Blogging across the pond
According to the Times Online, Britian’s conservative party is taking a page out of the American right by incorporating bloggers.
Only weeks away from the general election, senior Conservatives will open a new front today in the battle for ideas by creating a website advocating “social conservatism”. It will invite people to bypass the media and put forward their own views on how the party should evolve. . .
The website combines the concepts of a think-tank and online newspaper and its aim is to provide a forum for the revival of Conservative thinking and policies.
You can access the new project at ConservativeHome.com. In many ways the site is less of an attempt to influence voters and more of an invitation for voters to influence the party. Assuming this remains the focus, an internet based approach could be useful. But if the Tories plan to use the blogosphere to influence others with a top-down approach, rather than the spontaneous grassroots atmosphere found in the States, the project may ultimately be a failure. Official campaign blogs are generally awful and the Tories will want to avoid them.
Others covering the story: Tim Worstall, Cross-border Blogger, and Prestopundit.
2 Responses to “Blogging across the pond”
Although I’d agree that official campaign blogs are generally awful, I think that as they catch on, we’ll see higher and higher quality…although, of course, there will always be some real stinkers out there.
The rise of Thatcherism followed by the success Blair’s Third Way indicates that Europe, or at least Britain, is slowly being weaned off socialism and political battles over the economy. Britain will settle for a mixed economy with a more government services offered than in the US. As economic prosperity becomes taken for granted, economic issues will matter less in politics. There will then be room for a US-style culture war, from which the British right will probably benefit greatly. Far from drifting apart, we will soon find that Europe and the US are simply in different stages of political development, with the US moving towards libertarian solutions first.