism and offering counterpoints to a lot of what I’d said. I started writing a reply but it go so long, I thought I’d stick it here instead…
Thanks for the considered reply. You’ll forgive me for remaining sceptical of your honest intentions for a while yet though. As you won’t tell me who you are, I have to go on what I can surmise from limited evidence – which doesn’t yet give me cause to believe you. There are six main stumbling blocks for me: (more…)
Last week was a cheery one for Labour techies, with Derek Draper starting up what I think is going to be a very useful part of the jigsaw for the left blogohemisphere in the UK, LabourList.org. So enthused was the party by this project that none other than Lord (né Peter) Mandelson threw caution to the wind and set off exploring Second Life.
Well, one week on and the project’s had a bit of a double pwnage from political opponents. The Daily Mail pranked Mandelson’s virtual life by making a clone avatar and hanging about SL, behaving inappropriately. They missed the more interesting points of SL by a couple of virtual miles, but then I guess nobody ever read the Mail for sci/tech (or much beyond hell-in-a-handcart whingefests and cringeworthy reader offers).
More interesting is the treatment LabourList itself has received. A shady bunch of activists have set up a duplicate at the similarly titled Labourist.org. It’s posing as a principled objection, but I think is more likely a neat spoiler. (more…)
There’s been a lot of speculation about the form Derek Draper’s adventures in blogging would take, since he started convening the Labour-supporting blogohemisphere back in December. Now the secret’s out, and it’s a celeb group-blog called Labour List.
And pretty good it looks to be too. Draper is exactly the person to be running a Labour-focused Comment Is Free (a Propaganda Is Free maybe?), as he’s hard to match in terms of connections to people that everyone will want to read, personal energy for the thankless tasks of hunting trolls and chivying busy contributors, and self-confidence in making editorial decisions that don’t look dithery, and standing them up through the 10 minutes of outrage which will follow each one.
Hands up, I don’t have a great track record at picking winners here, but LabourList looks like A Good Thing all round. He’s managed not to infringe on some of the good activist work going on in this space, but he’s spotted a gap, and is trying to make something that should help tie it all together. (more…)
“…is to face them down.”
A very good speech that, solid social democratic territory. Straight through. No grovelling, even where he admitted mistakes. “I’m not going to change to something I’m not”.
A coherent vision around ‘fairness’ and a ‘new settlement for new times’. Clear new policies that illustrate the fairness vision and that should be popular – computers for kids, free prescriptions for cancer patients, nursery places from 2. An illustration of the huge challenges of the current environment, and how the ‘new settlement’ leads naturally to action to regulate financial markets and on climate change. A roundup of the good work of the rest of the cabinet. Straight through a solid defence of continued investment in public services and praise for public servants (though conveniently not a sausage on their pay deal). (more…)
Waiting for Gordon to come on the telly. Interesting choice of music to settle the crowd in the conference hall, courtesy of Manchester legends James. Cracking tune obviously and has us humming nostalgically, but I’m sure the diarists are going over it already: (more…)
I was one of those very disappointed by Gordon Brown’s sudden withdrawal of the Home Computing Initiative (a salary sacrifice tax incentive on internet kit and connections) in 2006. The scheme was a great example of a partnership between government, industry and unions to tackle a problem that rightly concerned them all – IT skills, or the lack of them for many workers. Union learning projects in particular (who have a good history of training thousands in basic IT literacy) picked up on it very keenly and thousands of offline families used it to get connected for the first time. (more…)
Geek amusement of the day comes from Tom Watson and Chris Paul, who are gloating to various degrees over the Facebook humbling of South Manchester MP/Councillor John Leech, after it was exposed that his Labour rival for the seat, Lucy Powell, had 124 times his number of friends. Politeness (and a keen awareness that I don’t have too many facepals myself) keeps me from mentioning the exact size of Mr Leech’s online entourage – you’ll have to click. (more…)
