Why aren't Labour's webroots mobilising against Tony Blair?

I met a senior figure in Downing Street yesterday whilst having coffee with a political journalist.  He said some very nice things about ConservativeHome and wondered aloud why the Labour grassroots did not have their own similar website.  The vast majority of Tory members are, of course, satisfied with David Cameron (as is ConservativeHome's editorial team) but Labour members have fallen out of love with Tony Blair.  Where is the webroots movement amongst Labour party members to replace their unpopular and discredited leader?  I'm the owner of labourhome.com and would happily donate it to a good home...

Comments

[Jonathan Sheppard]

I assume it was a typo when you say "donate" Tim :o)

[Ted]

offer it at auction. Then hopefully NuLab Blairite loyalist Blears will finally bankrupt the party trying to keep it out of ownership of the various factions....

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

Has the LabourHome.com domain been reserved by the leader of the Imagine Party yet?

[Will James]

Editor, buy up as many labour domain names you can think of. Keep the enemy on the technology backfoot!!

[Ben]

I must confess, that when I was a member of the Labour Party, the inability of the party to react to the opportunities that the internet presented for communication and organisation really did surprise me… especially when you compare it with the, zeal with which left-wingers in the states have exploited the opportunities the internet provides.

Indeed Labour’s use of internet in general has been surprisingly limited and inept, their party website is very weak, there are very few effective sites linked to local CLPs or MPs, this is compared to a well presented and informative sites for both the Conservatives and the LibDems (at the national and local level).

In the end, Labour limited presence amongst the “netroots” is probably a reflection of the party’s membership, student labour is tiny, the party’s activist base as a whole is pretty small and most importantly, in my experience, there is a big age gap amongst Labour activists, there are in fact very few people between the ages of 25-50 within the party… just the sort of age group that would boast the time and the talent to put together a Labour equivalent to ConservativeHome.

[Deputy Editor]

Well, Labour supporters did try fourthterm.net but it never really got off the ground. Blair recognised their problem the other day, calling for the website to be mroe interactive and innovative.

The thing we have going for us is that opposition generally forces you to innovate to find new ways of garnering support - look at the Democrats in the US with MoveOn.org etc.

[William Norton]

I don't think it's really an opposition/office thing. It's part of a wider problem with Labour: defeat forced them to sharpen up their act, which they did by establishing a cadre of very very good campaigners at central/regional level (NB - most of them are still there; don't underestimate the Blairsheviks). Labour are now very reliant on organisation at that level, with the result that they have an initiative gap at the grassroots. I've found that it is possible to make large-ish inroads against Labour at a local level because it takes them quite a time to respond and in some cases they simply don't know how to react.

It is not insignificant that Conservative Home is not run by CCHQ.

There are lots of left-wing bloggers out there and sooner or later they will start organising themselves. I'd expect it to be happening already - the major block will be the divide between pro-War and anti-War groups.

[Serf]

There are many Labour Blogs critical of Tonty Blair, but they tend to belong to more left wing opponents. As you know, the far left hates us on the right, but not nearly as much as they hate each other.

[Chad]

I've got to say, that I am impressed with the improvements in the official Tory website. I really like the personal Cameron video messages approach, and find it very effective.

It's certainly a good idea I'll have no shame in lifting.

Has the LabourHome.com domain been reserved by the leader of the Imagine Party yet?
:-) Mind you, I have a domain with even fewer takers: tories4huhne.com

I'll keep it to after the next election! ;-)

[William]

The internal opposition to Blair left the Labour Party for the BNP. What's left of the Labour Party is an electoral fantasy sustained in half reality by a compliant media, combined with an unwillingness to operate a respectable voting system in Britain. No wonder they don't have any webroots....they don't really exist.

[Christina]

One problem is that the videos are all in the latest Windows Media 10 format, which requires XP, people with earlier versions can't view them. I'll email and ask them to be put in Real Player as well.

[Ben]

I think the key thing is there isn’t exactly much enthusiasm amongst the Labour grassroots this, combined with the generational gap in their membership which I flagged up… really undermines the potential for a strong, diverse presence on the internet as is the case on the right with “Conservative Home”.

It doesn’t matter on the right weather you agree with DC or the current leadership there is a broad based desire to do well, win and start seeing sensible, conservative, concepts and ideas implemented through government policy… you simply don’t find a corresponding sentiment on the left.

On the left there is little unity on either policy or ideology, as some have noted, the hard left is increasingly set against Labour as a whole, not simply just Blair, while support for Blair and the Labour leadership is rarely much more enthusiastic than simply “loyalty”… IMHO enthusiasm and originality are key ingredients for a successfully generating a presence on the net and growing the netroots, neither would seem to be easily available on the left for Labour…

[Deputy Editor]

Labour lost about 40% of their blogging Councillors last week. (see Bloggers 4 Labour)

[Patsy Sergeant]

Perhaps you have to have an incentive to get involved in a political website? And when you consider it Labour and the left have so infected all areas of organised society, such as County Councils, District Councils and even Parish Councils, all of which has been achieved under this government, that unless the activists on the left hanker after even more marxist control, there is nothing much for them to debate at the moment.

Right - proof, of 'spies' in local councils came out in the local paper some weeks ago, but in this week's local paper is evidence that these tentacles have even reached Parish Council level and caused a councillor to be disqualified....

[James Maskell]

William, I dont support the War and Im on the right...perhaps Im the exception to the rule, but I dont think Im the only one.

[wowser]

the ideal people to run a Labourhome website would be Compass ...

[Yet Another Anon]

Labour Prime Ministers have always had a hard time from the grass roots activists, you name a Labour leader and they weren't radical enough for Labour activists or they were radical in a way they didn't like - it's the history of the Labour Party.

Then again it is well known that both John Prescott and Tony Blair are going before the next General Election so as this approaches increasingly many will be looking for who they favour to succeed them and attacks on them will diminish.

There War in Iraq has happened and now things are moving towards the beginning of a pullout:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5095120.stm

Tony Blair has about 2 years left as leader and 2.5 years as Prime Minister, John Prescott has announced he will finish as Deputy Leader once the Labour leadership election is done, maybe the new leader will be Deputy Prime Minister before taking over fully, in the case of Mrs Thatcher it was rather different in that she had been forced out as leader whereas Tony Blair announced that he was going to go even before the General Election and has stuck to this and so is able to plan his going even down to when he finishes as Labour leader and PM, he said he was going to serve a full term as Prime Minister and so anything less than 3.5 years would not conceivably count as this and there are no signs of him altering his plan, if he goes in January 2009 this leaves Gordon Brown plenty of time to move the Local Elections to the same date as the European Elections and hold the General Election on that day and so also benefit with regards to representation in County Councils and MEP's as Labour voters are more likely to turnout if there is also a General Election on.

[Alex Hilton]

I did rather hope you would donate it to me...

[Editor]

You want to be a Labour MP, Alex? Are you really going to represent the grassroots more than the leadership?