Guardian Online has called ConservativeHome's analysis "penetrating". The Mail on Sunday has called ConservativeHome "influential". The Sunday Telegraph has described it as "indispensable". What are others saying about Britain's leading conservative blog?
"ConservativeHome.com has got the right balance - of being run independently of the party but with good connections and encouragement. For instance Tory front-benchers often contribute to it. It also has the right balance of being supportive of the Conservatives without being deferential. During the leadership election it contributed to the ability of members to make an informed choice - for example by including reports from the various hustings meetings. The site was also influential in ensuring that the membership had a choice in the first place - rather than the contest being decided by MPs."
- Harry Phibbs, London Evening Standard
"Conservativehome.com is one of the most exciting developments in Tory thinking for years. Absolutely indispensable reading. No political
journalist or politician worth his or her salt fails to pay at least
one visit a day to ConservativeHome"
- Matthew d’Ancona, Editor of The Spectator
" ConservativeHome, which under the direction of its engaging blogmeister Tim Montgomerie, has become the most lively, useful and entertaining meeting point for Tories of all descriptions and anyone else with an interest in the future of British politics. If you want to get an idea of how politics is evolving - and fast - you can follow it on CH."
- Ben Brogan, Political Editor of The Daily Mail
"Conservativehome.com has become the must-visit site for Conservatives today. I visit it every day for links to the best conservative writing in the English-speaking world."
- Greg Clark, MP for Tunbridge Wells
"Britain has at last a political blog equal to those in the US. Gossip, opinion and the very latest on the Tory leadership are all under one roof. In the space of a few months, it has gone from a novelty to required reading. No daily survey of the British political landscape is now complete without logging on to conservativehome.com. For political journalists it is an invaluable tool."
- Fraser Nelson, The Business and The Spectator
"Political blogging here has yet to assume the influence it has in America, but standing tallest on the Tory benches is conservativehome."
- The Daily Telegraph
"Hundreds of Parliamentarians read ConservativeHome every morning - its articles are avidly discussed over toasted teacakes in the Palace of Westminster."
- Alex Singleton, Globalisation Institute
"Indispensable."
- Peter Riddell, The Times
"For the first time, a big political story in Britain has been created on the web rather than in the press. This important story is the Conservative Party’s priority candidates list, and the party’s refusal, so far, to publish it... The priority-list system had created a small, privileged group of candidates, based on quotas for gender and race. Obviously their names should be public knowledge. The bloggers’ website, Conservative Home, decided to break this censorship. Its readers were invited to send in the names of people who had made the A-list. Their names have come in one by one... The web has once again triumphed over official secrecy, as might have been expected."
- William Rees-Mogg, The Times
"Tim
Montgomerie of Conservative Home is another new Tory powerbroker for
the Cameron era, called on by the BBC Radio 4 Today programme to
pronounce on Cameron's mission statement. Conservative Home is also
invaluable lifting the veil on Conservative politesse. The blog kept
the most accurate record of MP affiliation during the recent leadership
contest and it has now completely destroyed Conservative HQ's ludicrous
attempt to keep secret the names on the A-list."
- Adam Boulton, Political Editor of Sky News
"[Conservativehome] is now the leading platform for conservative bloggery."
- Ned Temko, The Observer
"ConservativeHome.com has become a centre for grassroots gossip in the Conservative party, the first port of call for anyone trying to find out what's going on in local associations across the Shires - like the controversial 'A-list' of approved candidates."
"More of a team discussion site than a blog, this is where Conservative activists mull over the latest doings of the Tory Party, and the world as a whole. Editor Tim Montgomerie has become a regular TV pundit, acting as an unofficial 'voice of the Tory Grassroots'."
"There seems to be something about even the best-intentioned exercises in web democracy that mean they run off the rails as soon as real politicians get involved. Compare, for example, the much-visited independent rightwing blog Conservative Home with the opposition leader's own site, WebCameron: the internet equivalents, respectively, of a bustling city street and a pleasantly quiet suburban cul-de-sac."
- Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian
"Tim Montgomerie, a 36-year-old former Conservative Party staffer in London, is taking cues from the United States. Despite the American conservative movement’s recent troubles, Montgomerie regards it as an “inspiring” model for Britain to follow. But Montgomerie hopes to build this movement not through publications such as National Review or think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, but through the Internet. This movement is taking root through a number of influential websites that already have captivated many conservatives in Britain, including Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who has called Montgomerie’s popular ConservativeHome website, “Sometimes infuriating but always good value.”
