A spate of articles in recent days herald the growth of the left blogosphere. The next year and the general election will be make or break for many blogs.
Left Foot Forward has been quiet over the last week enjoying our Christmas break but we have come out of hibernation to highlight a few stories that relate directly to the left blogosphere.
We were very flattered by Tim Montgomerie’s piece on Sunday for Conservative Home about how the “British Left is developing better and better online products” in which he described this blog as “an intelligent blog that examines all Tory policy.” This morning, James Crabtree of Prospect has an article on Labour List trailing a longer piece in tomorrow’s New Statesman about the rise of the left blogosphere. Both pieces make several references to Left Foot Forward including describing this blog as “one of the most important nodes between the progressives and the media.”
Meanwhile, Labour List reported over Christmas that 305,000 people have visited its pages over 2009 making it the second most influential political blog of the left after Liberal Conspiracy. Both Crabtree and Montgomerie also highlight the creation of Tory Stories, a new blog from Jon Cruddas MP and Chuka Umunna (Labour PPC for Streatham), which aims to act as “as a depository for evidenced articles on Conservatives in local and regional government, showing that, once in office, the party’s actions consistently fail to match its rhetoric.” Alongside Next Left, Go Fourth, Alastair Campbell’s blog and the sites of Labour MPs Tom Harris and Tom Watson plus lesser known sites like Political Scrapbook, Hopi Sen, and Left Outside, the left blogosphere is looking a lot stronger at the start of 2010 than it did a year ago.
The next year and the “watershed election” in March or May will be make or break for many blogs. If a Labour defeat is followed by a leadership election it will provide a second opportunity for Left-wing sites to make their mark. How will each site compete for space with the mainstream media? What unique services will each blog offer to make them indispensible to activists, floating voters, and journalists? How will bloggers interact with one another to share interesting information while avoiding navel gazing (perhaps this article falls short on that front)? And, crucially, how will bloggers make a living if they aim, as Left Foot Forward does, to work full time?
In November, I made a speech to the Future-democracy 2009 conference in which I highlighted three areas where I felt there was potential for growth in the British blogosphere: the use of video, integration of twitter into blogging platforms, and coordination between online campaigning groups like 38 degrees and blogs. Guido Fawkes has already shown how witty/acerbic videos can reach a larger audience than 300-word blog posts while Tweetminster has innovative ideas about how to aggregate tweets.
These are exciting times to be involved in the interaction between technology and politics. The challenge is to make our blogs increasingly relevant and useful.
47 Responses to “2010: The year of the left blogosphere?”
Anon E Mouse
Rory – The main problem is that without Scotland Labour is electorally in the doldrums. Look at Wales – Labour came third in the Euro elections – worst Labour result for 99 years – so they really have nowhere left but Scotland.
A guy on Question Time told Peter Hain that the voters wouldn’t forget Labour at the election and they won’t. Couple the mass unemployment there with other traditional heartlands and they are in deep trouble and they know it.
Since the SNP want independence from England (yes please) it would crucify the Labour vote. Forget ideology – that went out with Blair and is ironically why Labour was so successful for so long.
I know I keep banging on about it – I’m right and all Gordon Brown supporters are wrong – why not just hurry up and dump this useless man? Why do Labour activists want to put his needs before the needs of the party? Will?
Anon E Mouse
Roger – Lies, damn lies and statistics. All Labour governments end in financial ruin…
Richard Blogger
Silent.
I don’t understand why you are focussing on consumer debt. Let me give you a clue: that is debt that individuals chose to have. Are you seriously suggesting that the Government should prevent people from taking out loans for fear that they cannot pay the debt? If so you are suggesting the ultimate in nanny state. I am sure that most people would reject that idea since it would mean that the only people who would have the resources to start a business or buy a house are those already with money.
Richard Blogger
I am not sure why there are so many glowing reports about ConsHome. If you look at the centreRight blog you’ll find that most of the posts have a Eurosceptic tinge, and the comments would make a UKIP conference look tame!
Yet in spite of Dave’s “cast iron guarantee” (which was merely about a referendum on an administrative treaty, more to do with how staplers are allocated than anything else) the Conservative party is a Europhile party. There is no Conservative policy for a referendum on EU membership, and any Tory MP who makes any Eurosceptic comment gets rapidly marginalised.
But the vast majority of the contributors and ccomment posters on ConsHome would be happy if the country left the EU. That does not sound like a site that is in tune with the Conservative party. And since the Conservative party have not budged on its EU policy it shows that ConsHome has little influence on the party either.
Can someone give an example of when the Tories changed policy because of the influence of ConsHome?
Rory
Perhaps Mr Straw or Mr Das could shed some light on why this website spends so much time attacking the SNP?
Is Mr Mouse right in saying that you fear Scottish independence because it would make things difficult for Labour in England (which does not appear to me an unreasonable position for LFF to take)?
I don’t think Scotland is the only place left for Labour. I think that Boris Johnson thinks he should be Prime Minister, which could soon leave an opening for Labour to creep back in in London, just to give one example.