Yesterday we shared our favourite video, moment and funny of the year. Today we've got three related more to ConservativeHome itself.
Platform article of the year
Tim - Murdo Fraser MSP's article at the end of October: We must not allow nationalists to drive England and Scotland apart. Some of the ToryDiary threads on the Scottish question have turned quite ugly in the last few months. Murdo's piece hit all of the right notes and towards the end of the year David Cameron made it abundantly clear that he wasn't going to take risks with the Union.
Regret of the year
Tim - Iraq has dominated geopolitics for the last five years and the divergence of US and British policy towards the conflict was the most important real story of 2007. America, through General Petraeus' troops surge, showed that it was willing to try one more time to make the nation it liberated a half-tolerable place to live. Brown couldn't get out fast enough - infamously playing politics with British troop withdrawals. To say that Britain was defeated in Iraq is no slur on our courageous and badly-led troops but it is the truth. It was also disappointing that the Conservatives were unwilling to champion the surge at the outset or credit it when it had succeeded in delivering a massive reduction in violence. William Hague's response to Petraeus' success was bland at its best and the Shadow Foreign Secretary was too ready to credit Sunni leaders rather than American policy for the halving of violence despite the connectedness of the two developments. Only the odd pairing of Iain Duncan Smith and John Bercow spoke up for the surge in the Commons. I can only hope that David Cameron's recent visit to Washington signals the beginning of something different.
Samuel - It's been a good year generally, I started working on the site and related projects on a proper full-time basis at the start of January and have been lucky enough to travel abroad a lot and get to know some great people down in London. The Party is generally getting closer to what I wanted it to be like when I joined. One regret that comes to mind ConservativeHome-wise is something that has been raised with me by a few candidates, and that is the critical comments about them being posted on here by readers. I don't believe anything particularly nasty or libellous has been put up (if you ever see anything like that please don't hesitate to email us and we'll take action asap) but it's fair to say that perceptions of some candidates have been coloured by what is discussed about them online. Other candidates laugh it off and say you need a thick skin in this game and also that it's healthy to be able to voice genuine concerns about an aspect of a candidates' past etc. Knowing which comments to overwrite really is a tricky one. We do try our best to avoid needlessly hurting anyone's prospects as well as needlessly muting opinions.
Highlight of the year
Tim - One highlight was an ICM survey that showed that twice as many MPs used ConservativeHome as any other blog. I was more encouraged by the progress of the ConservativeHome Members' Panel, however. It was widely quoted by the mainstream media during 2007 but when it showed unhappiness with David Cameron there were often 'shoot-the-messenger' complaints that it had been infiltrated by non-Tories. But, after the dramatic events leading up to Bottler Saturday, there was a massive bounceback in the standing of Cameron and George Osborne, in particular. Exactly the same population that had been dissatisfied was now largely satisfied with the direction of the party. In recent weeks I've met a number of shadow cabinet members who have admitted that their own local Associations were decidedly negative from the grammars schools row until the Blackpool Conference. The grassroots may be open to the charge of being fickle but the monthly panel survey does capture the temperature of the membership. ConservativeHome's Agenda/ Manifesto for 2008 - launching on 7th January - will be based on Panel findings. The December survey is still live here if you want to have your say.
Samuel - We had a fun but busy night liveblogging the local/Welsh/Scottish election results
in May. Rather surreally we were doing so from St Stephen's Tavern
opposite Parliament as the BBC had commandered it and filled it with
pundits and cameras. We got information from grassroots activists from
all over the country as well as some senior bods in Party HQ, which
meant we were very often ahead of the TV networks. I think we left at
about 5am and continued coverage a few hours later. I felt we'd done a
good job of aggregating what was going on in the media and providing a
place for Tory anoraks to chat about it all (there were almost 600
comments). I look forward to seeing how we can cover the next general election.
There've been some superb pieces and I would be pushed to choose my favourites - but I think Nirj Deva, Jeremy Hunt and Paul Goodman probably top my list. I suppose the "lows" have to comprise the fixation on the Europe theme and the rather stupid postings and name calling that resulted - let's hope 2008 represents a moving on from this!