- Rob Bluey on TownHall.com
"Tim Montgomerie is one of the most important thinkers tackling this new environment. I'm not confident that American conservatives will pay much attention to Montgomerie's work, not yet at least, but I wish they would. Montgomerie has launched a new blog, Britain and America. I sense that it will soon become indispensable reading. I don't always agree with TM. For one thing, I actually think British Conservatives would be smart to emphasize their independence from the United States. But I've learned enough to know that he's always worth reading."
- Reihan Salam guest blogging on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish
"Conservativehome, created after Iain Duncan Smith was deposed as Tory leader, is one of the best of the new breed. It provides a platform for Tory activists and campaign groups to get their message across - one which has often been at odds with, or vital in altering, official party policy."
- Robert Colville, The Daily Telegraph
"The loss of the Cutty Sark is a great tragedy, and I have put in my two pennies worth. You can read it here on Conservative Home. Sadly I can’t find my words on the Conservative Party’s official website, which is a small example of why I always go to Conservative Home for my news on what we are up to!"
"I am addicted to (the vivaciously influential) ConservativeHome"
- Steve Richards in the Independent
"ConservativeHome works best when it is argumentative, challenging and occasionally down right annoying."
"Ever-interesting"
- Peter Hitchens in the Mail
"The Tory blog of choice."
- Tara Hamilton-Miller, New Statesman
"The bible for MPs travelling abroad" plus "This is the website that has transformed Conservative grass roots supporters by acting as an independent forum where people can catch up on the latest news and exchange views... [The] success of Conservative Home is not that it is a forum for the Conservative leadership to transmit its views, but an area for Conservative supporters to exchange views. Key to its success is having a superb editor, Tim Montgomerie. He wants a Conservative victory as much as I do, but as the voice of Conservative grass roots fiercely protects his right to criticise what people like me in the Shadow Cabinet say or do."
- Jeremy Hunt MP and here.
"ConservativeHome has been an extraordinary hit for two linked reasons. The first is that it is the one place where news of interest to Conservatives can reliably be found. A speech by David Cameron, a new candidate in Islington, a bill being advanced by a Tory peer, a new poll in tomorrow's papers and so forth. The second is that Tim Montgomerie is an extremely skilled blogger/journalist. He picks up (or creates) catchy themes and has created a political identity for the site. I think it matters less that it is completely independent than that it is fearless and punchy."
- Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
"The genius of Conservative Home is that while it is run by someone who is sympathetic to the leadership it is independent and not afraid to criticise."
- James Forsyth, The Spectator
"The highly successful ConservativeHome... run by Tim Montgomerie, a former strategist for Iain Duncan Smith, manages to allow informed debate about party policy and personalities to take place without descending into cheerleading for David Cameron or one strand of Conservative thinking. It also breaks stories."
- Patrick Wintour, The Guardian
"The Tories have both a decent official site - webcameron - featuring handheld camera clips of Mr Cameron's political life, and a range of extremely successful and impressive unofficial sites. The best of these - Conservative Home - has become a clearing house for conservative opinions, gossip, muck-raking, axe-grinding, and sometimes even policy making. Yes, it reflects only a small part of the Tory constituency, well to the right of the party's centre ground, and its judgements are often wonky. Witness last week's campaign to prop up the ailing career of Alan Duncan, the shadow business secretary. But it has thrived - along with other Conservative bloggers like Iain Dale - precisely because it is uncontrolled. It doesn't always, or even mostly, toe the party line and it gives individual Tory members a forum to debate - often contentiously and vigorously - the future of the their party."
- Edward Heathcoat-Amory, Daily Mail
"Tim Montgomerie: living proof that there are intelligent Conservatives on the internet."
- John Rentoul, The Independent
ConservativeHome's 3,500 word December 2005 review of the Tory leadership contest received much praise:
- Andrew Sullivan described it as a "fascinating, detailed, insider account";
- National Review called it "definitive";
- The Guardian's Matthew Tempest called it "the War & Peace of the Tory leadership contest".
Fraser Nelson's tribute to ConservativeHome's 2007 elections night coverage: "The internet really comes into on election nights, as I saw in that BBC pub I was in last night. The Beeb had to wait for results to be announced, as it has for decades, but the ConservativeHome team sitting opposite me had a constant stream of emails from Tory central office and councillors up and down the country feeding the gossip. We were waiting on them to see what’s happening." See the coverage here and here.
MEET TIM MONTGOMERIE AND JONATHAN ISABY.
