Saturday 1 March 2008

David Cameron: Conservative bloggers are far from organised.

Over the last year and a bit that I've been blogging my opinion of the UK's political blogosphere has changed. When I first got into it, I believed that it was dominated by Conservative bloggers. Now I believe that whilst our numbers are greater, we fail to promote our party's policy to the same extent of our Labour counterparts. This may be a figment of my imagination, but Labour bloggers seem to singing off the same hymn sheet, and I've always had the suspicion that they are being guided by the Labour party. Conservative bloggers on the other hand seem to be individuals making comment on how they think the Conservative party should be run. Very few have any real contact with the upper echelons of the party. Even Iain Dale, who has contacts, does not push out party propaganda and at times is very critical (when deserved) of the shadow cabinet.

Are we missing something? Should we be using this massive advertising tool to promote the party rather than our own opinion? Of course the only person who could make this happen is David Cameron himself. He must hear of certain posts written by Conservative bloggers and despair. I personally think that David and his team have really missed a trick. A trick that could be of great use on the run up to the next general election. As the polls are indicating, public opinion is definitely siding with Conservative policy, and the Tory blogosphere could do a great deal to boost that message. I would hate to think that we may lose the next election by a small margin, only to realise that by pooling our resources we could have swung it our way.

This post may seem to have come out of the blue but it has not. Lately I have felt a growing momentum among Labour bloggers and readers. There's a definite team effort being mounted, and that team's manager could well be the Labour HQ. Whilst we have Labour bloggers such as Bob Piper claiming that he will no longer get involved in personal abuse, we are seeing a large number of anonymous Labour trolls dominating the comments sections on Conservative blogs. It's a kind of "look how nice we all are" on the surface, whilst a well organised team of anonymous trolls are doing the dirty work below the surface.

We need to get organised. Political parties in the US realised the importance of the blogosphere a good while back. UK Conservatives need to catch up.

10 comments:

Old BE said...

If people want to know what Cameron thinks they can go to his site. Would the message be 100 times louder if it was repeated by 100 bloggers?

Singing off the same hymn sheet suits the micromanagerial Labour style but conservatives regard themselves as a bit more thoughtful and independent-minded.

Anonymous said...

The blogs would be boring.How many people log onto the Labour ones ?

Tapestry said...

The left wing is top down one dimensional politics - based on a jealousy of others, and a determination to attack any accumulation of privilege, or wealth. This common feeling enables its workers to perform like an army of impoverished ants.

They feel justified in going in low against all opposition, as they so greatly fear success in others. They much prefer failure, as success might enable a small section of society to pull ahead, and undermine the commitment to their cause...the maintenance of an underdog approach to the world.

The right wing isn't driven by the fear which unifies the left. Nor is it so exercised by money or relative status. It is more interested in ideas and managerial politics...getting things to work...success.

The blogosphere is no different. The right enjoys a diversity of good ideas. The left tries to suppress them. The only thing that is surprising is how popular failure can be. Even after 11 years of unabated catastrophy in Britain, many still support the government.

If the right can find a way to persuade people that the diversity of success is possible and even desirable, and that the uniformity of failure by the left, is less preferable, the right will win.

Cameron carries the message in a sub-liminal understated way, which disarms opposition, occasionally rising up in strength, but not too much. The blogs on the right are mostly of the same ilk - common sense, managerial, not polemic but sensitive to what is happening.

We don't need to unfurl banners, rally to the cause and attack socialism. The funny thing is that it would help the left if we did. By gradually altering the cultural assumptions, by being what we are and not demanding any change in the natural state of the world, the right is re-establishing itself.

Common sense is far harder for the army of ants to defeat, than would be supercharged right wing slogans, and massed ranks of bloggers. After all why are people so impoverished now? The government has destroyed our wealth. That's all.

Anonymous said...

This reflects the real difference between the parties. One respects and encourages diversity and individual initiative. The other lot have a "Party Line" on everything driven by control freaks and a propaganda machine.

Let people see the difference.

AdamB said...

Oh no you caught us out.

I guess I will have to stop those daily calls to Gordon Brown now.

James Higham said...

Now I believe that whilst our numbers are greater, we fail to promote our party's policy to the same extent of our Labour counterparts.

This may be so, Steve. Perhaps it comes down to our more diverse, freewheeling thinking. After all, we're into freedom, aren't we?

Daily Referendum said...

Tory Troll,

I'm not paranoid - though I know you all think that I am:)

Theo Spark said...

Boring!! You have been reading the wrong blogs.

AdamB said...

Maybe a little paranoid...

On a serious note though, the only reason I enjoy reading your and other right-wing blogs, despite disagreeing with most of the views, is that they are independent and not continuously splurting out the party line.
We have newspapers for that.

Anonymous said...

Several posters have directly or indirectly hit the nail on the head - we right of centrists are individuals who look at each issue and make our own minds up on the merits of each case. Tory Central could no more direct such people than they could halt the earth moving about the sun. In this case, diversity is our greatets strength!