Posted by: Sally Roberts | December 30, 2007 at 11:08
A regular complaint is that most of the Shadow Cabinet is invisible. Again in the run up to this months survey, nothing from the Shadow Cabinet.
One interesting thing to come up is a lack of communication within the Shadow Cabinet/Minister framework. Tim Loughton MP revealed on the Michael Gove interview thread that Michael Gove has not approached him to discuss looked after children, despite it being in both their portfolios and Loughton having a personal interest in the issue. Its the first time that its been openly admitted. Im sure Loughton isnt the only one frozen out of the policy process.
Posted by: James Maskell | December 30, 2007 at 11:10
This is the best political website anywhere. The standard of debate is always light years ahead of other sites. I particularly like the way that opinion is challenged on ConservativeHome. No-one is allowed to come on and make vacuous statements without being held up to scrutiny. In other words, and please excuse my French, no-one gets away with writing bullshit on ConservativeHome. That is what gives this website the edge. There is nothing else like it on the web.
Posted by: Tony Makara | December 30, 2007 at 14:37
I think this has been an excellent year for this site. I thought the zenith was reached during what was probably the worst moment of the year for the party during the Grammar School fiasco. Hundreds of Conservatives put forward their often very diverse views. The vast majority of those opinions were aired in a responsible and grown up manner.
I couldn't disagree with you more about the European question Sally.Sooner or later this party will have to debate the subject properly. Attempts to sweep it under the carpet as we have done for the past few years are doomed to fail. I would agree with you that it would be better if the debate conducted in a grown up manner.
Posted by: Malcolm Dunn | December 30, 2007 at 18:09
Pains me to say it folks but
"This is the best political website anywhere...... There is nothing else like it on the web."
is the truth. I only stumbled across it by accident as well.
The local elections would be my pick of the year. I was involved as a counting assistant, finished about 1am then came back to watch the results on Sky News and here. Apart from sleep time and a couple of walks to get away from the screen I think I logged off around lunch time on Saturday :D
Because I was working on it I got a real buzz from it, hopefully Derby will be going to the polls again in 2008.
Posted by: Comstock | December 30, 2007 at 18:41
"I would agree with you that it would be better if the debate conducted in a grown up manner."
Malcolm that is all I am asking for!
Happy New Year to you!
Posted by: Sally Roberts | December 31, 2007 at 08:29
Sally:-
"Fixation with the european theme"
How can it ever be different since so much of our legislation is determined in Brussels?
Parliament has, in many respects, simply become a branch office rubber stamping edicts from the commission.
Posted by: jonnyboy | December 31, 2007 at 10:27
"Parliament has, in many respects, simply become a branch office rubber stamping edicts from the commission."
I think that is an exaggeration, Jonnyboy. For what it's worth, I'm a Euroskeptic. But I think there are more important issues.
I think Europe has become something people worry about when they don't have anything else to worry about. Ask your average bloke in a low income job living on a crime ridden council estate with kids at a sink comp. school where Europe sits on his list of priorities, and you won't get a polite answer.
But for those who are fortunate enough to have decent housing/jobs/schools, then Europe creeps up the agenda.
I'm proberbly not saying anything earth shattering here, but that is the problem with your party- those who have an interest in current affairs, those who have an education to understand the problems if not know the solutions, they live in rural or suburban places, and, in the absence of other concerns, become preoccupied with things like Europe.
Posted by: Comstock | December 31, 2007 at 11:01
Comstock. You are in many ways absolutely right the average man or woman in the street simply does not understand the impact that the commissars in Brussels are having on their way of life day in and day out. Does the average Joe comprehend that we are powerless to stop the great rush of immigrants?
The deep underlying problem, and why people are not overtly hostile to Brussels is that the majority of thoes elected in this country simply underplay and deny the impact of Brussels and their impotence to stop what is happening.
If the average Joe could comprehend that his/her post office has closed because of eu competition laws then the problem might get home. I'll not recite the whole list of how our lives are being changed and freedoms restricted those can wait for another post.
Posted by: jonnyboy | December 31, 2007 at 12:05