Blogging for 'Scunthorpe man'

It's nearly four years since I started ConHome and one of the aims has always been to help grassroots Tories feel much more part of the party.  Often in my mind is a mythical 'Scunthorpe man' - chosen at random, but a Conservative member a long way from the Westminster Village - who has always wanted to be much more involved in the cut and thrust of political debate.  I discussed blogging on two BBC Radio programmes yesterday.  For Radio 4's Week in Westminster I joined a conversation with Iain Dale and Peter Riddell and 'Scunthorpe man' was very much on my mind.  Our slot begins at about 25 minutes into the programme and we talked generally about the influence of blogs on Conservative politics.  On the BBC World Service's Politics UK, I discussed the failure of the Left to produce successful blogs with Derek Draper (again towards the end of the programme).  Derek suggested that the Left had not had good at blogs because all the talent had been in Government whereas the Tories were in opposition and talented people had devoted themselves to new media.  There might be something in that but I countered that New Labour's control freakery had discouraged freethinking blogs.  I noted that the Tory leadership has always been welcoming towards blogs - accepting that mature disagreements could often be beneficial.